Choose another map, showing:

• South America (south)
• South America (central)
• South America
• The World

Other entries in Puente del Inca

Recordando el Aconcagua

Esta historia empezò hace màs de diez años cuando una serie de amigos del Club de Montañismo del TEC de Monterrey, bajo la tutela de Gastòn Berumen, decidimos que alcanzarìamos la cumbre del Aconcagua, la cumbre màs alta del mundo afuera de los Himalaya.  Poco a poco, despuès de devaluaciones del peso, pasaportes vencidos, fallecimientos, y tobillos lastimados, ùnicamente el bueno amigo Carlos de Alba hizo cumbre en la tan platicada montaña.  En mi caso particular, me echè para atràs pues se me hizo demasiada la carga financiera, fìsica y social.  Decidì dedicar mis recursos en aprender de la montaña de otra manera.  Ademàs, mi rodilla y espalda me pedìan repetidamente que no lo hiciera.  Sin embargo, no puedo negar que me quedè siempre con las ganas de conocer aquellos lugares de los que tanto leìmos, estudiamos y analizamos.  En ocasiones me preguntaba si no habìa hecho una mala elecciòn al echarme para atràs, en darme por vencido antes de empezar....

Asì que, cuando se nos presentò a Sarah y a mì la oportunidad de ir a Plaza Francia, el campamento base de la cara sur, sin titubear nos apuntamos.  Rentamos el equipo que nos hacìa falta y nos apuntamos en un tour.  Finalmente conocimos Puente del Inca, la laguna de Horcones, Confluencia y al Aconcagua.  Su cara sur es una enorme pared vertical de 3 kilòmetros de alto con ocho glaciares y toda una serie de cadàveres de quienes fallecieron intentando subir unas de las rutas màs difìciles del mundo alpinista.  Despuès de dos dìas caminando, a 4,100 msnm, saludamos cara a cara al Aconcagua.  Al lado estaba el glaciar de Horcones.  Vaya, dejarè que las imàgenes hablen por sì solas.

Vale la pena hacer la aclaraciòn que cuando planeamos subir el Aconcagua, no era por la cara sur, sino por la ruta normal que es relativamente sencilla.

Vuelvo a Mendoza con una gripa tremenda, convencido de que muy probablemente nunca vaya a subir la montaña, pero feliz de cerrar un pequeño capìtulo. Estoy en paz con la idea de que hay cosas que nunca harè, que nunca alcanzarè, ya sea por falta de capacidad o por no estar dispuesto a pagar el precio, sin embargo siempre estàn a la mano puntos intermedios.

We just got back from three days of hiking around at Aconcagua, which is the highest mountain in the Americas. It was really interesting seeing all the people preparing to go to the summit, which can take anywhere from 2 to 3 weeks including all the acclimatization to the altitude. What we did was on Thursday we took a bus from Mendoza to the entrance to the Aconcagua national park, then we hiked three hours from the Lago de los Horcones to Confluencia, which is a base camp where various tour companies provide tents and food (carried in by mule) to hikers. The next day we hiked out 5 hours to Plaza Francia, where we got a good view of the south face of Aconcagua, which is supposed to be the hardest to climb. It is covered with glaciers and we saw two landslides during the short time that we were there. At that point, we were at an elevation of 4,100 meters, which appears to be on the ground compared to the mountain peaks around us. We were very close to a glacier that was probably over a mile long and had spikes of ice coming out of it. It is in the process of melting so every now and then you hear chunks of ice falling down from it. We are posting up a picture of that glacier. We spent a second night back at Confluencia. The third day we hiked back to the entrance to the park, then took a minibus back to Mendoza.

There were many many stars in the sky. We slept in cots in a tent for 6 people. The first night was cold, probably freezing temperature, but the second night was warmer. The second night I was woken up by a dog, sticking its nose in my face. There are a few dogs that belong to the park guards that like to follow solo hikers up the mountain. It is said that some of the dogs have even gone all the way to the summit. The one that woke me up also climbed a hill to be with me the next morning. A lot of dogs have been singling me out for attention lately. I don't know why. During the days in Mendoza before going to Aconcagua we also had two different very sweet and loyal strays also following us around for hours. We didn't do anything to attract them, they just started following us. Then the dog catcher came and took them both away. We think the dog catcher is working double duty this week to get ready for Mendoza's big annual harvest festival, Vendimia.

The tour company that took us to Aconcagua, Campo Base, was good in general except that the person who was going to deliver one of our meals had a problem with their car so we got no lunch the first day. We ended up befriending some people in order to ask them for their extra food out of their car before we started hiking to give us energy to do the three hour hike to Confluencia where dinner would be. Dinners were good but very salty. Maybe the cook figured we had been sweating a lot and needed to replenish our salts.  

Mendoza has so many parks! I don't know how much water they actually use to irrigate all their trees, but at first glance their use of water seems to be really wise. All the buildings are close to the street, so that no water is wasted on individual lawns. But then there are green shady parks with trees all over the place! There are acequias running all around to irrigate all the huge old trees. We don't know how much water this really uses but they are lucky in that although they are in the desert they appear to have an abundant supply of water flowing down from the mountains.

Add to del.icio.us Add to reddit

Photos / videos of "Recordando el Aconcagua":