After our two day binge of wine and grilled meat, we thought it might be advantageous to get out and stretch our legs on a little hike, if only to prepare ourselves for what lies ahead. We set our sights on Aconcagua. Aconcagua has the unique distinction of being the tallest peak in both the western and southern hemisphere. We found an adventure tour group that offered us a 6 hour return hike from the trail head to the first base camp for those attempting a summit, Confluencia.
Aconcagua
The tour company told us to be ready to go at 7:30AM. We woke with plenty of time and were outside with 5 minutes to spare. We were waiting for the van...and waiting...and waiting. Finally around 8:05AM or so (not that we were keeping track) our van arrives and our party of 4 + our guide were off to the park, which was a three hour drive away. Spirits were high as our guide described what we were going to see on today's hike. However about an hour into our drive, we hit gridlock on the only road that was going to get us there. After our driver asked around, we found out there was a car accident up ahead and that it was going to take ~2 hours for the traffic to clear. This was already an all day event so our guide presented us with three options: Wait it out, get to Aconcagua and hike as far as we could knowing we wouldn't make it to Confluencia, turn around and reschedule for the next day, or just hike around there. Three of us were ready to reschedule but the remaining vote had rafting scheduled for the following day. After getting that in order, we rescheduled for Saturday and headed back to Mendoza.
With our spirits slightly deflated and the effects of waking up early to an alarm setting in, we took the remainder of Friday to work on the rest of our South America trip. We carb loaded for dinner with some pasta and got an early night as we had to be ready at 7:30AM again!
The bus was on time today and everyone was ready to give it another go. Traffic was clear the entire way and we made it to the park on time. It took about 90 minutes to check in to get into the park as their process (like most encountered in Argentina) was very manual. But in the end we got our trekking permits and set off on our way.
Ready to go! (I'm not that big, the wind was in my shirt)
The weather had cooperated for the most part. It was a sunny day and not too hot. The wind was a little less cooperative. The valley we trekked up was rather dry so the wind would kick up quite a bit of dust. We didn't let that deter us and we pressed on.
Trying to avoid tasting dust
We were totally closer than before
Our guide kept a manageable pace, if not sometimes slow. I thought we could have moved faster, but in the end, she was probably just being a little cautious of the altitude. We started at ~9000ft and we gained over 2000ft of elevation during the trek. We took frequent water breaks and had a nice stop for lunch.
Our only water crossing of the day
It wasn't an overly technical hike. While we gained the elevation for most part it was steady and we didn't have much to carry except water. After about 3 hours, we finally reached Confluencia!
Made it!
When we reached the camp, we had a beautiful 360 degree view of Aconcagua, the surrounding peaks and even a gorgeous view looking back towards where we came from
It took us about 2 hours to descend and everyone was exhausted and fell asleep quickly as soon as we started our 3 hour journey back to Mendoza. We got in very late, exhausted from a tiring, but spectacular day in the mountains. We quickly ate dinner, packed our bags and were off to bed as we had another early morning the next day to catch our bus to Santiago!
-Nick
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