Aconcagua Climbing Team Reaches Base Camp

First team of the sea­son reach­es Base Camp on the Nor­mal Route.

Fol­low their progress on this map here

After sev­er­al days accli­ma­tiz­ing at the Con­flu­en­cia Camp our team has arrived at Base Camp. From Con­flu­en­cia the team set out for a hike to the incred­i­ble South Face on the moun­tain. With extra time accli­mat­ing, our group arrive at Base Camp feel­ing bet­ter than most new arrivals. Here’s our report from Tino,

(All pho­tos from pre­vi­ous expeditions)

On hike to base of South Face. MM Collection

“Yes­ter­day we walked the 7.5 hours to the Plaza de Mulas, the Base Camp at 14,000 feet. Yes­ter­day was pret­ty cool because it’s a super long, des­o­late hike and it’s real­ly flat for most of it. There are mule car­cass­es along the trail from the dead pack ani­mals; it’s kind of like a moon­scape. Then you get to the base­camp with these per­ma­nent shel­ters, it’s oth­er worldly!

Hik­ing up the long Hor­cones Val­ley. MM Collection

“We’ve been get­ting after­noon thun­der­storms, snow-storms and build-up. But, over­all the weath­er’s been pret­ty good. There seems to be more snow on the moun­tain now than there is normally.”

Base Camp life. MM Collection

“Today is a rest day, we went for a lit­tle hike and checked out a hotel up here, which is out of com­mis­sion. It’s closed, and falling apart, but we went and checked it out. We’re plan­ning on car­ry­ing a load of stuff up to our next camp, which is Camp 1, also known as Camp Cana­da. Then we’re going to come back here and spend tomor­row night and the night after here. And then we are plan­ning to start mov­ing our way up the moun­tain after that. Every­one is doing well and acclimatizing.”

~ MM Guide Tino Villanueva

View of Base Camp. MM Collection

View of Aconcagua from Base Camp. MM Collection