Day 1: Mendoza, Argentina
I met everyone on the expedition at the Park Hyatt Mendoza which is the most posh hotel in town. Upon checking in there were throngs of people outside being held back by guards and temporary fences. I had no idea mountaineers on Aconcagua were so revered but upon checking in my encounter with reveling fans was dashed when I learned an Argentinean football team was also staying in our hotel. One of the biggest games of the season was taking place in Mendoza at 10:30pm that night. This was my first introduction to the Argentinean schedule. They take a siesta which starts somewhere between 11 and 1 and ends between 3 and 5 pm. This rest in the middle of the day means evening activities don’t start until very late. Getting a dinner reservation at 9pm can be difficult because the restaurant may not even be open yet.

On the first afternoon I waited to do my gear check in the hotel room with a fellow expedition member named Mark who would become my tentmate for the duration of the expedition. Mark is from Hawaii and this was his fourth attempt to summit Aconcagua. His first attempt ended when he came down with a severe case of bronchitis and had to ride a mule off the mountain. Having lost his glove liners during a river crossing earlier in the trip he found himself adjusting his crampons at altitude on summit day. Touching his hands to bare metal bled any remaining heat from his hands brought on a case of frost nip which ended his second attempt. Bad weather last year prevented a summit bid on third try. Mark was a wealth of knowledge about Aconcagua and obviously had a lot of experience to share and he patiently answered all my questions about what was in store for the next three weeks. I certainly hoped having Mark along would be a good omen and the fourth time would be a charm for him. Mid-afternoon there was a knock on the door and we met our head guide who also happened to be named Mark but was from Oregon. He looked like a mountaineer and had a very laid back attitude. During the trip Mark we would learn while Mark did not take himself too seriously he was very serious and realistic about the endeavor in front of us and had years of experience. The gear check went well and Mark approved all of the gear I had lugged down from Chicago, much of which was new and purchased especially for this trip.

After the gear check I was tempted to get tickets for the football match but but opted to attend the expedition kickoff meeting Mark informed us would begin promptly at 7pm over a drink in the hotel bar before moving out for a traditional Argentinean meal consisting of huge slabs of meat. Over the next few hours I started to become acquainted with the thirteen other members of the expedition I’d spend the next three weeks with on the mountain.

Rough demographics of the group were:

• Three guides and eleven clients

• Four women (including one of the guides) and ten men

• Countries represented included Scotland, South Africa, Canada, Chile, Argentina, Germany and the US (including a fellow Chicagoan)

• Wide spectrum of ages with the oldest being 57 and I was the youngest of the clients although the two assistant guides were younger than me

• A wide range of occupations were represented including HR, Greenhouse seed salesman, logistics and supply management, warehouse management, German foreign service, general contractor and technology

Day 2: Los Penitentes, Argentina
The next morning we left the comforts of Mendoza (and especially the Park Hyatt), made any last minute purchases and boarded a bus for the four hour ride to Los Penitentes. Driving out of Mendoza we passed several of the vineyards or bodegas responsible for producing many of the Malbec wines which have become so popular in recent years. We stopped midway for lunch at a roadside stop and I had goat for the first time in my life. The meat was a bit stringy and tough and had somewhat of a gamey taste. It definitely did not taste like chicken. While it wouldn’t be my first choice on a menu it was tasty and definitely was filling. Two hours later we arrived at the Hotel Ayelen which was quite run down considering it is regarded as a four star hotel. Our guide Mark had referred to it as indoor camping relating stories of no hot water and broken windows. The Lonely Planet guidebook is spot on saying “…the wallpaper in the rooms could use a change.” as could the lightbulbs. Mark and I had to replace three of the four bulbs in the fixtures and when the room was fully illuminated I kind of wished it wasn’t. I’d hate to see what a 1 star hotel is supposed to be like in Argentina.

We had gained a significant amount of elevation going from Mendoza at 703m to Los Penitentes at 2580m. That meant we needed some exercise to elevate our heart rate and facilitate acclimatizing to altitude. Mark and I chose to walk about 8km (5 miles) round trip to the Mountaineers Cemetery up the road. It was interesting to see the graves honoring people who had explored much of the mountain or played a significant role in its history. I was also a bit shocked to see the number of recent tombstones. It looked like there was at least one for every recent year with 2003 being particularly bad when nearly a dozen people died on the mountain. I began to realize a successful summit bid was not an assured thing and saw it was going to more difficult and dangerous than I had expected. That evening we ate together as a team sitting comfortably inside around a table for the last time until we came off the mountain. Mark wore a Hawaiian shirt and handed out chocolate covered Macadamia nuts he’d brought from Hawaii to get the expedition off to a good start.

Days 3-5: Trekking to Plaza Argentina (Base Camp)

After a hearty breakfast we sealed up our “mule bags”, grabbed our day packs and a jeep made two runs to ferry our group to the trailhead. Our daypacks just had the things we would need while hiking like lunch, snacks, a rain jacket and camera. The mule bag was to be carried in by mules with local arrieros guiding the mule train. While the trail to Plaza Argentina, the official name of the site where Base Camp is located for the Ameghino Valley route, is difficult and at time precarious, mules are used to bring in the enormous amount of supplies required for an expedition. Each member of the team is allowed to bring anything they want to base camp as long as it fits in the mule bag. This may seem like a luxury but we needed to remember, after Base Camp we were the “mules” and would have to carry everything up and over the mountain. The arrieros weighed and marked our bags to assist in evenly balancing the loads on the mules and I was relieved to see mine was almost the lightest in our group at 19kg (~42 lbs). Since I was 2-3kgs lighter than most of my companions and knowing I tend to overpack I was a little concerned I’d forgot something but chose to believe I’d found really lightweight gear.

It would take three days to get to Plaza Argentina (4200m). The first two nights we stopped at Pampa de Lenas (2800m) and Casa de Piedra (3200m) after hiking for 6-8 hours. Even without the weight of full packs these days were tiring as our bodies began to acclimatize to the altitude. The sky was clear and the sun was out making for a beautiful walk as the trail followed the banks of the river Vacas river. At the end of the day we would grab our mule bags and set up our tents. It seemed a bit silly in such nice weather but Mark (our guide) insisted we pitch the tent each night as if we were at high camp. When you put up a mountaineering tent you don’t use the stakes. Instead there are about a dozen guylines attached to the fly and you pull each of these taut and anchor it tight by wrapping the rope around a little rock and then piling big rocks on top of it. By big, Mark said he meant rocks which we’d have difficulty lifting. After anchoring we’d then build stone walls for further protection from the wind. Mark took pride in his ability to teach clients how to properly and securely pitch a tent. None of his clients had ever had their tent blow away in the night during a storm. But he told stories of seeing poorly anchored tents from other expeditions blow off the side of the mountain as the three or four occupants dove out the door narrowly avoiding being blown away too. This all seemed like hyperbole at the time but we’d come to see just how serious Mark was as we got later into the expedition.

We saw Aconcagua for the first time about 15 minutes before we got to camp on the second day and it was impressive. The summit was covered in snow and we had a clear view of the famed Polish Glacier which was a more technical route directly up the face as opposed to the traverse we would make to the other side.

On the second evening, the arrieros prepared a traditional Argentinean asado for us. The asado is a time-honored tradition in Patagonia and something which I had been looking forward to with great anticipation. The arrieros prepared a fire and grilled large slabs of meat. When you go to a butcher in Argentina they do not ask how much meat you want but instead how many people will be attending. It is assumed each person will eat about 1kg (2.2 lbs). Since the mules were doing the hard work at this point our assistant guides Marcela and Tobias had wisely packed a few bottles of wine to go with the meal. To be honest the asado was a bit of a disappointment for me. I found the meat to be tough and it was not all that flavorful or juicy. Later in the evening others told me they had seen the meat sitting out early that morning in the open sun on a rock and birds were pecking at it. I could only surmise this was the arriero’s way of tenderizing the huge cuts of meat but I couldn’t help but think this had impacted the quality of our asado. I wanted to believe the fabled meat feasts of the Patagonian pampas truly were delicious dishes which I would labor to recreate on my Weber when I got back home.

On day three of the approach we hiked up the Relinchos Valley with Aconcagua in full view. We also had two river crossings on this day; one to start the day off in the brisk morning air right after breakfast and a second just before lunch. Both were extremely cold and the second one was over our knees and quite swift. Everyone crossed with great haste. The trail was also a bit precarious at times with scree and a long steep slope down to the river as we gained 1000m on the way to Plaza Argentina. That didn’t slow down the arrieros and the mules who passed us in a fury. What took us three full days to hike the arrieros could do in less than eight hours with a pack of 15 or more fully laden mules.

The wind had picked up and in the last hour of our hike and the temperature felt a lot colder. Everyone quickly chose a campsite by proximity to piles of large rocks and we prepared what would be our new home for the next several days.