Guidebook and Climbing Conditions Commentary
Aconcagua: A Climbing Guide (echo)
Secor's book is undeniably an indispensable resource for anyone going to Aconcagua. However people using the Vacas/Relinchos approach to the Polish Glacier (northeast) side of the mountain should be aware that he commits two violations of the first commandment for climbing guides: "Thou shall not understate the distance/elevation to the next camp."
The Las Lenas camp is about 7.5 miles from the trailhead, not the 8 km (5 mi) quoted on page 95 the guide. This places it much closer to the midpoint between the Puenta de Vacas trailhead and the Casa Piedra camp than the guide would lead you to believe. The 5 mile figure coincides with an old, unused shelter just past the first major river coming in from the east, which looks like it hasn't been used in years. The picture on page 96 is clearly the shelter currently used (and apparently used for many years) by the park guides, and is immediately adjacent to a good river crossing currently used by the mule teams. The GPS data we collected indicates a distance of 7.2 miles "as the Condor flies", and I would estimate the trail distances to be 7.5 miles (12 km) from Vacas to Lenas, and 8.6 miles (14 km) from Lenas to Piedra, rather than the 11 miles (18 km) Secor mentions. The above also matches much more closely with information on the Vacas approach available on a sub-page of the excellent Aconcagua home page maintained by the Los Andes Online e-zine.
Camp 1 is located just above 16,000 feet elevation, not the 15,400 quoted on page 106 of the guide. The camp at 15,400 which is the "campsite at near the bottom of the steep slope" did not appear to have been used for many years. The description of the widely used Camp 1 and its water source are perfect, but happily it is located much closer to halfway in elevation between the Plaza Argentina base camp and the base of the Polish Glacier. The scree and moraine of the slope from 15,400 up to the current Camp 1 are (as of January/February 1997) much easier to negotiate than the penitentes due to the poor snow conditions of the past few years (see below.)
Most people are camping at the lower, 19,000 foot, Camp 2 locations, either among the cliffs or out where we camped on a small medial moraine about 150 yards out on the lower glacier, across a small penitente field, due to the poor Polish Glacier conditions and the fact that most people using this route are now crossing the Falso de los Polacos to the Normal Route. When the weather was good (e.g. one out of the four days we were at Camp 2), there was running water out there on the lower glacier.
Secor mentions the intersection but does not mention the camp at the junction of The Falso and the Normal routes (between White Rocks and Independencia). Although there are not big, built up walls, and it appears very exposed, a number of guides are now using this location, and in fact we saw some gear stashed there. It is along the section of the Normal Route which is east of the ridge crest, and during our 40 hours there, the wind was howling over the ridge, but we were buffeted primarily by the rotor in the lee of the ridge. Obviously, this could also be used by people on the Normal Route who are willing to go a bit higher than White Rocks (thus shortening their summit day), but who don't want to go as far nor be on the exposed side of the ridge as Independencia is.
Anyone planning a climb from now on should understand that the climbing fee for January increases to $120 in 1998. A complete schedule of park charges is available on another sub-page of the Los Andes Online e-zine's Aconcagua home page.
The Hotel Refugio, ½ mile west across the moraine from the Plaza de Mulas (Normal Route) base camp has also suffered from the lack of snow! There is no hot water, in fact no running water, and no heat. You go outside to warm up during the day, as it is colder inside than out. You flush the primitive toilet facilities by dumping a pail of water into it. But as a consequence, the price is down to $15 per night. Dinner is still $15, and a liter of juice is $6, but its all worth the price after you've spent two weeks on the mountain.!
We found the park personnel at the Horcones headquarters (we came down the Normal Route) to be very friendly and understanding regarding our loss of the numbered trash bag. Although a sign indicates a fine of $100 for the loss of the bag, the ranger did not charge us. We obviously don't recommend this, and others have been hit with the full fine. We produced a bag full of 4-5 days of garbage from the latter stages of our climb, and explained that since we were doing a traverse of the mountain, we sent five days of trash out on a mule from Plaza Argentina, together with other approach trek gear. We lost the numbered bag, (and a bunch of much more valuable gear!) when weather and penitente field conditions cut us off from our stash at Camp 2. We are hopeful that Damian Benegas of Patagonian Brothers Expeditions will be able to retrieve some of it, although we have not yet heard from him.
Aconcagua Climbing Conditions in the 1997 Climbing Season
The guide book and many earlier descriptions of the Polish Glacier route (check out our links page for some resources) make it sound reasonable for climbers with a reasonable amount of glacier climbing experience and willingness/ability to cope with the altitude. The various Polish Glacier routes involve only short sections of 35-45 degree ice or snow. However, it is clear that the conditions on the mountain over the past several years make this a much more serious undertaking than most readily available resources would lead one to believe.
When we checked in with Senor Grajales at the Hosteria Puenta del Inca, he explained that five consecutive "poor" (dry) winters have left the glaciers on the mountain in very poor condition for climbing. (Actually a friend of ours who climbed in 1994 ran into the same situation.) The Polish Glacier has become a serious ice climb requiring much more equipment and experience than we brought to the mountain. Only two groups had successfully completed the route this season through early February: one in a 19 hour summit day, and the other a 15 hour day with a forced bivouac on or near the summit before descent.
A large, well-equipped, guided, and experienced team from the UK was approaching the mountain on basically the same schedule as we were. Four of them, led by a New Zealander who had summited Everest, were planning to do the Polish Glacier, but only got as far as stashing their ice gear at Camp 2. They never camped at the base of the glacier, and retrieved their gear and exited the mountain from Plaza Argentina via the col from the Relinchos to the Lower Horcones (south side of the mountain), but their assessment of the Polish route was that it is "out of climbing condition."
If the Polish Glacier is out of condition, the East (or English) Glacier would be suicidal. The lower section of penitentes from 15,000 to 16,000 would probably take several days for even the most masochistic of climbers, and the steep upper three sections of the glacier were heavily scree-covered snow or ice by the end of January.
Bottom line: if you are thinking of an Aconcagua climb finishing on anything other than the Ruta Normal/Canaleta, plan to do it early in the season. Contact some of the many local guide services in advance of your climb for the latest possible information on conditions. Before we left Seattle I e-mailed five or six of them, and got helpful responses from several.
Useage monitor since 12/12/97