Aconcagua trekking finished (minus a towel!)

My trekking experience in the Aconcagua mountain range, Mendoza, Central Argentina came to an end with, unfortunately, a bit of an anti-climax. I´d planned a four day trek meticulously and after a healthy breakfast on the morning of the four hour bus ride to the entrance of the National Park where Aconcagua is situated; I was ready for action!

Horcones, the first ranger station where the emergency helicopter sits is pretty close to the park entrance and sits at around 2950m (9,700feet) which is roughly the same height as a normal skydive! You´re supposed to take a few days acclimatising in the closest town (Puente Del Inca) but I didn´t really have the time and so went straight into a 3hour hike up the mountain to base camp, Campamento Confluencia at 3380m (11,090 feet). It was a very windy day and so I was being blown about all over the place. The view of the big peak (Aconcagua) which sits at 6962m wasn´t really that good on that basis. Nonetheless, it was an enjoyable hike to base camp.

The first view I had of where I was to sleep for the next two nights was hilarious. There was an igloo looking tent-like-structure and a few other random tents dotted over some land squashed into a valley that had amazing mountains surrounding it. I was looking forward to sleeping in the weirdest tent of my life!

I think the altitude started to affect me for sure at this point as I needed to chillax straight away. I was carrying around 15kgs, which didn´t help, but had no choice as I planned to sleep 3nights in two different camps.

After a very cold evening and first meal of pasta, tomato sauce and a tin of corn, I was in bed at a stupidly early time of 8pm. I was also the only person in the 25man capacity igloo!! Oh yeah, and the zip to the door was also broken so I knew it was going to be a cold one!!

The night certainly proved to be chilly to say the least but it was all worth it as the following morning was nothing short of spectacular. A clear blue 360 degree sky meant that I could see all the snow capped and other jagged peaked mountains surrounding the camp. It felt amazing to be there and I was psyched for my 5hour hike up in elevation to 4200m (13,700feet!!) Plaza Francia!

I left camp at 07.50, quite lucky actually as the sky remained blue and clear for me over the course of the morning until around 12.30 where it clouded over a bit. The walk was nothing short of unreal!! I hiked my butt off up and around various mountains, along rocky paths and then no paths, through rivers and along a glacier to get to Plaza Francia. I was truly alone and in my element as the scenery was stunning. I just couldn´t get over the fact that the mountains were so strange. There were stripey ones, bright yellow mountains, crazy jagged mountains, perfectly formed volcano-looking-mountains and every variation inbetween all next to one another. It was fantastic! There were also really strange ice formations randomly dotted along the way. Oh yeah, and there was a massive ´dirty´ glacier that appeared to be solid rock!

Four hours into the trek (roughly 1hour from my destination), I started to feel some symptoms of AMS (Acute Mountain Sickness), which worried me somewhat. I was beginning to feel sick, dizzy, had a headache and my hands started to swell up! I learned later that the hands swelling up are a sign that your kidneys are failing!!

After around 30mins of the symptoms persisting and me taking it easy as a consequence, I knew it was time to turn back. I knew that if I´d continued it could have been fatal as my headache was getting worse and I felt as though I was going to vomit. All signs things weren´t improving! It was so strange as I was only at 4100-4200m and had trekked higher than that before.

Feeling quite lame, but content with my decision, I turned back and started to head back down to a lower altitude. If only I´d taken my aspirin on the trek with me I would´ve have been fine! Looks like I did need the time to acclimatise after all.

After a 3 hour hike back to camp, I´d reached the decision that it wasn´t sensible of me to do a hike to the higher, Plaza De Mulas the following day. I´d have to cut my trekking short. Oh well I thought, an extra day in Iguazu Falls. Not a problem.

That night a group of 7 locals, 3 french and 2 spanish joined me in the igloo. Boy oh boy was it cold that night! I awoke the next day to see that the sink outside the igloo had ice all over it where the water had frozen solid!

I trekked back down to Horcones at the entrance to the park over the next 2.5hours with what I thought was a couple. A Belgian lady and Aussie guy had spent the night in a tiny little freezing (im sure) tent and were also on their way down. However, they weren´t a couple, so must´ve found it a bit odd being in such a small tent together. Lol. Good idea though to get more body heat. They were fast walkers as well!

We got back to the park entrance in record time and so decided to walk the 3kms to Puente Inca so they could have a shower. We would wait for the bus at this ´town´ rather than the park itself. It was at that point that I realised I´d left my trekking towel up on the mountain! Sooo gutted! Not to complain though, the day was again clear and blue. I also got to visit the natural wonder that is the Sulphur Bridge at Puente Del Inca! An amazing sight.

A four hour bus ride back to Mendoza and an evening of teaching a group of travellers Yahtzee and Farckle helped me unwind. That evening I met another strange couple, but in another sense completely. These guys were a testiment to how times change and people come together. A jewish/burmese girl with a german/german guy who had both discovered that their families were either persecuted as jews or were involved with the nazi´s (respectively) and were totally over it. It was great to see that human kind can learn from its mistakes and put the past in the past! Great couple as well.

The next afternoon we all went to the local ´waterpark´ together. However, it really wasn´t a waterpark at all...it had two broken rubbish slides and one slightly large pool. Lame. Total waste of 25ps/5 pounds! I did get to play some more Yahtzee though and do some solid shade bathing!

After the fairly wasted afternoon, I was back again at Mendoza, ready to hit a 10hour overnight bus to Cordoba, followed by a four hour wait and then a 21 hour overnight bus ride to Puerto Iguazu! Great!

I planned to spend my birthday (16th December) at the falls...excellent idea I thought. It was also possible to meet up with group I travelled with on Oasis Overlanding at the beginning of this trip. This could prove to be an unforgettable birthday.