If you’re planning the epic trek to Aconcagua, you might have a few questions all about the mountain. You might want to impress your mates with tales about what’s to come, or learn some fun facts to chat about on the way! If you’re curious about what lies ahead, here are some fun facts about Aconcagua that are sure to impress…
5 Facts about Aconcagua
How high is it?
One of the Seven Summits, Aconcagua is the highest mountain in South America. At 6,962m, actually the highest mountain in the Western and Southern Hemispheres, and the highest mountain outside Asia. Pretty impressive!
The first ascent
The first known ascent of Aconcagua was during an expedition led by Edward Fitzgerald in 1897. Swiss climber Mathias Zurbriggen reached the summit alone on January 14th via today’s ‘normal route’. A few days later Nicholas Lanti and Stuart Vines made the second ascent. These were the highest ascents in the world at that time.
A Spanish feat
In the 1985/86 season, Fernando Garrido arrived from Spain in order to break the record of altitude stay. He faced problems due to the lack of oxygen, strong winds of up to 200 km/h, and temperatures of up to 60 degrees below zero. The Spanish climber managed to stay 66 days at the summit, thus breaking a world survival record.
Amazing accomplishments
In 1994 a team of blind people reached the north summit. That’s an incredible achievement, and makes us remember that you can accomplish incredible things when you put your mind to it.
The youngest trekker
This is really impressive. In 2013 Tyler Armstrong, a 9 year old boy from Southern California became the youngest person to climb Mount Aconcagua. Puts your childhood walks up Croagh Patrick into perspective!
If you want to read all about our expedition to Aconcagua, click here for more information.
