Aconcagua
2004
mountaineering expedition,
26 days
participants:
Introduction
The
idea to go to Aconcagua was born in August last year but the final
crew was not known until the very last moment of flight ticket
purchase (which took place in December). Finally, there were four of
us left, which could be called a bit of a surprise as nine people
intended to go and, additionally, we four have never gone together to
any expedition. Still all of us, i.e. Tom (called Tom), another Tom
(called Dudi), Mark (called Mark) and myself were full of positive
expectations.
The expedition
The
journey to our Destination’s foot was rather regular. In
Santiago
de Chile there was summer (33 degrees centigrade in shade). There
were also equally numerous as fat “famous for their beauty
Indian
girls”.
Argentina,
on the other hand, welcomed us with townships in the middle of
desert, them being dominated by rachitic poplar-like trees which
would certainly die, had it not been for artificial melioration.
Spectacular was the Andean rock of almost all colours of the rainbow.
The mountains ravished us, however, not only with the rock tint, but
above all with the ragged peaks amassed all around us. Having
purchased the summit ascension permit (for a
“humble” price of
US$ 300) in the Aconcagua Provincial Park’s seat in Mendoza,
we got
on a bus riding to Los Penitentes.
Maradona’s
homeland is a strange country. A bus needs two hours to go a piece
one way, and four hours to return. At the bus station each route is
serviced by a different company and there is neither a joint
timetable nor a ticket office. Yet a cab through a half of a city
larger than, say, Oxford costs less than one English pound, and a
litre of beer in a bar in Los Penitentes is sold for ca. one US
dollar.
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Our
mule-company owned 4 dogs...
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Rio
mendoza in Puente del Inca
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Pente
del Inca - Bridge of Inca
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| Thermal
sources in Puente del Inca |
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| Cemetery of Aconcagua's
victims... |
