Formerly it was thought that Aconcagua could be a volcano since its rocks betrayed it with some volcanic origin, however it was shown not to possess any type of crater and the opposite was deduced.
It is a mountain very frequented by mountaineers and adventurers from all over the world in search of Extreme sports that has vast routes of different difficulties and immense beauty. In the period from December to March, he receives more than 6,000 curious visits from his wonderful landscapes and the mountain experiences he offers.
Bipolar, Aconcagua offers a simple and a high difficulty path:
- Considered as its "normal route" and the most frequented, its north face is located northwest of the mountain and via provides technically easy ascent without climbing passages but with strong atmospheric pressure effects.
- The southern face is much more risky and presents a high degree of difficulty since it presents a large ice wall of 3,000 meters < /Strong> high. It is not monitored by the rescue patrol due to its high difficulty and the risk of landslides and avalanches that it presents.
Excerpt from For Yumping Mexico, below we present the fascinating story of Mexican mountaineer Héctor Ponce de León in one of the most difficult promotions of his life in this southern wall of the Aconcagua :
Yumping Mexico- Is there any exceptional moment during an ascent that has marked you for the rest of your life?
Héctor P.L. It is on the southern wall of Aconcagua.
This wall is classified in the book of the big walls with nine other walls, then it is considered one of the ten most difficult walls in the world.
In it, again Andrés Delgado and I set out to make an ascent of alpine style , we acclimatize on another route and went to the southern side of the mountain and we started To climb and again to mention that to make so many meters of wall in this style, you have to practice climbing Very fast and go very light to reach speed that allows you in 3 days climar 3,000 meters.
This implies that you really carry little team , you go with the indispensable and only. For example Andrés and I had a single 50 -meter rope, just a few nails. I mention this because in this type of ascent there is what I call - the point of no return - and you know that when you enter the next 20 meters there are no longer Back, you will have to make a summit to get off the other side of the mountain, I don't have enough equipment for retire . And well these are incredibly intense moments as you can imagine.
What we set ourselves in this southern face of Aconcagua, was to do the whole wall in 3 days . The plan was successful for the first two days. We arrived in the afternoon/night of the second day where we had set out to arrive, at a height of 5,900 meters. We lacked about 1,000 meters from climb Rampa Messner .
That last night, he was snowing a lot, bad weather came and closed. And well, the next day we couldn't start climbing at the time we thought. We wanted to start at 6 am to make a summit in the afternoon and start the descent on the other side. But we couldn't because there was a lot of snow and small avalanches fell that would have dragged us. And finally we couldn't start climbing until 3 pm. Although we tried to go at the highest possible speed, they gave us 9 at night and we still lacked 600 meters for the summit. we had no food , we had abandoned the store we had trying to lighten ourselves! Well ... it was done Dark and we were in the middle of an ice wall ... already without food, without water, nothing. We stay hanging to the wall without sleeping bags obviously, without even pen jackets, only with the basics with what we were going to climb.
The next morning when finally the sun came Strong> last 600 meters of ice that looked very difficult, very hard. And we realized that the rope really didn't help us ... We were so tired that we only needed upload that fast wall and no matter how risky it would do it without the rope ... Well, I had no case, It was the only way. And I clearly remember that moment of decision to unleash and drop the rope on that wall and see it fall ...
Andrés who always had a determination and a strong decision was the first of the two to start climbing. The carabiner was removed and began to move on the ice that looked very hard . I saw it that cost him, the crampons barely bit the ice that shone from the hard. And the truth is that seeing him advance to him that he was so good climber, so slowly and with so much effort, a very strong invaded me. I thought I couldn't do it and the truth took me about 20 minutes ...
Finally, I armed value and removed the carabiners, I took the hammer and started moving. The first meters of that ice that Andrés had previously passed, were perhaps the most frightening moments that he has ever had in the mountain. He hit with the Piolet and bounced the ice and did not get him to stay. I turned down and saw me under me, 2 thousand and many meters of fall and ...
Something happened incredible . Suddenly I realized that I had nothing to lose. If is fully terrified , almost immobilized by fear, from one moment to another I calmed down, I started breathing and began to move very fluently, very fluently. Suddenly my Piolet began to enter, my crampons began to penetrate the ice and entered a fabulous state . I moved very fluently, my entire universe was reduced to the many square meters of Ice that I had in front of me. I forgot where I was and where it came from. Everything I was, because it was movement on the ice . This was really an experience that may sound a bit exaggerated, but it was almost mystical in the sense that it was as if someone else was climbing for me and I was only enjoying the walk . And even at a given time between ... as in trance, I can't find another word to describe it. And when I realized, the wall was over and I felt up to a disappointment . In what I had lasted that wall, it was a couple of hours in which the situation took me to a incredible state of consciousness of not having any thought, no concern. It was just being someone who was climbing .
The truth was a very intense moment, very beautiful and curiously came after a terrifying moment. This I can tell you is one of the moments that has marked me the most, more memorable, more intense and more revealing at many levels .
