Mt. Aconcagua
January 9, 2002
Dan Mallory and Adam Mallory
January 7, 2017
Laura Mallory and Logan Juffermans
Elevation
22,841 ft (6,962 meters)
Location
Argentina
Range
Andes
Coordinates
32°39’20″S 70°00’57″W
First ascent
1897 Matthias Zurbriggen (first recorded ascent)
Our route
False Polish Glacier
On Christmas day 2001, Adam Mallory, age 19 and his father Dan Mallory, age 50 left Toronto for Argentina, South America to attempt to summit Mt. Aconcagua (“The Stone Sentinel”). Mt. Aconcagua is the highest mountain in South America and in the world outside of the Himalayas at 22,841 feet (6,962 meters) located in the Andes Mountains in Argentina near the border of Chile.
We did an acclimatization hike to 8,858 feet (2,700 meters) on December 27, 2001. We began our climb early on December 29th, 2001 starting at an altitude of 7,628 feet (2,325 meters). Our route was the False Polish Glacier route which was more remote, more scenic and more difficult.
Our minds were on the Andinista cemetery at the base of the mountain where we viewed the graves of about 150 people who had died on the mountain from various causes.
After overcoming the challenges of exhaustion, headaches, bleeding noses, snow storms, high winds, sun burned tongues, faces and nostrils and severe cold, we finally arrived at the Independencia High Camp at 20,600 feet (6,279 meters).
After an evening of being awoken through the night gasping for air from the low oxygen, we awoke on summit day to begin our summit attempt at 9:15 a.m.
After many hours of long and steep snow covered climbing, we reached the summit at 5pm in semi cloudy conditions. A short stay and we began the long downhill return arriving back at our tent just before dark. A very long and exhausting day.
The climb down was less taxing due to our extra oxygenated red blood cells. We descended the mountain arriving at its base in darkness on the evening of January 13th, 2002 quite exhausted but thrilled to have reached the top of South America’s highest mountain 20 days after arriving in the country.
Fifteen (15) years later, Laura Mallory completed her final summit of the worlds’ highest peaks.