Sorry to all my loyal followers for the big delay between posts.
This crazy silly season called christmas has seen me do more drinking than training, not exactly the ideal preparation but the focus will be back on Monday.
Well considering there hasn't been a great deal of training talk to fill you in on I thought I might give you an insite into the mountain known as the stone sentinal, Aconcagua.
Created by the subduction of the Nazca Plate beneath South America, Aconcagua is not only the highest mountain in the Western and Southern hemisphere but is also the highest mountain outside the Asian / Himilayan region.
The first recorded climb of Aconcagua was in 1897 by Matthias Zurbriggen of Switzerland following what is now known as the Normal Route.
Whilst only slightly higher than Kilimanjaro (another of the 7 summits at 5,895) Aconcagua has significantly less attempts yet suffers a higher death rate. Whilst accurate figures are hard to get some say the variance could be 15,000 summit attempts on Kilimanjaro compared to 4,000 on Aconcagua. Again exact numbers are hard to obtain however Aconcagua has had as many as 10 or even 20 deaths a year. This is mainly due to the inexperience of the ascenders to understand the challenges, both pyhsically and mentally.
Rather than bore everyone with more information I might finish off by showing the current weather conditions at 4,827m (just above base camp)
Catch ya onthe flip side
http://www.snow-forecast.com/resorts/Aconcagua/6day/bot
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