Ilya Levchenko made it to the summit of Aconcagua and put his bird nest there
Congratulations to an unusual feat!



More photos from Ilya's trip.
https://picasaweb.google.com/ilya.levch ... oncagua02#

Ah, more garbage on Aconcagua's summit.

I doubt there are any nesting species at that altitude and latitude. You would think he would've done his homework before going to all the trouble.

So much for "Leave No Trace"...

ExcitableBoy wrote:I doubt there are any nesting species at that altitude and latitude. You would think he would've done his homework before going to all the trouble.

No serious idea behind the project. It was just for fun.

As for leaving no trace...on Aconcagua...

That is a pretty trashy thing to do...

I made the summit on xmas day of 09 and was appalled at all the trash and junk on aco. I came up the false polish glacier and there was not a ton of trash on the route... but when we went down the normal route i was sickened. all because other people leave trash... does not mean you leave trash. Toilet paper and food trash is bad enough... but then you trash the summit... that we have worked so hard to reach.. you should be fined and banned from mountaineering. Take a summit shot with your item, flag, ect... then bring it back down with you. I carried a 16in rubber chicken to the summit... why? because I could and it was a great conversation piece... but it sure as hell came back down with me...

Hmm, I was on the summit the 14th and did not see the ¨ñest

most likely got blown off the summit in a storm... who knows. It drives me crazy all the trash people leave on mountains. The only thing i would see as acceptable to intentionally leave is like spreading someone's ashes at a summit, otherwise i do not think anything should ever be left on the summit.

ExcitableBoy wrote:I doubt there are any nesting species at that altitude and latitude. You would think he would've done his homework before going to all the trouble.

No nesting birds, but plenty of ravens/crows that will fly up there and take advantage of any food caches left at altitude. We did the Polish approach/crossover route in 1995 and saw a few at the Independencia Hut tearing apart someone's cache. We also put our food supplies under a pile of rocks at our 6000m / 20,000ft high camp and the birds still tried to get at it. No other trash I can remember, but there was a big windstorm a few days earlier that probably blew it all off the peak.

That house is a little too small for a Condor, which is probably the only bird that will fly that high...