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Hi Zipperdoyle,
Have you ever thought of doing the Guanacos Route (Upper Valley). In my opinion it is a better and safer route. No crowds and the route is a bit longer so the acclimatization schedule is better. This route also has a higher success rate. If you're interested in that route I'd have to recommend Natural High Alpine Adventures http://www.naturalhighalpine.com/trips/aconcagua.shtml But I've got to say I'm a bit biased as I'm owner and guide for the company! I have done many successful climbs of Aconcagua via this route. Take care.

naturalhighalpine wrote:Hi Zipperdoyle,
Have you ever thought of doing the Guanacos Route (Upper Valley). In my opinion it is a better and safer route. No crowds and the route is a bit longer so the acclimatization schedule is better. This route also has a higher success rate. If you're interested in that route I'd have to recommend Natural High Alpine Adventures http://www.naturalhighalpine.com/trips/aconcagua.shtml But I've got to say I'm a bit biased as I'm owner and guide for the company! I have done many successful climbs of Aconcagua via this route. Take care.

Is this route now open again? I understood it was closed last season to reduce human impact in this still beautiful area. Would be interested to hear what the story is for this season.

Hey William,
I heard it's reopening this year. Not confirmed yet, I'm still waiting to find out.

What about Aventuras Patagonicas? Any comments from anyone?

I made the Aconcagua summit in January 2011 with 3 friends. We hired an expedition to Acomara - AconcaguaExpeditions.com and I have to say it was perfect. Our ascent was by the normal route and our guides took us to the north summit1962 m. I am able to recommend Acomara AconcaguaExpeditions is a responsible company with excellent staff.
I hope you can complete the dream of climbing Mount Aconcagua. That's incredible. Regards.

If anyone is looking for Aconcagua guide or a full expedition with acclimatizing peaks before it, I am selling the expedition to early 2013.

The guide will be Max Kaush, summited 4 times Cho Oyu as a expedition leader for summitclimb.com, around 50 andean summits including new routes, solo ascents, and 4 successful guided expeditions to Aconcagua itself.

Only US$ 3,000. You won't find for less than that. Since I am sick and I can't deal with altitude right now, not even work, I am trying to make a living with this. Otherwise I'd be with him working his clients on Cordon Del Plata, before the Aconcagua summit bid.

Just PM me or send me an e-mail.

Our team used Grajales,we were very satisfied.Ask for Ulysses to be your guide.He has summited over 40 times by Jan 2011.

robassar wrote:Our team used Grajales,we were very satisfied.Ask for Ulysses to be your guide.He has summited over 40 times by Jan 2011.

I think you misunderstood me, I'm not looking for a guinding service, I am offering this service.

I recommend AP. Successfully summited with them this past climbing season. Took the Plaza Argentina route and traversed the mountain. Reasonable price for the services they offer.

I am also looking for advice on which guiding company to use, as I wanted to try a local guiding company for a change.

Every time I think I have found a reputable guiding company that has received positive feedback, a post or two later there is criticism.

It makes it pretty tricky to choose.

It seems to be better to just stick with what you know, and pay more.

The experience of Deleted User is unacceptable.

My last sentence may be misconstrued. What I intended to say was that the experience that Deleted User had to endure is unacceptable, and should never have happened.

I highly recommend Inka Expediciones, a local company. I climbed Aconcagua with them in 2008. I booked a private trip with them including an extra acclimatization week climbing in Vallecitos for less than the cost of a group trip organized by any of the US companies offering ordinary Aconcagua trips. They have outstanding logistics and infrastructure on the mountain. I don't speak Spanish but the office staff and guides speak good English, never had any communication problems.

Thanks Norris - I appreciate that.

We used Aconcagua Trek in Dec 06 – Jan 07 and were happy. We were self-guided but used them for mules and other support and in-country arrangements. We were able to a la carte as much support as we wanted.
http://www.aconcaguatrek.com/

We talking Normal Route? If you want a little bit of adventure, I'd say go with no guide. Plenty of other threads have people saying the same, so feel free to get a second or third opinion.

I climbed the mountain in February (2013). I was very happy about my choice to go it alone. I soloed the mountain. I got to go at my own pace and do precisely what I wanted to do. Normal route is really a very windy bunny slope and doesn't really require a guide. Sure it is helpful to have someone do everything for you and to have a group of "friends" to hang out with, but hanging out is not why I go to mountains. My only other previous experience above 5000 meters had been on Kilimanjaro, so it's not like I was some super experienced climber. I did no special training for the climb (unless golf counts).

If you can afford it I would go with either Grajales or Inka if you insist on a guided tour - but I would encourage you too book a private tour and skip the large groups. I'll tell you why later.

Inka and Grajales both had very large, swanky setups at Base Camp and provide a very good service. I used Inka for my mules and this got my privledges at their base camp (toilet, water). Buy one way mules. Buy half a mule on return. It's a great deal and I thank and recommend Inka for it! There are lots of a la carte options at base camp. I think you are better off just paying for them as you want or need them. 10 bucks to use the internet, or a a few bucks for a beer and pizza here and there is a Hell of a lot cheaper than shelling out 4k for the guided treatment or 1500 for the meal plan.

Ok here's my story if you are interested and why I don't think you should go in one of this big potluck groups:

My choice not to go on one of INKAs guided trips was a last minute decision. But I think it is the reason I summited the mountain.

I showed up at the hotel aconcagua, where I knew the Inka group would be staying and planned on starting the same day and sort of stalking them. A rockslide prevented all of us from getting to the mountain for about 10 days. At the hotel, I asked their guide if it was possible to get to any other mountains in the area and he said, "No, the roads are all closed" which turned out to be either a lie or false as I took a taxi to Cordon Del Plata without a hitch while they stayed at the hotel and drank Malbec.

(BTW Cerro Plata is a great warmup climb for Aconcagua at 6000 meters and in my opinion is much more interesting than sitting at Plaza de Mulas base camp doing acclimatization hikes. It has no paperwork, rangers, or logistics. So it's for purists, not yuppies)

When I finally got to BC at aconcagua a week later I found the yuppies in the INKA group again. They'd been on the mountain about five days and had been up to around 5000 meters, whereas I had already been up to 6000 meters on Cerro Plata and was used to sleeping at 5000 meters.

It was a Tuesday, and strong wind were forecasted for the next few days. Their guides kept them at base camp to wait out the wind with a summit day scheduled for Saturday. This is understandable, the wind can rip tents in half and if I were them I wouldn't want to risk destroyed tents as well as potentially freaking out your clients. However, this decision proved pretty fateful for their group. I went up to Nido that day (Tuesday) and spent two very windy days up at around 5500 meters acclimatizing. Yes, it was Windy but with perfect visibility and a ranger station adjacent to me I wasn't in any danger.

The INKA group showed up at Nido on Thursday after the worst of the wind had died down. That day I moved up to Camp Berlin at 5900 meters and stayed in a one of the three small wooden refuges there planning on spending another day at acclimatizing and waiting for the perfect summit window on Saturday.

On Friday, the Inka group moved up to Cholera camp (next to Berlin Camp), having only spent one day at Nido de Condores getting used to the altitude, which is a huge mistake in my opinion. Sunday was going to be Windy so it had to be Saturday or nothing at all.

On Saturday (summit day) they started early in the morning around 5 A.M. I thought about doing the same, but it was still really cold. I stayed in bed until the sun came up at 7:30. I left the hut finally at 9:30 when it was nice and toasty.

By the time I got to Independencia (6300) I had already passed most of their group most of whom had quit because the altitude, which their guides had not adequately prepared them for obliterated them long before getting anywhere near the real challenge of the Canaleta. I caught up to the few who made it to the summit just as they were finishing up their pictures around 2 P.M.. Of 19 climbers in their group only 3 had summitted despite it being a windless, warm, sunny day. It had taken them 9 hours to reach the summit and me only 5. This is only because I was better acclimated and their guides had not done their job getting them acclimated.

When I got back to the ski resort (las penitientes) they were all sitting there discussing the tip which some Americans had suggested 20 percent (800 bucks) was appropriate. It was pretty hillarious because most of the non-american climbers didn't think a 20 percent tip was warranted considering only 3 of them had gotten to the top. Although, I'm American I agree with the others that such a tip was rediculous. But yuppies are yuppies. The best was that the English in the group thought that someone should make a speech. However, of the three climbers who summited none spoke English very well. They were pretty much ready to fight one another over this gratuity and thanks issue (a pretty hillarious culture clash). For some reason some of the climbers seemed Hell bent on making sure that everyone tipped the same amount and that it was all presented to the guides at once in some grand socialist gesture of thanks to the guides (who im my opinion had cost them the summit). They couldnt believe that I summited in 5 hours. They thought I was some sort of Olympic Mountain Climber. Nope, just someone who had enough time to acclimatize. Silly yuppies.

In these big groups you are forced to work with the lowest common denominator. That can cost you the summit. Your guides, rightfully so, won't take any chances either with their equipment (tents) nor with potentially scaring the Hell out you by making you camp in 60 km per hour winds. You have to work on their schedule, and that schedule will be designed with safety and the happiness of the rest of the people in your party in mind, not with getting you, as an individual, to the summit. They have to run a business, and if you run out of time, you run out of time. The solo climber can wait until things improve.

If you are gonna shell out the money for a guide then shell out a little more and get a private guide for you and maybe 3 other similar climbers (preferably friends) so that you guys can have real input on how your climb goes.