SummitPost.org

http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ ... tina-climb
When planning how to summit 22,841-foot Mount Aconcagua in Argentina, Greeley resident Eric Nourse, as usual, chose the riskiest route.

On Saturday, the decision had terrible consequences. He and longtime friend David Reinhart of Lake Oswego, Ore., died, likely from complications of altitude sickness. Only Eric's twin brother, Greg Nourse of Portland, Ore., survived.

http://climbing.about.com/b/2013/01/03/ ... merica.htm

Geez, that's too bad. Planning on heading there at the end of the month.

Definitely gonna bring a GPS now after reading that. Would hate not to be able to find my way in the dark on a mountain like that.

These tragedies happen all the time - take your time to get used to the elevation and turn around before summit if it's getting late.
I wanted to warn everybody who is about to climb Aconcagua about Aconcagua Trek company. DO NOT GO WITH ACONCAGUA TREK – it’s almost a scam. We bought mules service from them and on the way down they must have not secured our bags and as a result we have damages of over 1000 USD worth of equipment. And they refuse to pay us back! The damages include:
- backpack completely torn into pieces
- solid Northface bag damaged
- goggles broken
- solar battery broken
- some items from the backpack are missing, most expensive and troublesome are corrective glasses (also a swiss army knife, a bottle of gas).

This company damaged our staff, lost some of our properties and refuses to take any responsibility.
Imagine if this happened on the way up – we wouldn’t even be able to leave the base camp.
So if you don’t want your climbing experience ruined choose other, more professional companies.

ktadajewska wrote:These tragedies happen all the time - take your time to get used to the elevation and turn around before summit if it's getting late.
I wanted to warn everybody who is about to climb Aconcagua about Aconcagua Trek company. DO NOT GO WITH ACONCAGUA TREK – it’s almost a scam. We bought mules service from them and on the way down they must have not secured our bags and as a result we have damages of over 1000 USD worth of equipment. And they refuse to pay us back! The damages include:
- backpack completely torn into pieces
- solid Northface bag damaged
- goggles broken
- solar battery broken
- some items from the backpack are missing, most expensive and troublesome are corrective glasses (also a swiss army knife, a bottle of gas).

This company damaged our staff, lost some of our properties and refuses to take any responsibility.
Imagine if this happened on the way up – we wouldn’t even be able to leave the base camp.
So if you don’t want your climbing experience ruined choose other, more professional companies.

Did you shop around and get the cheapest price you could? If so, you probably got what you paid for. When you are hiring local companies on the spot for limited services, it's not unreasonable to expect them to be careful with your gear, but expecting them to be insured or to pay for damages is a bit much. If you haven't left them much room for a profit margin, you're just paying for cheap labor, not guaranteed services. Still, the warning to others is very much appreciated.

ktadajewska, second thread I've seen you jump in to bash on AconTrek. OK, your opinion has been noted.

But how about we leave it out of this particular thread.

Two people died. Your goggles got broken.