Aconcagua Day 12: Summit Day!!!

In what has become a refrain, today was supposed to be a rest day at high camp, but around 10:15 AM when we noticed the wind has slowed down from the crazy 65-75 mph. Despite the lack of rest and two previous tough days carrying and moving to Camp 4, we made a quick decision to take advantage of the situation and go for it! This is it: SUMMIT DAY!!!

Climbing to the Summit of Cerro Aconcagua.

By 11 AM we had our summit packs ready and excitedly hit the trail up the mountain. We still encountered some wind but more in the range of 40 mph. We started climbing the surprisingly steep slope up to Refigio Independencia at approximately 21,400’. We were feeling great but the steepness and the rough scree slippery terrain made our climb very difficult, it seemed for every step forward we took, we took two steps back.

Taking a food and hydration break on Summit Day.

We continued climbing in 1.5 hours increments and taking 5-10 minutes breaks to eat and drink. We later encountered a big ice patch leading up the base on the Canaleta, we stopped and put our crampons on to cross safely. We can now feel it, we are so close to our objective.

Joe Ashkar standing on top of Cerro Aconcagua, the highest peak in the Americas and outside of Asia.

We kept climbing the very steep and rocky traverse on the West Face leading to the big rock refuge at the Canaleta. At this point we knew that if we get past it, we should be home free to the summit. The Canaleta is much more difficult than I expected but we kept plowing through and suddenly here we are, on the top of Cerro Aconcagua and the highest point of the Americas.

We stepped on the summit at 5:35 PM. We had the summit all to ourselves. The 360 degree view from the top of the Americas and highest mountain outside of Asia was absolutely spectacular. You could see the Andes Mountains and several 20,000 ft peaks. To the west you could peak into Chile and the Pacific Ocean, and to the east, the plains of Argentina. Not to be missed was the dramatic view down the 9,000’ South Face of Aconcagua, considered one of the great faces of the world.

Joe Ashkar & Garrett Madison celebrating on the summit of Aconcagua.

We celebrated, enjoyed the moment, took some pictures and videos before starting the long way back. It was almost as hard descending the scree and Canaleta but we plowed through it using the remaining energy we had left and rolled into high camp at 8:20 PM, very exhausted but with a euphoric feeling of great accomplishment. After all, we were only the 7th, 8th and 9th climbers to successfully summit this season.