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Aconcagua Expedition 2001

Climbing the Polish Direct route on the highest mountain of America

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Hasta la cumbre!
(the east side of the mountain with the Polish glacier)

picture credit: SAP Expedition

On February 8th, 2001, my brazilian climbing-mate Gustavo Porto de Mello and I reached the summit of Aconcagua (6960m), the highest mountain of the Americas. We climbed the Polish glacier direct route and not the normal Polish glacier route due to better snow/ice conditions there (see picture below for the different routes). Our third team member Mario Arredondo (Chile) reached the summit by the False Polish route on the same day.

The Route:

The Polish Glacier Route (click to enlarge)
The green line (Nr.12) shows the 'classic' route opened by a Polish team in the 1930's, who were the first to climb the glacier.
We climbed the 'direct' variation of it, the red line (Nr.13) in the picture. The direct route became more and more popular during the years and we also found better snow/ice conditions there. It also allows to reach the summit in 1 day from camp II (5900m) at the base of the glacier (the climb is steeper though).

picture credit: World Mountaineering

Link to the offical Aconcagua website: