Keeping Order on the Mountain

About 3,000 to 4,000 individuals register to climb Cerro Aconcagua each year according to park records (2,176 so far this climbing season). Although we have not been able to find exact statistics, we're told that about 1/3, or 1,000 successfully summit of those who register - the Guardaparques and other park personnel told us it's difficult to keep accurate stats on this.

Checking in prior to entering the Park

This kind of usage puts quite a large strain on the wilderness ecosystem. In our reading in preparation for our trip, there were widely varying accounts of the climbing experience, with older reports telling of a very dirty environment with human waste behind every rock, and little regard for maintaining the quality of the wilderness. In later accounts we read that in recent years the Provincial Park Authority has been making a concerted effort to institute controls to return the park to as pristine an environment as possible, given the impact of the high amount of visitors. Indeed, we found that the efforts undertaken have been quite effective, and we were, for the most part impressed with the quality of the environment.

The Park Authority has done this in a number of ways. First, they have substantially raised the climbing fees to perhaps lower the impact (number of climbers), and to provide more personnel - prior to our arrival we were expecting a climbing registration fee of 2,000 Argentinian Pesos; in fact we learned on our arrival that the fees had just been raised to 3,000 Pesos (US$750) for foreign climbers! Next, at registration at the Park entrance everyone is issued a numbered trash bag that needs to be turned in to a climber's contracted mule outfitter at the end of the stay in the Park, subject to hefty fine if the weight of said bag does not meet some prescribed minimum weight. Finally, when climbers reach Base Camp, they must register with the Guardaparques to climb higher, and are issued a numbered "MF" (Material Fecal) bag - or as the on-duty Guardaparque eloquently termed in our Spanglish registration conversation, a shit-bag. On leaving Base Camp the MF bag must be turned into the Guardaparques in the checkout process whereby it is somehow gauged to be of sufficient volume or weight to correspond with the time spent on the mountain, and placed in large barrels that are helicoptered off the mountain at regular intervals in good weather.

Helicopter ferrying supplies and/or waste in or out of Base Camp

On entering the Park and getting into position to climb, there are two locations, Camp Confluencia and Plaza de Mulas/Base Camp where all climbers are mandatorily examined by resident doctors conducting a battery of tests including blood-oxygen saturation level, pulse rate, blood pressure, lung function and subjective opinion based on observations and questioning. We weren't sure if a doc can prevent a climber from proceeding further, but everyone seemed to take their counsel very seriously.

Preparing to check in with the Guardaparques at Confluencia

As far as we were concerned, all of these control elements resulted in an impressively clean environment and well-managed experience. The quantity of Guardaparques was adequate (on summit day we ran into one at the base of the infamous 1,000 vertical ft (300 m) Canaletta, conversing with climbers, and admonishing those who were too exhausted to continue, to turn back. We feel certain that current written accounts of climbing Cerro Aconcagua will not include cautionary reports of a dirty environment and inadequate staffing.