Aconcagua: Highest Trek in the World - A Trekker's Guidebook

Complete guide to climbing Aconcagua (6962m), highest peak outside the Himalayas and one of the most accessible. Route descriptions up the Normal and Vacas Valley (Polish Glacier) routes, plus trekking routes in the Argentinian and Chilean southern Andes. Copious practical information on preparation and strategies for the ascent.

There is only one other guidebook to Aconcagua – R.J. Secor’s Aconcagua, A Climbing Guide, published by The Mountaineers in the USA (first published 1994). The book has many black-and-white photographs.

The Bradt Trekking Guide to Chile and Argentina by Tim Burford contains a nine-page chapter on Aconcagua.

Franz Schubert and Malte Sieber, both German climbers living in Chile, are authors of Adventure Handbook – Central Chile (2002), documenting 23 trekking tours in the Chilean Andes. This excellent book is published by Viachile Editores (email malte@contactchile.cl), and may not be readily available in the West.

The Rough Guides are excellent publications for getting around countries such as Chile and Argentina: The Rough Guide to Argentina by Danny Aeberhard, Andrew Benson and Lucy Phillips (2000); The Rough Guide to Chile by Melissa Graham (2003).

Wayne Bernhardson is the author of a very good guide to Chile, part of the Moon Handbooks series.

Although it may be hard to get hold of, The Highest Alps – A Record of the First Ascent of Aconcagua and Tupungato, and the Exploration of the Surrounding Valleys, by E.A. Fitzgerald (1899), published by Methuen, is a wonderful study of the area, despite its age.

The Secretaria de Mineria de la Nacion in Argentina published a brief paper in English by Victor Ramos: Geology of the Cordillera Principal (1994). A larger, comprehensive treatise on geology, Geologica de la Region de Aconcagua (by the same author), was published in Spanish by Dir Nac De Servicio Geologica (1996).

Medicine for Mountaineers by James Wilkerson is published by The Mountaineers (1992). The Mountaineers also publish Mountain Sickness by Peter Hackett (1980). The Use of Diamox in the Prevention of Acute Mountain Sickness by Frank Hubble was published in The Wilderness Medicine Newsletter (March/April edition, 1995).