Aconcagua

Equipment and supplies are carried up to base camps by mules, which can carry around 60 kg. in packsaddles specially designed to fasten bags and plastic containers. If the luggage is to be delivered at the agreed place and time, it is essential to hire someone experienced, responsible and with some backup. Reliable companies need enough animals to carry the luggage, muleteers to lead them, a reception post at the starting point (Penitentes or Puente del Inca), a responsible person to receive the luggage and a reception post at its destination.

It is important, then, to trust our equipment to someone who will be responsible for the overall logistics.

Before closing up a deal, make sure the company you are hiring has enough back up to meet any needs that might appear either during the approach or during the stay up the mountain, someone in charge who you can contact through the phone or radio, enough mules in good shape, vehicles for transfers to the spots where approaches start and posts at the different base camps.

Finally, companies which offer logistics at Aconcagua Park are authorized by the DRNR.

When it comes to logistics we should not think about saving money. A mule exhausted by excess of work may be carried away by the current in a river or lose its balance and roll down a cliff, causing an important loss of personal or general gear, supplies, etc. All of this means not only a waste of money, but also the impossibility to use the lost items for the rest of the expedition.

Accidents like that do happen, but one must make sure that the company hired is a reliable, efficient one, capable of solving any possible problems, in order to ensure that the expedition will go as planned.