Why Choose Aventuras Patagonicas?
We have the highest success rate on the mountain. 80% of our climbers and 90% of our expeditions are successful in reaching the summit.
Check our our success rate page for more information.
We believe that you will find no other guiding company which offers you a better quality Aconcagua Expedition, nor a safer way to ascend the mountain than what we offer.
Aventuras Patagonicas is synonymous with success and quality when it comes to Aconcagua Expeditions. In the last 40 years, we have led over 400 expeditions.
We have THE MOST EXPERIENCE ON THE MOUNTAIN having led more expeditions to Aconcagua than anyone in the world.
Most of our lead guides are certified by the AMGA and are North American Mountain Guides. Occasionally, we also employ highly qualified local assistant mountain guides who have proven to be invaluable assets to expeditions. We firmly believe in the importance of having North American professional mountain guides for several reasons. While our clientele come from various parts of the world, many are from North America. The mountain guiding standards in North America are exceptionally high due to the competitive nature of the industry. This demands that guides adhere to increasingly stringent standards of professionalism and safety. Our guides possess extensive guiding experience. We meticulously select our guides to ensure they meet these elevated standards, prioritizing safety and expertise in high-altitude mountain guiding to deliver a quality mountaineering experience.
Offering expeditions to Aconcagua is common, but ensuring quality and safety standards is crucial, much like in other major professions such as medicine, law, or aviation. Unfortunately, some companies cut costs by subcontracting services to local agencies, compromising the quality and control of mountaineering expeditions. When entrusting your life and safety to guides for an entire expedition, you should expect nothing less than the highest standards.
Aconcagua's allure attracts climbers and guides worldwide, making it a popular destination. However, unlike some other regions, Argentinean authorities do not require guiding standards or certification for Aconcagua. This lack of regulation allows virtually anyone to lead expeditions on the mountain, posing safety risks. While competition raises standards, the absence of quality control in guiding processes jeopardizes safety. Aconcagua, despite its friendly approach and non-technical climbs, presents serious challenges. Its accessibility and relatively warm conditions can lull inexperienced climbers into complacency. Yet, it remains a formidable objective with inherent risks, contributing to numerous fatalities and cases of frostbite each year.
Despite the mountain's challenges, we have maintained 40 safe and successful seasons, prioritizing our clients' safety at every step. When approached professionally, Aconcagua can be a safe mountain to climb. However, the increasing number of new guiding companies and inexperienced guides underscores the importance of choosing your guiding company wisely.
Regular Aconcagua trips are 20 days long. In 2010 we pioneered a new way to climb the mountain that has proven to be the most successful. We shaved off 10 days of the climb to introduce our Aconcagua 12 Day Expedition. By having our clients use a Hypoxic tent at home for 4-6 weeks before their climb, we ensure that they arrive on the mountain pre-acclimatized. This enables us to ascend faster without risking our client's health and well-being - a true game changer!
Building on this expedition type, we also now offer clients the opportunity to use supplemental oxygen on their summit day. This provides an added advantages and has enabled us to achieve even higher success rates than we initially thought we possible on Aconcagua!
Since our inception, AVENTURAS PATAGONICAS has prioritized offering less crowded routes on Aconcagua. In the mid-80s, we pioneered guiding through the Vacas and Relinchos Valleys, utilizing Plaza Argentina as our Base Camp. Avoiding the overcrowded Normal Route, which sees thousands of climbers each season, we aimed to provide our clients with a spectacular non-technical route devoid of crowds. For several years, we intentionally avoided the Normal Route due to its overcrowding, opting instead to guide it with porter support for those who prefer this method.
In 1997, our Director, Rodrigo Mujica, discovered the untouched Guanacos Valley, which became our primary route for approaching and climbing Aconcagua for many seasons. This route, known as the Guanacos Valley Route, offered gradual elevation gain between camps, facilitating better acclimatization. However, access to the lower Guanacos Valley is now restricted by the Aconcagua Park Service. Consequently, we now use a variation of our Relinchos Valley route, named the Ameghino/Upper Guanacos Route, which provides an excellent alternative route for adequate acclimatization.
In the early '90s, we introduced the Aconcagua Summit Climb and Traverse Expedition to offer our clients a unique experience. This traverse, ascending the Vacas and Relinchos Valleys Route, traversed the mountain at the base of the Polish Glacier before descending the Normal Route. Today, this traverse remains a favorite among our clients, offering a comprehensive journey through the mountain's varied landscapes.
AVENTURAS PATAGONICAS, has always been ahead on equipment standards. We believe it is necessary to use the best equipment available in the industry to succeed on the mountain. Not only do we use the best equipment, but we renew our equipment at the end of each season to keep our equipment in excellent condition. We have also proven to be ahead in communications on the mountain every trip departing with a satellite phone and plenty of batteries. We use top quality radios to communicate with Aconcagua Park Rangers and Park Authorities. Most guiding companies do not make this a priority and have just radios, unable to communicate by phone from higher elevations. This is key in the event of an emergency, logistical changes, and simply to call your loved ones, which you can do any time on the mountain. We have state of the art portable satellite phones with us at all times, available for you to call anywhere in the world if needed (a charge for the calls will apply).
We mentioned the importance of high quality equipment, but we do not believe in bringing up a mountain everything available since that would be heavy and inefficient. We believe in selecting the best possible gear for the task, still keeping it to a minimum. We bring to Base Camp a Gamow Bag, and use pulse oximeters to measure accurate blood oxygen saturation and pulse rate, monitoring clients’ acclimatization in every camp.
We contract with a local helicopter company for direct medical evacuation to the best hospitals in either Santiago or Mendoza in case of a life threatening medical emergency. This privilege is difficult for the public to attain in this region.
I believe our prices are among some of the most reasonable out there, considering the high quality of our expeditions. This is a 20 day expedition in which we provide; professional mountain guides, 2 nights hotel accommodations in Mendoza at the five-star Mendoza Park-Hyatt Hotel, all land transportation, mules, all expedition food, and all community gear (tents, stoves, cooking gear, medical kit, radios, etc).
We do not cut corners. We have the best possible mountain guides for your expedition, the best possible accommodations in Mendoza and Penitentes (a total of 4 hotel nights), the best possible private transportation to and from Penitentes, and the best mule operators on the mountain.
Our guides choose the finest food available for our expeditions. This is an area we feel it is very important to provide excellent quality and quantity. We often have guides who are gourmet cooks and provide fresh fruit, meat, vegetables, and Chilean or Argentinean wine for the beginning of each expedition.
Many other guiding services subcontract to local agencies, have a poor guide to client ratio of 1:5 or 1:6 to save on cost, cover only 2 nights accommodation in a 2 star hotel in Santiago or Mendoza, use public transportation, have a tight budget for food – since they are subcontracting, use very old gear with multiple season use, and ironically enough may charge the same or even more. You will clearly notice that with AVENTURAS PATAGONICAS, most of your money goes directly into your trip. We are a small business. Your money does not go into high office expenses, staff salaries, etc, but instead directly into YOUR trip!
Having a high guide to client ratio is essential to the success of a trip, especially on Summit Day, when so many variables arise and the number of guides, play a critical part in the success of an expedition. If for any reason a member needs to descend, or a slower pace is required for part of the team, having multiple guides is a most powerful tool. Decisions on group management are constantly changing, especially on summit day, depending on such situations as weather, group strength, rhythm, etc.
We use a 1:2 guide to client ratio for technical routes and a 1:3 ratio for non-technical routes. We can customize trips of any size, though on an average our trips have 9- 10 people, with 3, or sometimes even 4 guides!
Imagine being on a trip to Aconcagua with 10 other clients and only one Guide…things could go well all the way to Base Camp, and maybe even Camp One, if everything goes smoothly, and with lots of good luck, but summit day could potentially be a disaster. One small problem, and the entire group would have to abort the summit. We have seen this happen time and time again. I have literally seen, on the Normal Route, groups as large as 17 people with ONLY one GUIDE! This is something that we are unable to comprehend…the margin for error is too high in such a situation. Safety is extremely compromised and the chance of reaching the summit is much lower.
We have mentioned the importance of having North American mountain guides with a wide range of experience. Interestingly enough, Aventuras Patagonicas Director/Owner Rodrigo Mujica was born in Chile only 100 miles from Aconcagua. Rodrigo has lived in the U.S.A. for 17 years. He is a professional mountain guide, with a wide range of high altitude mountaineer guiding experience around the world. He is fully certified by North American and European standards and brings a unique and unparalleled combination of knowledge and experience to Aconcagua expeditions. Rodrigo knows the mountain better than perhaps anyone. He is well known and well respected on the mountain. He has been on almost every face, side, and valley of Aconcagua, pioneering routes, and searching for new alternative routes on the mountain, in the forefront of offering new and interesting routes for his clients. It has been proven over and over the importance of having previous local experience, and bringing with it international guiding experience and standards when dealing with quality logistics, pre-logistics, city arrangements, transportation, customs, mule arrangements, weather, and many other aspects of the Aconcagua climb.
We have literally seen time and time again, foreign guides unable to deal with the simplest logistical complications at customs and borders, with mule arrangements, hotels, etc. Circumstances in which Aventuras Patagonicas guides, and especially Rodrigo, can say just a few words and things happen very quickly. The respect and experience Rodrigo and Aventuras Patagonicas commands in these areas, has proved invaluable over the years.
After 40 seasons of guiding expeditions on Aconcagua, we have developed an incredible relationship with the local people, mountaineers, Park Service Authorities, Local Agencies, Park Rangers, Muleteers, Hotel Owners, etc. This aspect makes us unique. Our success speaks for itself, as today Aventuras Patagonicas is the most successful and well respected guiding service on Aconcagua.
We can provide porters on every route. Porter arrangement can be made at Base Camp. Porter service fees are NOT included in the expedition cost.
We are a small guiding company and intend to stay this way. This is the only way we can personalize each one of our climbs. However, we highly believe that by staying small, and not delegating every aspect of the expedition, a high level of quality can be maintained. We have chosen to specialize, and remain small so that we can continue to pay attention to details and to the art of high altitude mountain guiding.
You can talk, at almost any time, directly to our director, Rodrigo Mujica, to answer your questions concerning your Aconcagua Expedition. While he is guiding, Rodrigo maintains close contact with the office, almost daily, via e-mail or sat phone. We encourage you to call him, and he will contact you back in less than 24 to 36 hrs when possible, no matter where he is guiding in the world.
We have a reliable and updated reference list of previous Aventuras Patagonicas clients whom you may contact via e-mail or phone. Their comments will be one of your best sources of information! | View our Client References
