Milestone 3 Details
Milestone 3. Mountain Reality: Playa Ancha to Plaza de Mulas
How did you like Plaza Francia? Hopefully you enjoyed stretching your legs and getting used to the vertical challenge, because this next segment is where the actual hard work starts on Aconcagua. Your next task is to reach Plaza de Mulas (Square of the Mules), Aconcagua’s fabled basecamp at 14,379ft above sea level. To get there, you need to climb a total of 3,681 ft.
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EXTRA INFO ON MILESTONE #3
Plaza de Mulas owes its name to the fact that this is how far the mules take cargo on the mountain: above Plaza de Mulas, climbers are on their own. Plaza de Mulas is rumored to be the second largest basecamp in the world, second only to Everest. That may or may not be true, but this semi-permanent tent city in thin air is a sight to behold. Here you can find bars, wifi, shower facilities, and even an art gallery. Sunday is asado (BBQ) day, and this Argentinian custom is honored even at 14,000ft. Grilled steak & red wine is a welcome weekly tradition at basecamp.
To reach Plaza de Mulas, expedition climbers have to pass through Playa Ancha (“the wide beach”), a massive barren glacial valley that continues uninterrupted for almost ten miles. The trek from Confluencia to Plaza de Mulas takes most climbers 7-9 hours, and is commonly considered the second-most difficult day of an expedition - eclipsed only by summit day.
Bonus challenge: Load carry! Thanks to mule support, expedition climbers typically only carry their “light” day-packs from Confluencia to Plaza de Mulas - water, food & personal items, plus whatever gear exceeds the climber’s mule cargo allotment of 20kg (44lbs). For extra credit, complete Milestone #3 while carrying two gallons of water (~17lbs) which is a realistic estimate of how heavy an expedition climber’s pack would be on this section of the Aconcagua expedition.
*Sunny's story about Playa Ancha:
I have hiked Playa Ancha more times than I can count - in both directions, and at all times of the day and night. My most memorable traverse of Playa Ancha happened in February 2018, when I became the first woman to circumnavigate and summit the mountain in one single 47.5hr push. During this speed record, as I was finishing up the circumnavigation after summiting, I had to cross Playa Ancha in the middle of the night, on my own, after I had already been on-the-go nonstop for close to 40 hours. Interestingly enough, I came across another hiker in the dark who was traveling the opposite direction - a strange occurrence, since nobody should be out there in the night unless you are trying to set a speed record… What was even more strange is that the hiker, who was maybe 25 yards off to the side on a slightly different trail than me, made no effort to make contact with me. When I mentioned this encounter to the rangers the next day, they suggested I had seen a ghost — which I thought was meant to be a joke.
A year later, I came across an article in Rock and Ice that talked about Eric Bender and Adolfo Benegas, two climbers who had vanished on the South Face of Aconcagua in 1990. The article also talked about how Eric Bender’s ghost was rumored to be haunting Playa Ancha, and how encounters typically happened to solo climbers in the middle of the night. Now if that isn’t creepy, tell me what is!
If you want to hear the full story of my ghost encounter in Playa Ancha, check out this podcast episode from the Firn Line (fast forward to 24mins for the beginning of the Aconcagua segment).
