(not) Topping Aconcagua

The boys are back, the data's in, and everyone who has ever laid claim to scaling the highest peak in the Western Hemisphere can breathe a sigh of relief. Turns out, after dragging high-tech GPS gear and a large marble plaque(!) up Ojos del Salado and Pisis volcanoes in Chile and Argentina, that Aconcagua is still the highest peak in the Americas. But not by much. Aconcagua is 6,950 meters and the newest reading for Ojos del Salado is 6,934. For you non-metric provincials get out your graphing calculator and multiply by 3.3.

Ojos del Salado is just 16 meters short of Aconcagua, but they did verify that it is the highest volcano in the world. You can read about it in civilized metric French here: http://www.lepetitjournal.com/content/view/14956/1221/

Although it was a Franco-Chilean expedition and they hired a Chilean guiding company it was a good thing they had some foreigners in the group as the only ones to make the summit were a Frenchman, a German, and mi gran amigo Mexicano - El Loco. Temps were -25 and winds were 100 km per hour.

In the end it's a good thing as the task of relocating all the beer tents from Aconcagua's base camp would have been formidable.