The FitzGerald expedition to Aconcagua

Matthias Zurbriggen · 1896 CE – 1897 CE · Earth

The FitzGerald expedition to Aconcagua — Matthias Zurbriggen · 1896 CE – 1897 CE · Earth — Recorded expedition route · schematic map

In FitzGerald's own order, triangulate the country round Aconcagua and then make the first ascent of the peak; from mid-December they knew that a German party from Santiago meant to try the mountain too.

Historical context

Some 500 years ago the Inca buried a child in sacrifice high on the south-western flank of Aconcagua, the highest mountain outside Asia. The first recorded attempt on the summit was made from Chile in 1883 by the Berlin explorer Paul Güssfeldt with Chilean companions; by his own figures he came within about 400 metres of the top. In December 1896 Edward FitzGerald, an American-born climber with a British father, brought to the Horcones valley the Swiss guide Matthias Zurbriggen, four Alpine porters and a cook, the geologist Stuart Vines, the naturalist Philip Gosse and Alan de Trafford, with arrieros from Mendoza and their mules, to triangulate the country round the peak and then climb it. FitzGerald fell sick high on the mountain on every attempt; on 14 January 1897 Zurbriggen went on alone.

The voyage, step by step

  1. Puente del Inca

    11 December 1896

    Back from two fruitless days up the Vacas valley, FitzGerald rides up to Inca on the night of 11 December 1896 and moves his camp there, beside the post road from Argentina to Chile; it stays his headquarters for seven months. His party of ten, as Zurbriggen lists it, is FitzGerald, Alan de Trafford, the geologist Stuart Vines, the naturalist Philip Gosse, the cook Fritz Weibel, the porters Nicola Lanti of Macugnaga, Joseph and Louis Pollinger and Joseph Lochmatter, and Zurbriggen himself. Twenty mules and a bell mare come from the arriero Tomas Sosa of Mendoza and his son.

  2. Alone up the Horcones

    18 December 1896

    At seven in the morning of 18 December Zurbriggen leaves Puente del Inca with the young muleteer Tomas Sosa, his own horse and two mules, to find a way up from the Horcones valley. In front of the mountain he faces a precipice he puts at eight or nine thousand feet in his report to FitzGerald, and at more than three thousand in his memoir: not that way. He sends the muleteer home and rides on alone round the mountain.

  3. Christmas at 17,000 feet

    25 December 1896

    Two days before Christmas FitzGerald leaves Inca with Zurbriggen, four porters, two horses and ten mules, fords the Horcones again and again, and at about four in the afternoon forms a camp at 14,000 feet at the snout of the Horcones glacier. They sleep that night in the open at 16,000 feet. Next day they struggle up slopes of loose stones and pitch a small tent at about 17,000 feet, and there they wake on Christmas morning.

  4. Güssfeldt's card

    26 December 1896

    On 26 December, while the porters carry the tent up to the camp at 18,700 feet, Zurbriggen sets out at nine in the morning to prospect towards the peak. Coming back, he notices at about 21,000 feet some stones that look piled up by human hands. Inside is a tin box with a card, which he copied as: A. C. Segunda Subida, della Serra Aconcagua, Dr. Paul Güssfeldt, Berlin, 5 März 1883.

  5. Frozen feet at the high camp

    31 December 1896

    On 30 December the party goes up from the camp at 12,000 feet to the high camp at 18,700 feet, where the wood will not burn, and spends a bad night at six degrees Fahrenheit. Setting out at a quarter to six the next morning, Zurbriggen walks fast to warm his feet, and half an hour later admits that he can no longer feel them at all.

  6. Under the water

    2 January 1897

    On 2 January 1897, coming down from the high camp, FitzGerald, Zurbriggen and the arriero Tomas Sosa reach the first ford some three hours below the camp at 14,000 feet. The torrent, swollen by the afternoon melt, runs over the back of the arriero's horse. In midstream Zurbriggen turns his mule's head downstream, and the animal loses its balance and rolls over with him.

  7. Alone on the summit

    14 January 1897

    On 14 January 1897 FitzGerald, Zurbriggen and the porters Lanti and young Pollinger leave the high camp at seven, by FitzGerald's account, after a large breakfast of meat; Zurbriggen took some chocolate. They reach Güssfeldt's cairn in about two and a half hours and at half past twelve stop to make soup below the final peak. At one o'clock FitzGerald is sick again, and Zurbriggen goes on alone. He reaches the summit of Aconcagua, by his own account, at 4:45 in the afternoon.

  8. Vines and Lanti

    13 February 1897

    On Saturday 13 February 1897 FitzGerald, Stuart Vines and the porter Nicola Lanti leave the high camp at about half past eight. Before ten, at some 20,000 feet, FitzGerald collapses and begs Vines to go on. Vines and Lanti reach the summit at two minutes past five and find Zurbriggen's stone man with an ice axe planted in it: the second ascent of Aconcagua.

Outcome

Zurbriggen alone on the summit at 4:45 p.m. on 14 January 1897, by his own account, after FitzGerald turned back sick; Stuart Vines and the porter Nicola Lanti made the second ascent on 13 February, and Vines and Zurbriggen the first of Tupungato on 12 April. FitzGerald never reached either summit.

Matthias Zurbriggen

A guide from Macugnaga who climbed on four continents for rich employers and, on 14 January 1897, went on alone from his sick patron to make the first recorded ascent of Aconcagua, the highest point outside Asia.

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Sources

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