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

Make the first ascent of Aconcagua and survey the high Andes around it before a rival German party arrived.

Historical context

Aconcagua was known to be the highest mountain outside Asia, and the Berlin professor Paul Güssfeldt had reached about 6,400 metres on it in 1883 before turning back. In December 1896 Edward FitzGerald, a rich young Englishman who had just climbed in New Zealand with the Swiss guide Matthias Zurbriggen, brought a party of nine with a geologist, a surveyor and six Alpine guides and porters to the Horcones valley. FitzGerald was sick above 6,000 metres on every attempt; on 14 January 1897 he sent his guide on alone.

The voyage, step by step

  1. Puente del Inca

    11 December 1896

    In December 1896 FitzGerald's party of nine, with the geologist Stuart Vines, the porter Nicola Lanti of Macugnaga and Zurbriggen as chief guide, makes its base at the hotel of Puente del Inca, on the post road from Argentina to Chile. Twenty mules bring up the stores.

  2. Alone up the Horcones

    15 December 1896

    Zurbriggen asks leave to find a route by himself, buys three horses at Vacas, and rides up the Horcones valley with a muleteer, a tent and provisions. Confronted by a vertical wall of more than three thousand feet, he rides seven hours round the peak and finds it can be climbed over a col.

  3. Christmas in the Horcones

    25 December 1896

    The cavalcade of porters, horses and mules sets out on 23 December, fording the swollen torrent again and again, and on Christmas Day makes its base camp at about 4,250 metres in the Horcones valley. Higher up every one of the young porters is taken ill in the thin air, and FitzGerald with them.

  4. Under the water

    26 December 1896

    Retreating to Inca in a single day, the party has to ford the turbid river after midday when it is swollen with glacier melt. Zurbriggen's mule, too small for the current, falls three times; the third time he is swept more than a hundred yards under water before a stone lets him drag himself out.

  5. Güssfeldt's card

    26 December 1896

    Reconnoitring above the high camp on 26 December, Zurbriggen notices at about 21,000 feet a pile of stones that looks piled by human hands. Inside is a tin box with a card: A. C. Segunda Subida, Dr Paul Güssfeldt, Berlin, 5 March 1883.

  6. Frozen feet at the high camp

    31 December 1896

    On 30 December the party goes up from the 12,000-foot camp to the high camp at 18,700 feet and spends a bad night at six degrees Fahrenheit. Setting out the next morning Zurbriggen walks fast to warm his feet and discovers he can no longer feel them at all.

  7. Alone on the summit

    14 January 1897

    On 14 January 1897, after chocolate at five in the morning, they climb very slowly and by midday are less than 1,700 feet below the top, where FitzGerald feels ill, waits an hour, and turns back. He sends Zurbriggen on alone, and the guide reaches the summit of Aconcagua at 4:45 in the afternoon.

  8. Vines and Lanti

    13 February 1897

    A month later, on 13 February 1897, after FitzGerald has collapsed once more, Stuart Vines and the porter Nicola Lanti go on and make the second and third ascents of Aconcagua. Vines and Zurbriggen then make the first ascent of Tupungato.

Outcome

Zurbriggen alone on the summit at 4:45 p.m. on 14 January 1897 after FitzGerald turned back sick; Stuart Vines and Nicola Lanti made the second ascent on 13 February, and Vines and Zurbriggen the first of Tupungato.

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 stand first on the summit of Aconcagua, the highest point outside Asia.

Read on Wikipedia

Sources

Continue exploring