Ascenso en Argentina: Los mejores programas al aire libre te esperan

This review was for a guide (Gaston Lopez) sent by Hernan. This was the worst guiding I've experienced on any trip taken over the last 8 years on over a dozen trips around the world. Numerous issues that you would not expect from a guide who's been certified for 12+ years. The most significant being: suggested I could wear normal hiking boots on a 6016 meter mountain (Nevado San Francisco) when I've always worn doubles on 6000 and even on cold 5000 meter mountains. An inexperienced person could have had foot issues/frost bite as it was cold the day we summited. Not knowing the route on Ojos - he suggested we try for the summit at 13:30 after moving from Arenal to the higher camp, but couldn't provide an answer when I asked what the average time was for people to summit when leaving from the high camp. We eventually had to turn around from this summit attempt because he seriously misjudged the timing and lost the route during our ascent. After this failed attempt, he said we'd make another attempt the following morning and that it would take maybe 7 hours up and 5 hours down, meaning we'd need to leave by 8:00 at the absolute latest to make it back before dark. The next morning he was still sleeping at 7:00, and hadn't mentioned anything about departure time the night before, so I left before him and led myself up to the plateau before he caught up and we went the rest of the way together. By this point I had lost all confidence in his guiding ability, advice, and planning, so I made the decision to leave on my own for the summit because I knew he wasn't leaving me enough time by sleeping in. Other issues: every time this guide verbalized the itinerary, it was different (he was clearly very disorganized and lacked basic planning skills); this was the worst and cheapest food I've experienced on any trip. Example: after an 11-hour summit day, we had canned lentils, canned vegetables, rice, tuna, and tomatoes mixed together for dinner vs. other teams that ate grilled meat, stir fry, hamburgers, tacos, etc. There was also inadequate/low quality breakfast of cookies and cereal only, as opposed to other teams eating eggs, toast with jam & peanut butter, bread/chapati, etc.; of all the guided teams at Las Grutas, we didn't have paperwork for the car to get past the gendarmie post so we had to get a ride from someone else to Nevado (shows poor planning and logistics); pacing was not great and he was so far ahead of me most of the time that he had no idea what my pace was, not to mention this is a dangerous practice in terms of keeping an eye on your client; guide had no hand sanitizer and didn't wash hands when preparing food; guide incorrectly told me I was developing HAPE because of a cough I tend to get at altitude but my oxsat was 83% and resting heart rate was ~95 bpm at 5500 meters.

This was truly a wonderful two days, I had one objective which was to experience altitude prior to beginning a long high altitude expedition in the coming days. Joaquin curated the two days around this objective and we headed to an area off the beaten track. I just loved this and feel so fortunate to have experienced this area, the Guanaco's were fascinating and I just loved watching them and spotting them in the mountains. Joaquin provided me with so much knowledge and useful tips to help me during my expedition. The two days ended in an unexpected storm which just added to the fun and really rounded out what was one of the most memorable hikes I have done to date. Next time I'm back in Mendoza I will definitely call on Joaquin again.

Destino Montana was a superb guiding service. I would highly recommend them!

Overall, this was a fantastic hike. You get some astonishing views and can take different routes according to your fitness level and interest. Personally, I enjoyed our quick stay at the high camp where we got to meet several people who were acclimatising for their ascends to the higher peaks. Also, we really enjoyed the time with Joaquin. Thanks to his fun personality and intersting conversations (also fluent in English which helped in my case) the time together went by way too quickly. Even before the beginning of the trip he gave us a lot of proactive advise when we wanted to choose a route that suited our demands and later he helped us with finding places to get some extra gear. During the trip and thanks to Joaquins deep knowledge of the region, he was able to adapt the route we were taking when my friend suffered from some altitude sickness. Also, a big plus was the great food that we had during the trip, including some (fantastic!) homemade carrot mayo and the asado we prepared on the first evening which was the best meal we had in Argentina.

Mojon Rojo was my second climb with Merlin (I climbed Cerro Electrico with him 2 days earlier.) But it was like climbing with your old friend. I had an amazing time climbing with him. His climbing skills and knowledge are top notch. I can’t wait to climb more peaks in Patagonia with him.