References
Clients websites
http://www.guide-des-andes.com/eng/inka_expediciones.htm
http://users.iafrica.com/s/so/solstice/aconcagua/guides.htm
Brandon Beagle
EXCELLENT EXPERIENCE. VERY OBVIOUS THAT INKA IS THE BEST ON THE MOUNTAIN!.............................
Linda Hagerdorn
This was an excellent experience for me, I knew what was expected each day, questions were answered, and any reasonable request that could be honored, was. The two guides were both very professional, kind, and respectful.
Francois Gultig
Tel. 0027117880154
I had a very pleasant experience. Inka’s infrastructure and organization on the mountain are way ahead of their competition – one can judge it easily by just observing how many climbers on the mountain consult your guys vs. others. Your guides need a special mention – these guys were brilliant. Their experience, enthusiasm and motivation under sometimes tricky circumstances helped me a lot. More importantly their concern for our safety and professional advice were of the utmost importance. I’m definitely planning a return trip to Aconcagua and if I use professional guides again will only consider Inka.
Jean Phillipe Pepin
Tel. ++514 704 9037
I really enjoyed my experience with Inka. The guides were competent and really funny. We had a great time with them….I think we had a great team of climbers with great attitude, which helps to enjoy the trip. I got up the summit and that was one of the best moment of my life, thanks to the experience of the guides! The pace during the climb was slower than other guiding company but was just perfect and made our climb easier. The guides insisted that we drink a lot of water to get well hydrated and acclimatized. I would definitely recommend Inka to my friends who want to climb Aconcagua. The tents, the food, the guides, the cooks, the help at the office and the hotel was over my expectations. Really, the amount paid to your guiding company was well invested and if one day you offer your expertise to climb other mountains, I would definitely book with you..
Mike Willmering
Tel ++ 316 831 9163
You guys are terrific. I would highly recommend INKA. The entire trip was perfect and the guides went above and beyond to keep us safe and comfortable.
Jack Marvin
Tel. ++ 316 2687931
The trip was one of the most amazing trips I have ever taken. All the people at Inka went way beyond the call of duty and became more than just guides. You are all true friends that we will never forget..
Jordan Clay
Tel. ++ 309 7358003
The guides were outstanding. The staff at Plaza Argentina was great. The food at base camp was great.
I would highly recommend INKA’s services to anyone interested. As far as I could see, INKA has the best program on the mountain.
Alan Taylor
Tel. ++61 1883640901
Regarding your survey it was all Very Good to Excellent and i wish INKA all the best. I have and will recommend to others especially the Guanacos Route with INKA... It was great to be on top of the world.
Wilhelm Möller
Tel. ++43 19132982
Paul Swienton
Everything was exceptional ¡!!! Would highly recommend Inka in the future. Mijel and Bouty were excellent guides and the food on the mountain was the best I have had on any expedition..Thanks Again!
Lim Kai Huat, Singapore
Tel: +654 792 217
“..my trip to Argentina was amongst one of the most positive experiences of my life, thanks to all the people who work for Inka (…) the trip was one of a lifetime, thanks to your professional and friendly staff”
Stephen Starr, EEUU
I climbed Aconcagua with Inka in January/February 2003 and had a fantastic experience. I have climbed in the US and in Ecuador, with Western and local guides, and Inka provided my best climbing experience ever.
As I decided with whom to climb Aconcagua, I checked into Western as well as Argentine guide services. I chose a local outfit as they provided comparable expeditions for a fraction of the price. From there, Inka was an easy choice after contacting references and talking with the company.
On the mountain my group had an edge over the international groups as our guide knew all of the rangers and muleteers, not to mention all of the secrets of the Stone Sentinel. Inka was also the top dog among the local outfits. The guide’s experience and care for our team allowed us to concentrate on the climb and have fun.
I highly recommend Inka and trust they help you reach your goals…they did for me!
Paul Swienton
Everything was exceptional ¡!!! Would highly recommend Inka in the future. Mijel and Bouty were excellent guides and the food on the mountain was the best I have had on any expedition.. Thanks Again!
David Lim, Singapore
INKA provided an excellent, friendly and flexible service for my group’s “ Argentina Adventurer” trek. You can contact me dave@mountain.com.sg or at www.mountain.com.sg for a referral or testimonial about INKA.
John Sandenbergh, Botswana
I was very happy with my experience with Inka, We were well taken care of, our guide continually inquired about our needs and our state of health, our acclimitization was well managed and as a result we had success...
Thore Brolin, Suecia
“… your expedition arrangements was very good. Your personal touch was excellent. The guide had many good stories to tell, and we all laughed. Although you did your best, I got sick and didn´t make it to the summit. If I will try it another time, I will for sure contact Inka again.”
Karen Saucier
”… I wanted to thank you again for making it possible for my daughter and I to take the trek into Aconcongua Park. WE had a fantastic time and our guide was great. The scenery, weather, hiking was all better than we had anticipated and it made for an adventure we will always remember.
Vassilis Stergiou, Greece
“This expedition was one of my greatest experiences and I think INKA played a major role on the successful completion of it. Everything was just right. I would like to thank all the people - especially our guides - for their unconditional help and the great laugh we had all day long."
Alan Swithenbank, British
“… we had a very enjoyable trip, due to a great extent to INKA’s excellent organisation and guide’s infectious enthusiasm. Our thanks to all at INKA.”
Ulli Gschwandtner, Austria
“ he work of your company was excellent, your stuff at the base camp was very good, friendly... we will recommend your company to everybody who is planning to climb aconcagua! Best regards!"
Todd V. Janeski, EEUU
“ INKA's guides provided us with great and exemplary services. They arranged a parrilla (Bar-b-que) with the arrieros (mulateers) on the approach and we had real food in all of our camps including our climbing days above base camp. They treated us not as clients or tourists, but as climbing compadres."
Tim Wilt, USA
Dear Sebastian, Alexia and everyone else at INKA:
Just wanted to let you know we all got back safely and to again thank you for your wonderful services and hospitality.
We had a great time in Argentina. The people we met, and country we saw, were wonderful. Your responsiveness, kindness, and hard work before and during our trip were truly appreciated. It helped make our climb a success and fun.
Again, thank you. We hope to meet again.
Gracias!!!
Mohammed Memon
"I just wanted to thank INKA team for your help, and for your professional work. I met Sebastian and Pablo in Mendoza, and Rolando at Los Penitentes, and they got me taken care of very quickly as well as helping me with lodging at the Mountain Shelter. Your staff at Plaza de Mulas was great as well. I met Federico and Fernando shortly after my arrival, and they were very friendly and helpful. Valerie cooked me some very good food during my time there..."
Paul Peterson
"Your services contributed significantly to the success of our expedition. Your employees strived to meet our needs and were knowledgable about climbing and the challenges on Aconcagua. Your communications were excellent both prior to the climb and during the climb. We knew what to expect as far as mules, food services, hotel accomidations, and shuttle services. Finally, I enjoyed the people of Mendoza. They were friendly and tried to make two Americans who didn’t know Sapnish feel at home. The entire experience in Argentina will be a lifetime memory and you helped make it happen, thanks."
Richard Feldman, USA
My Good Friends at Inka,
What really transformed the personal challenge of simply getting to the top into a really rockin’ good time was the terrific company of all the Inka people and our great group. While it goes without saying that Inka and its staff are supremely competent in providing the logistical and guide support every group needs, the effort they put out vastly exceeded all expectations. It was clear that they loved being in this spectacular place, and their deep appreciation for it quickly infected us too. I’ll never forget how my own deep satisfaction in reaching the top seemed exceeded only by our guide, Mauricio’s satisfaction in getting us there. Also, fresh steak and the home-made pizza nights at base camp were great and unexpected touches!
Sebastian, you’ve got a good thing going with Inka. The guides are the best, and the camp personnel, porters and office staff are great fun to be around. You’ve really dialed in all the logistical head-aches, which allowed us to focus entirely on enjoying the mountain.
Daniel Cuello, Argentina
Es un placer tener una compania como INKA Expediciones como encargada de la organización y despliege de expediciones ,ya que ofrece un alto nivel de profecionalismo y seriedad comercial a la disposicion del cliente. Gracias.
Ciao, john, Canada
Just wanted to write you and say "mucho gracias" for the trip! It exceeded all my expectations and I really enjoyed the whole thing.
The guides, especially Miguel, were just excellent. He and Bounty took every step to ensure not only our safety but as well our comfort. They cooked like 3 star chefs [ok, they had help!!]and were always making sure there was nothing we needed.
The summit day was awesome...I doubt I will ever forget the sunrise, the Canaletta [which was thankfully covered in snow!] and finally reaching the top.
Be well,your climbing friend.
Ing. Nelson Inostroza, Chile
Srs INKA Expediciones.
Junto con saludarles quiero agredecerles por los servicios prestados durante nuestra ascención al Cº Aconcagua, agradecer al personal de INKA que se encuentran en Confluencia y Plaza Mula por su buena acogida, además agradecer por responder a todas nuestras dudas previa a la expedición.
Maneeb Mellem
We had an excellent trip to Argentina. The country was beautiful and all of the people were very nice. We especailly appreciated the services of Pablo and the INKA staff at basecamp. Thank you for making the trip such a memorable one. We would certainly use INKA in the future.
Ryan Waters, USA
North Carolina Outward Bound School
Mountian Instructor
Inka friends,
I just wanted to say thankyou for your help on our expedition to Aconcagua. Inka Expediciones was a great help during our time in Argentina. I thought that the work you did was very professional and helpful, I did not anticipate all the extra help you would provide. I look forward to going back to the mountain again sometime and will be sure to recommend your company to other climbers I know who will need services.
Fernando Garrido, España
Guía de Alta Montaña UIAGM
Aragón Aventura Expediciones
I have been working with Inka from many years ago and they have a very good organization and they are very nice people. I never doubt to work with any other. If you need any other information please tell me.
Kevin Donnelly, USA
Thank you for a great trip. You run a great company.
When choosing a guide for Aconcagua it was important to me to chose a professional who was experienced not only in mountaineering, but with the culture of Argentina. While most U.S. companies bring U.S. guides, INKA provided local guides and staff. Instead of sitting at base camp with a bunch of Americans I was with locals who were very knowledgeable about the mountain, and prime beer establishments.
The story of my climb
"All men dream: but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity: But the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dreams with open eyes, to make it possible"
- T.E. Lawrence, The Seven Pillars of Wisdom
... and it was possible!! I arrived home a few days ago but as I sit here drinking my Zen tea (thanks Jerry, I bought it my first day back) my mind wanders back to the excitement of the climb..
I arrived in Mendoza after spending a great w/e in Buenos Aires to find that I would be the only female climber in our group of 10, plus 2-3 male guides. Not a bad intro to 2000!! Most of you reading this probably can't understand why I would ever attempt to climb mountains, but if you ever consider it, go for it!
We spent 2 days climbing to base camp ( if you rent the movie "Seven years in Tibet", with Brad Pitt you will see exactly where I was as this was filmed in Argentina) which was at about 4300m or 14,000 ft. As you walk along the "beach" which must be the longest brown beach in the world you can see Aconcagua off in the distance. It doesn't really look that far away. Upon reaching base camp you certainly realize that you are not the only "loco" person on this mountain as it is full of tents and prospective summitters. Here, I experienced some of the symptoms of altitude in the form of headache, lack of appetite and just generally feeling like crap. (I passed on the chicken this night.) Although lots of water, a good sleep and the "after dinner mints" i.e. aspirin, as Pablo, one of our guides freely handed out, do wonders.
The next day was a "rest day" and I couldn't figure out why the Americans were so keen to start climbing and get 'used to it'. My biggest adventure that day was to walk about 500m to the shower, which after 4 attempts ( they don't open anything too early at base camp), pretty well exhausted me, I paid my $10 US and enjoyed every moment of it. Hint, the shower is only supposed to be 5 minutes, but if you can manage to spurt out a few kind words of spanish and smile, the water keeps flowing:)
I think this was one of the best days as we spent the afternoon doing some simulated "ice climbing" through the Penitentes. Luckily, these skills were not required higher up, but it was great fun to practice.
Next came our "carry day". We set out with food in our packs and carried it up to Camp 1 (Camp Canada) and on to Camp 2 (Nido). You must wonder what one thinks when they are climbing? Anything and everything and a lot of nothing. Luckily, we had Dave on our trip who had this fancy altitude watch that he would set to go off at any desired altitude to let us know our progress. Kind of like the walk breaks for you marathoners out there. The big "Canadian tumble down the mountain" came on this day. I was warned by many people before I left not to "fall off the mountain" , and I didn't, I just fell down it. It was all fun and games as I was skidding down the mountain picking up speed (thinking I was on my skies) until the next thing I knew I was rolling and no longer smiling. The result of this 9/10 fall (American judges) was a strained calf, strained hamstring and possibly a small tear in the cartilage of my left knee not to mention a bruised ego. I don't know if anyone ever knew because I had my own tent at base camp, but that night I was up every hour massaging and exercising my leg, determined to be ready to climb in 2 days. Being a physio, the next day I had my bungee hooked up around a rock and was exercising my "rest day" away.
Each of the following days we progressed up to Camp 1 where we spent the night and then to Camp 2. Unfortunately, Camp 2 brought misfortune to the mountain as 3 of our group had to descend and a fellow climber (whom luckily I didn't see) died of a heart attack and was carried down. If my stats are correct this made 7 deaths on Aconcagua in 26 days of 2000. The reality of climbing started to sink in, as the number of our tents decreased. Luckily, I still did not have to carry a tent (thanks Pablo). But Sebastian, I promise next time, if I ever climb with you again, I'll carry a tent!!
It was time to go to Camp 3 (Berlin), another 2-3 hours up. I had my routine down pat by this time, where I would climb to the next camp, help put up the tent ( I was sleeping with the guides) and then have my afternoon nap until I was woken up with hot tea followed by dinner..Not a bad life at 19.540 ft.!!!!
Summit day... Sebastian started out at 4:30 am with one of our climbers and after being used to 10ish hours of sleep per night, ie. wake up only when the sun comes up and breakfast is ready, I needed those extra couple of hours. We (now a total of 8 as Sebastian had returned because unfortunately the climber he set out with returned as well) began our climb around 6:30am in -18 degrees temp. It is hard to describe what you experience on summit day but I can truly say that it becomes more mental than physical at this point. After about 5 hours of climbing (numbers had decreased to 5 + one guide) we hit the famous Canaleta, which is a "400m (1300 ft) chute filled with disagreeably loose rocks" (taken from Secor's climbing guide). While is was a lot more than disagreeable, it was sheer hell!! Every step resulted in either a slide backwards or a fall, in my case it was more often a fall. All I can say is that I was glad I could see the summit because those last few hundred metres took a few hours.. The rest I can't describe,, you are sitting on top of the world, or at least on top of the Western Hemisphere world and no matter what you went through or what was to come on the way down it was all worth it!! Right, Jerry, Jean Paul, Carlos, Ale and Sebastian???
The way down I won't say much about because I hated it and I stopped keeping track of my falls after about 25. My Gortex pants will forever retain my memories as they sustained some significant tears. It wasn't until I got back to Santiago that the bruises on my arms and legs and black toe nails reveilled themselves.
At base camp the next night we celebrated with Champagne, which was very much appreciated after 10 AFD'S (alcohol free days) .And I still don't know if it was too much alcohol or just bad luck but the next day on our final descent, Pablo, one of our guides fell and broke his ankle.. I was very much getting used to being on holidays and had managed to avoid my fellow climbers hints at "massage" requests but couldn't avoid this injury. We recruited what taping supplies we had (mine had been sent down by the mules) and on the side of the path, with the occasional mules coming by I taped his ankle enough so that it remained stabilized until he returned to Mendoza a couple of days later. He told me that his doctor told him, that the ankle had remained stable enough to avoid surgery.
Then it was over, we all went our separate ways and I know that each person takes with him the memories of the mountain that will last forever. Thanks to my fellow climbers for making it happen.
Diseño y desarrollo:
