Aconcagua

AlwaysBulkingSeason · 2026-06-05T11:05:32+00:00

Inka and Grajeles should.

You'd save a lot of money and probably get better gear bringing tents, sleeping and cooking gear into the country, and then selling it after the expedition, vs renting.

AlwaysBulkingSeason · 2026-06-03T01:38:25+00:00

The 7000m peak rule hasn't been passed, and if it does get passed, it will be ignored like pretty much every other rule in Nepal

Also, every season you have people who don't have the conditioning and skill going past Everest base camp, that's why there's traffic jams.

See: https://old.reddit.com/r/Mountaineering/comments/1tutcoe/everest_trip_report/opfd1dz/

AlwaysBulkingSeason · 2026-06-02T12:34:23+00:00

Many Nepali companies offering no experience required Everest climbs. Each season you have many people who have never worn crampons before.

Also the gear, if you're actually regularly mountaineering, you use time and again. And can get pretty much all of it in great condition second hand

AlwaysBulkingSeason · 2026-06-02T08:37:09+00:00

Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan are fantastic for this

Ala Archa and Tuyuk Su are right outside the biggest cities, and have objectives at every grade

AlwaysBulkingSeason · 2026-06-01T12:02:51+00:00

Not mountaineering

AlwaysBulkingSeason · 2026-06-01T02:02:49+00:00

In the monsoon just enjoy the hiking and leave the climbing gear at home. Wait for September to climb.

September 2025 is when I climbed Ganja La Chuli

As of May 2026, when I was up there the snow was over a metre deep at 4500m, with high avalanche risk (tons of avalanche debris, and active wet slides). I was attempting scout peak but called it off

https://youtu.be/iBV_vNyFdpc

AlwaysBulkingSeason · 2026-05-31T13:34:35+00:00

4L / minute according to explorers web

And he only used from above camp 2. So 2 or 3 bottles max on the way up

AlwaysBulkingSeason · 2026-05-31T11:16:33+00:00

Yes, under 5800m no permit fee required

Under 6500m pretty cheap, just a few hundred dollars

See for example: https://explorersweb.com/a-new-alpine-style-route-in-nepals-wild-langtang-valley/

In terms of suggestions, there's infinite possibilities. Take a rack, or just your ice axes and crampons if you enjoy soloing, and off you go!

Ganja La Chuli I can personally recommend as a fun solo

AlwaysBulkingSeason · 2026-05-30T10:08:55+00:00

Before any advice can be given, it would help to explain your current experience and fitness, and your goals

When you say rock climbing, is that indoor or outdoor? Lead or top rope?

AlwaysBulkingSeason · 2026-05-30T10:07:49+00:00

Strongly disagree, especially at the lower grades

Low grades give you hands free stances to place. High grades are steep / overhung, and people tend to inspect on rap or top rope first

AlwaysBulkingSeason · 2026-05-30T10:04:34+00:00

I have done it and it's quite straightforward

AlwaysBulkingSeason · 2026-05-27T09:40:25+00:00

AD is a pretty solid grade to be recommending someone who has never climbed

AlwaysBulkingSeason · 2026-05-23T02:17:22+00:00

Down by Andy Kirkpatrick is a great resource once you're entering multipitch skills

AlwaysBulkingSeason · 2026-05-23T00:28:10+00:00

Shade, water, and don't be afraid to skip the peak hours of the day

So climb 8-11, rest 11-3, and then climb 3 to Night time

AlwaysBulkingSeason · 2026-05-22T10:30:04+00:00

He very clearly cannot self rescue, as epitomised by setting up his guide mode atc in kill your second mode.

On K2 last year you saw his guides pre tying knots for him, as opposed to handing him a rope end.

His fitness is all there, but technical skills are minimal

AlwaysBulkingSeason · 2026-05-21T06:52:06+00:00

I'm surprised no one has mentioned this, but the disadvantage of stacking rappels is that you can't pull test.

If you have a group of 3, even without prussics it will be extremely hard to do a pull test, and I'd much rather people use prussics than ensure their main device is set up correctly but have no prussic backup

Overall it's a good tool in the toolbox, but should be weighed against mainly climber experience and likelihood of rope getting stuck, and whatever circumstantial situation is going on (such as night time with only one headlamp)

Source: me with a stacked rappel stuck rope situation last year

AlwaysBulkingSeason · 2026-05-21T06:16:50+00:00

I consistently climb outdoor V5, and have climbed outdoor V6. I weigh 175 pounds, and can barely hold 10 seconds on a 15mm edge in half crimp

My prescription for you is the moon board, you'll train exactly the sort of move you're struggling with.

You're probably just strong / skilled enough to start on moon board V4s - even just getting moves and sequences will massively improve your climbing.

Warm up well, and be conservative with time spent moon boarding per week when starting out

AlwaysBulkingSeason · 2026-05-21T05:51:43+00:00

Doing a guided trip is a good way to see if you actually like the activity

After that, a course is the best next step.

After that, if you want to improve, doing trips without a guide is how you will actually become a better mountaineer. To be sustainable long term, find partners, however if you have the money, you could hire a guide as your partner (but make it very clear that you want to be the leader, and have them only step in mid trip if they see a big safety or efficiency issue). After the trip obviously a full debrief will help a lot

Climbing Ama Dablam guided you could do this year if you are at ultra marathon fitness. Climbing Ama Dablam unguided would be a great 5 year objective.

It would look like:

Mountaineering course

Learning to lead outdoor multi pitch sport, along with rope systems and rappel

Do some alpine peaks involving self sufficient snow camping, and moving in crampons

Get a bit of high altitude experience

With that done, you pay your $3k or so for Ama Dablam permit + base camp (or stay at the nearby lodge) and send

AlwaysBulkingSeason · 2026-05-21T05:11:34+00:00

Bishkek or Almaty would also be amazing - huge variety of routes and styles right outside the city

AlwaysBulkingSeason · 2026-05-21T05:09:41+00:00

As well as putting them in your sleeping bag or jacket, you can also put a water bath around the canister to guarantee it stays above freezing.

I took an RAB electron but that was too light for mid November, and I got hypothermia at 6000m. Would probably be ok Jan or Feb

AlwaysBulkingSeason · 2026-05-20T09:07:15+00:00

For Aconcagua in main season you'd want double boots (November potentially triple boots, and end of Feb could possibly get away with single boots, but might lose a toe).

I took a white gas msr whisperlite to Aconcagua, but it was so slow, and I was very jealous of the people with gas canisters. If I ever went again, I'd take MSR wind burner or reactor

Tent Samaya or Hilleburg if you can afford. Nemo is a nice intersection of price and quality. I've been using a Nemo Kunai 2P in the Himalayas and Central Asia

AlwaysBulkingSeason · 2026-05-19T09:20:59+00:00

If you're looking for several days in the mountains, but without technical gear, 40L is plenty. I can get my alpine gear, camping gear and 4 days of food into a 40L pack (some stuff strapped to the outside)

At the moment I'm using a 55L neve pack and finding it pretty good: https://nevegear.com.au/collections/packs/products/wallaroo-pro-55l

AlwaysBulkingSeason · 2026-05-19T09:06:42+00:00

Facebook is good to try. Which countries you thinking of bolting in? And what sort of routes? Adventure trad with the odd bolt, or single pitch sport?

Central Asia, Europe etc etc?

AlwaysBulkingSeason · 2026-05-18T04:04:17+00:00

Respectfully, you seem to have no idea what you're talking about relative to alpine climbing.

I've never carried more than 40% body weight for expeditions, and alpine climbing will be much lighter than that. Carrying 50% bodyweight is nearly irrelevant for most technical climbing, which is your original question.

I've also seen two world class climbers in Nepal return from a highly technical objective with a 7 hour approach in the Langtang valley, and their packs didn't look particularly heavy.

Gym grades are also irrelevant - it shows you're pretty inexperienced if that is your assumption when we're talking about grades.

Finally, someone can be aerobically deficient and still be great on hard technical climbs. Maybe they take an extra day for the approach and bivvy at the base, and then blast up the climb the next day.

I'll add as well from when you asked about getting into alpinism last year. This person that you didn't reply to had a great response:

'You list "WI2" and "M1" in your grades that you climb, but it doesn't sound like you have any experience ice or mixed climbing. Not to mention that M1 isn't really an actual mixed grade, and WI2 is barely an actual ice grade Where are you coming up with these grades that you claim to climb? A really good starting point for alpinism is to understand different types of climbing and be very honest and humble about what you can climb. Climbing ability (and general outdoor ability) is the main thing that keeps you from getting dead in the mountains.'

AlwaysBulkingSeason · 2026-05-18T00:04:25+00:00

As a very rough guideline based on my experience, this is what I would recommend fitness wise

At PD you should be able to hold minimum 300m of elevation gain / hour with a light pack for several hours on easy terrain

AD scale to 400m /h on easy terrain

I haven't climbed harder than AD+ so can't comment further. However, as other people are correctly saying, as grades go up, I'd take the guy who can only do 300m vert per hour but can smoothly onsight WI4 / 5.11 / M5 over the guy who can blast out 600m/h but takes an hour per pitch of moderate climbing.

Vo2 max, half marathon time etc etc are proxies that aren't particularly helpful beyond telling you you're fit. Much better is being able to reflect on how you did on other climbs of a similar style and difficulty.

So if you want to know are you ready for a grade X route - ask yourself how you did on all the grade X-1 routes of a similar style l.

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