Four-legged Climber on Aconcagua. A bizarre ascent was performed by a dog of unknown pedigree in Aconcagua. This “climber” joined a group of Europeans from Laguna Horcones. He then disappeared and later joined Austrian Armin Liedl in the Berlin Hut (6000 m). The dog had climbed through precarious conditions that included temperatures of -20° C. He bivouacked in the open. Reaching the Independencia Hut (6500 m), Cumbre, as the dog was named, began to bark; he had seen a climber in bad condition, who was then rescued along with another companion. On January 1995 they summited. The dog slept with them in Independencia and the next day disappeared. The Austrian said he would search for him and take him to his country.

This isn’t the first dog on Aconcagua. The Austrian Link, who made various ascents to Aconcagua in the 1940s, summited with Fifi, who died with him on the mountain. A dog named Prince also summited Aconcagua. It’s not so rare that climbers of South America summit with dogs.

Marcelo Scanu, Buenos Aires, Argentina