Rob flew this route today. He had a tremendous opportunity to view the peak out the port side window of his aircraft.

Check out this completely relevant excerpt from the 1942 Disney feature “Saludos Amigos”. Pedro is a determined mail plane who crosses the Andes from Santiago, Chile to Mendoza, Argentina past a terrifying depiction of Aconcagua.

The script is awesome:

“Pedro was flying on top of the world, when suddenly… his first view of that towering monarch… ACONCAGUA! So this was the big bully they warned him about. But he didn’t scare Pedro, though. No sirree.”

and

“When suddenly… ACONCAGUA! Its rocky snow-filled crags form the face of a leering monster… all those warnings came back to him now… the treacherous cross-currents… the sudden storms!”

In the film, Aconcagua is depicted as fierce and vengeful… a dark, angry menace who pours down freezing rain, hurls lightning bolts, and blows winds of devastation… yet Pedro prevails! We’re hoping for this kind of storybook ending.

From the Aconcagua wiki entry, only 60% of those that attempt actually summit. However, it should be noted that RMI Guides have had 100% expedition success on Aconcagua for the 2011-2012 season! Our man is in good hands!