Seven Summits: Aconcagua
After Mt. Everest the second highest mountain in the Seven Summits is Mt. Aconcagua. At a striking 22,841 feet, Mt. Aconcagua lies among the Andes in Argentina and is the highest mountain in the Americas. The first attempt to climb Mt. Aconcagua was made by the German geologist Paul Gussfeldt in 1883. Gussfeldt bribed porters with the story of lost treasure on the mountain for their help. He made two attempts to reach the summit through what is now considered the normal route. The first recorded summit was a British expedition led by Edward FitzGerald. The youngest person to reach the summit of Mt. Aconcagua was Mathew Moniz of Boulder, CO at 10 years old in 2008. The oldest person to summit was Scott Lewis at 87 years old in 2007. Mt. Aconcagua was created by the subduction of the Nazca Plate beneath the South American plate, but is not a volcano. There are two theories to the origin of the name of the mountain. This first states it is from Arauca Aconca-Hue, which refers to t...