Mules Loading
It is fairly easy to find us. Our name, "LOS PUQUIOS" , from the quechua language, "pure water spring", is perfectly visible since it is placed opposite the Mountaineers´ Graveyard where Aconcagua´s dead lie, between the small villages of Los Penitentes and Puente del Inca. You will find our representatives in both places even if the starting point of most expeditions, by any of Aconcagua´s ways, is Puente del Inca or Penitentes.
If the expedition comes from Santiago, Chile to Mendoza City, where the permits are to be obtained, we offer a safe and practical place to store equipment so as not to carry it to the city and back again to the mountain. This system is preferred by many expeditions. We look after the equipment until expeditioners come back with their pertinent climbing or trekking permits.This helps to avoid the payment of extra charges and the encumberance of loading and unloading the gear on different occasions.
For transport of your equipment to and from the base camps, we suggest using resistant water-proof nylon bags, with a lock. Rucksacks are also carried on the animals, with no inconvenience.
Due to the distances to the base camps, which are considerable, and to the constant movement and friction to which the loads are exposed, the resulting wearing out of the bags will be significant if their fabric is not of high quality. Since cardboard cases are not suitable to be loaded on mules, we provide our clients with resistant plaited nylon bags, to place all items that are contained in inadequate packages.
Plastic containers are safe as regards mules. However, capacity should not exceed 50 litres and they should have handles to be secured on to the animals. As regards weight, each animal can only carry 60 kilos of net load besides the elements needed to hold the gear in place. We therefore recommend not to bring bundles that weigh more than 30 kilos per unit, so as to allow the placing of two loads per animal or otherwise 3 loads of 20 kilos each
Adequate balancing of the loads assures the client that the transport will be completed successfully. Our organisation offers a spacious building where the bundles can be secured and weighted in order to balance them before finally loading the mules.
In the area, there are some transport service providers who charge very low prices, specially when coming back from the base camps. We feel it is our obligation to warn expeditioners against contracting these low cost services since they do not always assure good transportation.
Moreover, it is difficult to find the physical location of their bases in order to make timely and appropriate deliveries of the equipment. We would like to draw attentin to this fact in order to have prospective aclients know that to save a few dollars in transport will not actually lower costs. On the contrary, it is a common sight to see expeditioners wandering between Puente del Inca and Penitentes, asking for their gear.
Transport on mules is a very risky and rather complicated type of carrying. The muleteers´ expertise and the tameness and docility of the animals are the key factors to assure safety . There are other potential risks, unfortunately, like the crossing of rivers (especially after winters with frequent and heavy snowfalls ) when animals may be washed away by the rivers and, on occasions, drown, with the consequent loss of equipment.
In Argentina, no insurance company covers the risks explained above. Accordingly, we suggest expeditioners that they should insure their equipment in their countries of origin, for protection from eventual loss in case of an accident involving a mule. Also, so as not to have to transport clothes or other items not used on the mountain, we offer our clients a safe keeping service at our base Los Puquios, at no cost.
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