Steven's Peak-bagging Journey

January 9, 2025

2770m

Córdoba, Argentina

Cerro Champaquí is the highest peak in Sierra Grande west of the city of Córdoba. This range is just a foothill by the Andean standard but is completely detached and far from the high Andes, that gives Cerro Champaquí substantial amount of prominence and isolation making it one of the more significant summits in the area from peak-bagging perspective. This is also one of, if not the easiest “Ultra” in Argentina as the standard route is nothing fancier than a 30-min walk on a defined trail, but the location makes the driving far more challenging than the hike itself. There are numerous ways to do this peak including the McLellan’s and Connor’s less-driving-more-hiking routes from the west, but in recent years ever since Adam and Petter did the east side “drive-up” approach with their driver Franco, the east side had now become the standard. This made sense as on a long and compact peak-bagging itinerary I too preferred to put in as little work as possible to conserve energy for the travelling and the other objectives. This was nearing the end of the month-long trip between Erica and myself and we had already achieved the main goal, the mighty Aconcagua. We had rented a 2WD car from Mendoza and were now in the city of San Juan after bagging Cerro Pircas. Everyone assured me that the 40-km dirt road from Villa Yacanto to the highest parking lot would be doable in a standard 2WD but we shall see.

We had a little less than 2 days to put down this objective from San Juan back to Mendoza and this required some aggressive driving, speeding as much as possible on the freeways. The required driving was equivalent to making a road trip from Vancouver to Calgary and back, and not to mention the 5-hour estimated round trip ascent from Villa Yacanto and that’s without any unforeseen circumstance. I did not bid on 100% for the success but we had two days and there weren’t any better objectives so we might as well try. Erica booked our stay in Villa Yacanto as I was socializing with Rob’s group after our respective ascents of Cerro Pircas on the same day but with different agencies on the opposite sides of that mountain, and then we checked out and left at 10:30 am. The driving was without tolls on the way there but the roads had higher standard than expected, that we were able to drive fairly fast. I made Erica to handle the middle stretch in San Luis province and she was cruising at over 150 km/h while I went to sleep. I hoped there weren’t too many hidden cameras in Argentina as otherwise we would be facing some hefty fines, but that’s okay as speeding was the only way for us to put down this peak. Finding a gas station that accepted credit card payment was challenging in Villa Dolores west of the peak, and from there we had another 4 hours of driving to the east side of the peak. This stretching was very winding and tiring, but at least the scenery was excellent. It was been raining heavily but the rain had tapered off and we were able to see fair amount of things. I started to think we should do the peak right away.

Villa Yacanto is a neat village but too bad we didn’t have time to enjoy the stay. The hotel that we checked into was also excellent but we had to immediately leave after getting the key. It was past 8:30 pm when we started the 40 km rough driving up towards the summit. The hotel receptionist confirmed that it had been raining heavily during the day so I wasn’t sure if the driving would be even possible, so part of the reason of rushing was also to scout things out. If there’s indeed a muddy impasse at least we could adjust the plan accordingly. Rob’s group encountered a loose section that necessitated a second attempt by giving some momentum and the road was dry for them, so I honestly only put 60% bid on the chance of success. In about half an hour we had to turn on the high beams and the road had also become rougher. I had consulted with at least 3 different people who drove up this peak in the past several years, and the conclusion was that a 2WD car would be sufficient enough. This was true but only with the assumption that the driver’s experienced and brave. The job was far from sitting there and pressing the gas pedal and honestly without the years of 4×4 experience in the Tacoma I probably would have turned around. Unlike Rob’s group we did not encounter a single crux section but the road’s sustainedly rough for at least 20 km distance, that care must be taken for every single meter forward. It was very mentally taxing especially given that the car had already experienced a flat tire on the mere first day of this trip, on a section of the “highway” that’s much easier than this. Fortunately with perseverance we eventually made it in about 2 hours. There were a few muddy puddles due to the rain but I was also to work things around, and the final stretch of insanely steep cobblestone pavement also did not impose any problem.

Since we indeed managed to drive to the very top (of the false/south summit) and the weather was mostly clear, there’s no point in rushing. We were both very hungry from the pushing so we spent about 40 minutes cooking the couscous with the Indian curries that we had brought in from Canada. We used up the last two pouches of the curries here. The winds made the cooking difficult so I just simply cooked inside the car. We then started the 1-km walk to the true summit with head-lamps on. The hiking portion of this ascent was more difficult than I thought with some route-finding and scrambling. Right off the bat we did not manage to find the correct way, and faced a few steps of 3rd class down-climbing. We then joined the trail and followed it, with some up-and-downs to the west side of the summit block, which we scrambled up through a 3rd class chimney. I was sure there existed an easier alternative but it was fun to scramble and I was getting impatient in finding the “correct” way. This brought us to the true summit with the statue but we could see at least 1 or 2 contenders further to the north so those must have been checked as well. Later reading Rob’s trip report we realized that the statue was indeed the highest point, but it was always a good practice to be 120% sure. Unfortunately seconds after summitting that northern contender we got barked by a pack of wild dogs which was quite scary. We quickly retreated to the summit with the statue and took a much needed break.

Fearing the dogs could have come after us we went down the exact same route, down-climbing that 3rd class chimney. I liked the orientation of this chimney as it faced the exact opposite direction as those dogs. We then quickly made our way back to the parking lot on the south/false summit and then immediately drove away. We had summitted at 11:30 pm so it was well past midnight now, that I had become very tired. I had learnt from Eric Gilbertson that the best way to stay awake was to roll down the windows, constantly slap my own face and pinch my thighs. In addition to those I also turned on the music volume to as loud as possible. I probably had slapped my face 20 times but did eventually drive us down to the hotel in Villa Yacanto safely. The driving down was quicker and easier but not by a lot. It was easier mostly because I already knew what exactly to expect so I didn’t have the mental pressure to deal with the unknowns. We eventually got back to the hotel at 2 am and I still had to take the mandatory shower before going to bed. The next morning we woke up at 9 am and checked out an hour later. I was secretly hoping for another P600m along the way (Volcán El Morro) but the weather eventually made the decision for us. There was a massive ass thunderstorm overtop the objective, so we gave up on that and drove straight back to Mendoza. In retrospect it was a good decision because otherwise we would have to pull through another all-nighter to get things packed for the air travel. We returned the car at 7:30 pm, took an Uber back to the hotel and still had to go out for dinner and completely repack our luggage (3 pieces of checked bags). This lasted to 1 am and we had to get up at 6 am for the flying to Santiago, Chile.