February 2023, girls' trip to Argentina, wet season, plan changes, our eye on Cerro Tuzgle for acclimatization. Tourist info does not really approve our car for the approach. The offroad queen Angelika Zeilinger made it to the trail head (approx. 40 km from San Antonio de los Cobres). We decided to leave the car there and do the rest hiking ... making it a longer day as planned!
The tour leads first along a 4x4 path up to an abandoned mine in rather flat switchbacks ... for which we took the short cuts on the descent. The upper part was snow covered and we had to navigate with map (gaia) and a GPX track we took with us ... pretty straight forward. We were alone on the mountain, did not see any other people. NO mayor difficulties if you are ok with navigation. We took the advice of leaving early, as in the afternoon there are thunderstorms ... and you would not want to be out there when they hit!
We = Angelika Zeilinger (member of Austrian Mountain Rescue Team) and Elisabeth Gschösser (Owner of Tour Operator for Altitude Mountaineering in Ecuador) made the trip together. It was only the 2 of us. We brought everything we needed (drinks, snacks, navigation, emergency equipment ...) with us. Great experience, altitude is as always a challenge. Rewarding tour! Go for it.
Reel on Insta: https://www.instagram.com/reel/Conoo_BgZVu/?igshid=OTJlNzQ0NWM%3D (it does not work above ... no idea how to find the video on FB ...)