Towering peak taking heavy toll on climbers

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — The short, frigid climbing season on the Western Hemisphere's highest mountain is proving more deadly than usual this summer, with five deaths and another climber missing on the increasingly crowded peak called Aconcagua.

Most recently, Arthur DeLisle, a paramedic from Everett, Wash., was hiking alone at 16,400 feet when he was hit by falling rocks and later died of a head wound and a collapsed lung as rescuers ushered him down the mountain.

Officials say fatalities on the 22,841-foot Andean peak in western Argentina appear to be loosely tracking a surge in foot traffic — a six-fold increase in summit attempts over the past two decades as mountaineering has gone mainstream and increased in popularity.

That trend has been accompanied by improved equipment and an expansion of safety features such as high-altitude shelters and rescue helicopters, which have ferried 193 people off the mountain, mostly with altitude sickness, since the climbing season started in mid-November.

"It wouldn't have occurred to many people to climb Aconcagua before, but now, thanks to these new services, the mountain is more accessible," said Sebastian Tetilla, who runs a Mendoza-based expedition company and has summited Aconcagua (Ah-con-CAH-gwah) 25 times since the late 1980s.

Aconcagua also draws climbers because of its status as one of the Seven Summits, the group of peaks made up of the highest on each continent.

And while that makes it a prized accomplishment for anyone, less-experienced climbers are particularly attracted because the easiest route up the mountain doesn't present technical challenges.

It's essentially a very long, steep hike. It usually takes 15 days as climbers acclimate to the altitude, but has been done in 15 hours from the park entrance at 9,200 feet.

"You literally just put one foot in front of another and you can get to the top," said Brian Block, who reached the summit in 1999 and is an outdoor equipment sales representative based in Adel, Iowa.

DeLisle wasn't a veteran climber, said Thomas Tomberg, chief of the Edmonds Fire Department in Washington where DeLisle worked. Tomberg described the 51-year-old former Marine as an avid outdoorsman who performed extraordinarily well under pressure, helping to deliver at least 23 babies during his career as a paramedic and firefighter.

"If you had a traumatic injury, you wanted Art to be your medic," Tomberg said.