Argentine-born British climber Maximo Kausch has set hims
elf the challenge of climbing every 6,000m peak in South America – and so far he’s summited more than anyone else to date.
The Mountain Guide who currently works as an expedition leader in the Andes and Himalaya, has already climbed 59 Andean peaks from a total of 117 during the past year – summiting the most recent on August 25. After mapping and logging foot approaches to each mountain, routes and waypoints on his GPS (which can be viewed for free at wikiloc.com), Kausch began to climb four or five peaks a week, before upping his schedule to two per day.
So far, Kausch has tackled climbs in Argentina, Bolivia and Chile, travelling between mountains by motorbike, with further technically-demanding peaks still to come in Peru’s Cordilleras Blanca, Huayhuash and Vilcanota, including the infamous Siula Grande. Challenges so far have included a lack of water, and land mines in the Atacama desert.
Of his motivation to take on the currently unachieved feat, Maximo said: “We know nothing about the Andes. People know Aconcagua and maybe Siula Grande from Joe Simpson’s book. Apart from these 6000ers we have 115 other peaks above 6000m that no one knows anything about, no one has tried to climb them all!”
RELATED LINKS:
gentedemontanha.com
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