Three die in Argentina while climbing Aconcagua, the highest peak in the Americas

Two United States citizens and a Norwegian died over the past four days while climbing Aconcagua, the tallest mountain in the Americas, police in Argentina said Wednesday.

The three climbers died of separate medical causes after being the subject of rescue attempts by medical and high mountain police patrols in Parque Aconcagua in Mendoza Province.

US mountaineer Ayn Vincent Day, 41, died on Wednesday after going against the advice of his guide and scaling the summit of the nearly 7,000-metre (23,000 foot) mountain, said Deputy Commissioner Marcos Páez, the head of the rescue team.

On Saturday, 62-year-old Moi Oystein of Norway became the first fatality of the 2022-2023 ascent season, which began in December, after becoming ill at a spot on the route known as La Cueva, at 6,000 metres above sea-level.

The following day, US military veteran John Michael Magness, 58, also died having reached Camp Independencia at an elevation of 6,300 metres.

Situated near Argentina's border with Chile, Aconcagua is the tallest mountain outside of Asia, and is one of the so-called Seven Summits – a goal of many mountain climbers around the world.

So far this season, local authorities have registered some 2,500 climbers attempting to scale Aconcagua.

"This has been a busy season, but the number of ascents is more or less unchanged," Páez said, noting that "disobedience" towards mountain guides was relatively common.

Local media, citing official sources, reported the death this season of five other mountaineers, four of them foreigners, in the area of El Chaltén, in the Patagonian province of Santa Cruz.

Among the fatalities in the south were a 48-year-old Swiss citizen, a 25-year-old US citizen, a 19-year-old and 31-year-old from Spain and a 28-year-old Argentine.

– TIMES/AFP