Memory of Mother (Carol) inspires Warren E. Wilhide Jr. to Aconcagua Summit, fuels challenge of Everest
If Warren Wilhide, from West New York, NJ, was to ever realize his goal of climbing Mount Everest, he knew he needed to scale some “key” summits first. He certainly took on quite a challenge though, having reached the peak of Aconcagua in the Andes Mountains on February 14th, 2011.
At 22,841 feet (6,962 meters), Aconcagua is the highest mountain in either the Western and Southern hemispheres. It is known as the second highest of the Seven Summits, the highest mountains on each of the seven continents. Although Aconcagua, located between Chile and Argentina, is less technically challenging as some of the other Seven Summits, Warren learned it’s no less dangerous.
“Tragically, three climbers perished on the 11-hour summit climb/descent (3,500 feet) the day prior to our attempt,” he said. “Naturally, that caused a little anxiety for all of us.”
Exhilarated that seven out of his group of 10 climbers reached the top of Aconcagua, after two weeks of climbing and acclimating to the thin atmosphere, a treacherous descent awaited the team.
Leaving Mom’s picture at the Top
“On the way down, less than ten minutes after getting off the summit, we encountered a major white-out blizzard with high winds,” Warren said. “We had to stay close as a team to ensure we got down safely and could find our way back to our camp (at 19,500 feet).”
Warren found it was a humbling experience in learning two other groups had a lesser success rate of reaching the summit, not to mention the loss of life. For most of the trip, his thoughts were with his mother, Carol, who had died from breast cancer in 2008, having placed his parents picture at the top of Aconcagua as a way to honor her memory.
“Through her inspiration, I found a personal sense of achievement of setting a goal, doing the research, staying committed to the training and climbing, and ultimately having success with the climb,” Warren said. “This experience gave me a better sense of teamwork by building relationships among my fellow climbers, having a common goal, helping others along the way, and realizing that the group strength and dynamics were key to our success.”
Warren says his initial interest for the 15-day journey came from reading the book Into Thin Air and climbing 14,410-foot Mount Rainer in Washington State in 2007. So, if Aconcagua was a stepping stone to Mount Everest or one of the other Seven Summits, Warren believes he’s proven himself up to the next challenge.
“I prepared for Aconcagua by training for over a year—biking, running, hiking and climbing stairs using a 70-80-pound backpack,” he said. “I also took a six-day advanced mountaineering course on Mount Baker that focused on climbing skills, glacier travel, crevasse rescue and winter camping. And now, having reached the summit where the oxygen is only 30-40 percent of what it is at sea level, I knew that I had passed another pre-requisite for attempting a higher mountain or perhaps Mount Everest.”
While he has no immediate plans to scale Everest, Warren summited Mount Elbrus (in the Russian Caucasus region) in 2013 and Denali (Mt. McKinley, Alaska) in 2016.
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