January 11, 2000
Web posted at: 3:28 PM EST (2028 GMT)

By reuters

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (Reuters) -- Four climbers died when they fell roped together into a ravine just before reaching the top of Argentina's Aconcagua mountain, the western hemisphere's highest peak, police said Tuesday.

Authorities said the mountaineers, from 21 to 47 years old, were 650 feet from the summit when they fell on Sunday. The accident was reported Monday night by another climber who saw the accident.

It took a mountain rescue team 12 hours to reach the bodies. The team had to struggle up to the site through blizzards in temperatures that plunged to minus 13 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 25 degrees Celsius).

One of the climbers, 21-year-old German Brena, escaped possible death last year by calling for help on his cellular phone while scaling the Tronador peak in southern Rio Negro province.

Aconcagua, about 660 miles from Buenos Aires in western Mendoza province near the border with Chile, rises to 22,975 feet. Climbed by more than 4,000 people a year, it is considered more of an endurance test than a technical challenge.