My dad has offered to pay for any of his children who wish to climb Mt Aconcagua with him in a year or so. While I most likely won’t take him up on it I was thinking that in order to prepare, I could spend several days or more at high altitude in order to give myself time to adjust that wouldn’t also be outside the good old USA.
However, sleeping in a rustic cabin would defeat the purpose. It’d have to be at least a motel if not a hotel. The highest I have found so far is Mountain Village Colorado at 9,700 feet.
I don’t know if that is the actual answer to the trivia question part of this but it is a good bet for the OP. Leadville, CO is the highest incorporated town in the U.S. and has actual services like an airport, hotels, and restaurants so it wouldn’t be hard to get to. There may be some small specialty mountain hotel somewhere (maybe in Colorado too) that is higher but I can’t find one through a casual search.
Seems to me if you want to properly acclimatize, you need to spend weeks to months at altitude, especially since Leadville, CO is at 10,152’ and Aconcagua is the highest mountain in the Americas at 22,841’.
I think you might want to do something more formal for training. RMI Guides actually do a training and guiding for Aconagua, but even as a resource it is a good site. They do training at Mt. Rainier and I might suggest that Rainier might be a good place to get the altitude and alpine training and acclimatization as it is easy up and down to some good altitude and Camp Muir is a place to camp that would be sort of like a hotel just with a tent
Acclimatization last for approximately how long it to acquire. So if you spend a week at elevation in CO, then take more than a week to get to South America it will have all been for naught. Acclimatization should be part of the trip, something that would take place as part of the ascent to altitude. Going to altitude now might give you some insights into how you react to altitude, but the difference between 10,000’ and 22,000’ is like the difference between walking to your car and running a marathon.
You don’t need months to properly acclimatize for Aconcagua, a few weeks is more than enough. You’ll only be at serious altitude for a few days. But don’t underestimate the mountain; the weather can be brutal and no one can predict how you will react to the altitude. You need to be very fit as well as acclimatized.
Timberline Lodge on Mt. Hood. The lodge is only at 6,000 feet, but Mt. Hood is a bit over 11,000 so hiking and skiing near the top should be a good workout. Plus it’s much cooler than that doily-covered ponce of a hotel in Leadville!
