It’s the first question almost everyone asks us, and the short answer is: no, you don’t need to have climbed before. Neither Aconcagua nor Ojos del Salado require technical climbing skills on their standard route — there are no ice walls and no crampons used in a technical way (Ojos del Salado does have a short final stretch, about 30 metres, secured with fixed ropes near the summit, but it’s a simple step, not technical climbing). But “you don’t need climbing experience” isn’t the same as “anyone can show up unprepared” — and that’s the part that actually matters.
Both mountains are above 6,800 metres, and that’s where the real challenge lies — not in technical difficulty, but in the combination of extreme altitude, many consecutive days of physical effort, and the cold. What you’ll actually need is:
- A solid physical base. You don’t need to be an elite athlete, but you do need real cardiovascular endurance — walking for many hours, day after day, carrying your own gear. The better shape you start in, the less energy your body burns on the basics, leaving more to cope with the altitude.
- Previous multi-day trekking experience. You don’t need to have climbed, but you should have done a multi-day trek before — even at low altitude. It helps you understand how your body handles long, accumulated days on your feet, and what it feels like to sleep several nights in a row in a tent or refuge.
- Time to acclimatise. This is what truly decides whether you reach the summit — not strength, not technique. That’s why our expeditions are built with enough progressive acclimatisation days — 19 days on Aconcagua, 12 on Ojos del Salado — instead of trying to go up fast and risking altitude sickness.
- A clear head. Several consecutive days of cold, accumulated fatigue, and a summit you can’t see until the very end demand more from your mind than your body. The people who don’t summit are almost never held back by technique — it’s because they didn’t account for the mental toll of that many days.
If you’re already wondering which one is “easier,” the honest answer is that they don’t really compete that way. Aconcagua is the highest peak outside Asia, with more logistics, more days, and somewhat more overall physical demand. Ojos del Salado is the highest volcano in the world, deep in the Atacama Desert — a lunar landscape, far less travelled, with its own challenges around isolation and extreme nighttime cold. Technically, both standard routes are within reach of someone with no climbing experience, as long as they arrive with the right physical preparation.
On both expeditions you’re guided at every stage, in a small group, with an itinerary built specifically to allow plenty of time for acclimatisation — not to go up as fast as possible, but to go up safely. Before you leave, we send you a physical preparation guide and the full gear list, so you arrive knowing exactly what to expect.
If you’ve never been above 4,000 metres, Aconcagua or Ojos del Salado can feel intimidating just from the numbers — but the reality is that people with no technical mountaineering background summit every year, as long as they show up physically prepared and with enough time to acclimatise. The question isn’t whether you have climbing experience. It’s whether you’re willing to train seriously in the months before.
Not sure if you’re at the right starting point? Tell us your current level and we’ll tell you honestly whether it’s the right time, or what to prepare first.
See the Aconcagua expedition · See the Ojos del Salado expedition