Lampmile · summit wind forecasts

Aconcagua summit wind forecast

Andes · summit 6,961 m (22,838 ft) · 32.6531° S, 70.0120° W

Lampmile forecasts the wind on Aconcagua for as far ahead as the models reach, about a week, in three-hour steps, at the summit and at named points on its routes. The numbers start from the wind in the free atmosphere at the summit's height, read from each weather model (ECMWF's IFS and AIFS and NOAA's GFS) at the pressure level the summit sits at, and are shown as a range across the models, widened by how the forecast has verified at stations.

On the map, a terrain wind field solved over the mountain's own ground shows how its ridges, cols and slopes bend that wind, and each named point is marked exposed or sheltered for each hour's wind direction. The page also marks the calmer windows under a wind threshold you choose, the hours when a model calls a storm, the freezing level, cloud, and the snowline from this week's satellite snow cover, and a planner plans Normal Route as a trip, day by day: the walk in to Plaza Canadá, the walk from Plaza Canadá to Nido de Cóndores, the walk from Nido de Cóndores to Cólera, the summit day from Cólera and back, and the walk out to Plaza de Mulas, each day's start against that day's forecast, with a turnaround on the summit day.

Routes on the map

Named points with their own forecast

Checked against stations

Every day the forecasts made for Aconcagua summit station (6,940 m, on the summit, IANIGLA-CONICET Wayra), Plaza de Mulas station (4,335 m, 2,626 m below the summit, IANIGLA-CONICET Wayra), and Nido de Cóndores station (5,610 m, 1,351 m below the summit, IANIGLA-CONICET Wayra) are scored against what they observed, and the page shows how far they missed on average over the last 30 days, and which way they leaned.

A forecast here is one input among several. It does not resolve gusts, lee turbulence, rotors or thermally driven winds, and those regimes are low confidence. Make your own assessment on the mountain, and turn around when what you see disagrees with what you read here.

Other mountains

The live forecast, the 3D map and the climb planner open with the page's script. Questions and corrections to matt@lampmile.com · Privacy