A few weeks back I posted this blog entry on Jorge Egocheaga's record speed ascent on Aconcagua. The orginal article was posted at MountEverest.net, which is a part of the Explorers Web Network.
Apparently, since the orginal article was released, there have been some questions in regards to the authenticity of the record. The following letter has been sent to ExWeb, Climbing.com, and Everest News, and was posted in the comments section of my original post:
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Hello ExplorersWeb,
Regarding Jorge's claimed record of Aconcagua, in your article you write:
"He covered the distance between Valle de Horcones summit and back in 14 hours, 5 minutes and 54 seconds รข€“ almost one hour faster than previous."
Actually, the previous record claim by Holmes was 20hrs 35min from Horcones to the summit and back. So Jorge is claiming he beat Holmes by 6hrs 30mins, not "almost one hour".
Also, Holmes reached the summit in 13hrs he claimed, and Jorge in 7hrs:52mins, so Jorge says he beat Holmes to the summit by 5 hours 8 minutes.
Once source for this, Climbing Magazine: http://www.climbing.com/news/hotflashes/aconcaguaspeed06/
You comment re Jorge is shy and modest about his records and doesn't promote himself. He lets others do it for him and agressively so. And he knows they will, this is why he quickly reports his record-claims to them immediately - and then they go to the press immediately to promote him. If Jorge wasn't interested in self-promotion he wouldn't advertise his record claims wouldn't tell anyone -- or, would tell his friends to absolutely not tell any press. An agressive self-promoter strategically giving the impression he isn't so. Exactly like Chad K. and many others in this specialized field. Incredible and crafty, and much like Chad Kellogg who is perhaps the most astounding multi-fraud committer in world history for speed records, most notably and increduously for Denali in 2003 and also Rainier (twice, 1998 and 2004).
You try to make it look like there is verification for his record -- you write --
"It's a small BC - no way to keep it secret"
However, this means nothing about whether the key points of his climb were in fact a secret, namely (1) his start, (2) the summit, (3) his finish. All are totally unwitnessed, no photos, no timers. Has Jorge submitted any start, summit, or finish photos, especially summit photos? No press covering this to date has published any. Can you request from him who witnessed him start at Horcones way below BC, who saw him at the summit, if he has any summit photos, and who saw him finish, and to provide all of these people's names and contact information.
At least Holmes has a summit photo and summit witnesses http://www.mounteverest.net/news.php?id=1561. Although many considered Holmes's report to beat Benegas's round-trip record by 2hrs:25mins was very suspicous in light of Benegas's proven distinguished athletic performances in competitive endurance sports. This is not the case in any sense with Holmes or Jorge. Benegas reported 23hrs roundtrip (can't find any reports of his summit split time).
So Jorge is also reporting he beat Benegas round-trip by 8hrs:55mins.
It is thought that Jorge's record claim is highly fradulent.
These 7 summit record claims, from the horrific Sherpa (the most recent record claimer Pemba Dorji being jailed for months due to his direct involvement in a horrible kidnapping/ransom scam), Chad Kellogg, Sean Burch's proven fradulent Kilimanjaro climb (http://www.teamkilimanjaro.co.uk/seanburch.html), and it appears Christan Stangl has been engaging in fraud on several major peaks including submitting summit photos of only his head with no mountain surface or background shown, also the absence of summit photos on many major peaks like Everest where it is very standard and expected for such historic events, and how Stangl was challenged to enter the Elbrus race after claiming an Elbrus record (he entered and promoted his entry, then bowed out at the last minute despite his entry being publicized on many major international websites).
The sport is a mockery. Seems it does a substantial number of climbers (whether speed climbers or not) are just very dishonest people who very often embellish, lie, deceive, conjure, etcetra.
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As you can see, there are some serious questions as to the authenticity of the claims on the speed record. The fact that there are no summit pictures, or witnesses, sure does make it seem rather fishy. I'm not sure who the orginal author of this letter is, but if anyone has more information or anything else to share, I'm sure the climbing community would like to get to the bottom of this controversy.
I'll post more as it becomes available.
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