Buenos Aires – A mountain climber from the United States died in the midst of a powerful snowstorm Monday as he was descending Argentina's Mount Aconcagua, the highest peak in the Americas.
John Watcher died before dawn at a refuge high in the mountains, where he had been taken by a rescue team and two of his fellow mountaineers, officials of the Aconcagua park ranger service said.
The officials said that Watcher died of exposure to the freezing weather, while his companions survived and are in good health, waiting for the storm to pass in order to climb down to their base camp at the foot of the 6,962-meter (22,826-foot) peak.
The American sportsman and his companions reached the summit of Aconcagua last Saturday and were overtaken by the snowstorm as they were on their way down the mountain.
At the end of last month, 45-year-old Spanish mountain climber Ana Guerra died of a stroke at a camp some 3,000 meters (9,800 feet) up Aconcagua mountain as she and her husband were preparing to climb the so-called "Roof of America."
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