Matthias Zurbriggen reached the summit in 1897.

The first attempt to summit Aconcagua by Europeans was made in 1883 by a party led by the German geologist and explorer Paul Güssfeldt. Bribing porters with the story of treasure on the mountain, he approached the mountain via the Rio Volcan, making two attempts on the peak by the northwest ridge and reaching an elevation of 6,500 metres (21,300 ft). The route that he prospected is now the standard route up the mountain.

The first recorded[1] ascent was in 1897 by a European expedition led by the British mountaineer Edward FitzGerald. FitzGerald failed to reach the summit himself over eight attempts between December 1896 and February 1897, but the (Swiss) guide of the expedition, Matthias Zurbriggen reached the summit on 14 January. On the final attempt a month later, two other expedition members, Stuart Vines and Nicola Lanti, reached the summit on 13 February.[2]

The east side of Aconcagua was first scaled by a Polish expedition, with Konstanty Narkiewicz-Jodko, Stefan Daszyński [pl], Wiktor Ostrowski [pl] and Stefan Osiecki summiting on 8 March 1934, over what is now known as the Polish Glacier.[3][4] A route over the Southwest Ridge was pioneered over seven days in January 1953 by the Swiss-Argentine team of Frederico and Dorly Marmillod, Francisco Ibanez and Fernando Grajales. The famously difficult South Face was conquered by a French team led by René Ferlet [fr]. Pierre Lesueur, Adrien Dagory, Robert Paragot, Edmond Denis, Lucien Berardini and Guy Poulet reached the summit after a month of effort on 25 February 1954.[5][6]

As of 2020[update] the youngest person to reach the summit of Aconcagua is Tyler Armstrong of California. He was nine years old when he reached the summit on 24 December 2013.[7] Kaamya Karthikeyan of India at an age of 12 became the youngest girl to reach the summit on 1 February 2020.[8] The oldest person to climb it was Scott Lewis, who reached the summit on 26 November 2007, when he was 87 years old.[9]

In the base camp Plaza de Mulas (at 4,300 m (14,100 ft) above sea level) there is the highest contemporary art gallery tent called "Nautilus" of the Argentine painter Miguel Doura.[10]

In 2014 Kilian Jornet set a record for climbing and descending Aconcagua from Horcones in 12 hours and 49 minutes.[11] The record was broken less than two months later by Ecuadorian-Swiss Karl Egloff, in a time of 11 hours 52 minutes, nearly an hour faster than Kilian Jornet.[12] The women's record is held by Ecuadorean Daniela Sandoval at 20 hours, 17 minutes.[13]

On 25 September 2019, an Airbus Helicopters H145 landed on the very peak of Mount Aconcagua. This is the first time in history a twin-engine helicopter has landed at this altitude. It took a total of 45 minutes for the entire trip, 30 minutes from Mendoza and another 15 from the base camp up to the peak. Temperatures were reported as low as −22 °C (−8 °F), with wind gusts up to 30 kn (56 km/h; 35 mph). This is not the highest a helicopter has landed before, as a single-engine Airbus Helicopters H125 landed on Mount Everest, the highest mountain in the world.[14]