CHADWICK ON TOP OF THE ANDES

Published: 23 July, 2008

Eduardo Chadwick, president of Via Errzuriz, achieved one of his lifelong ambitions - scaling all 6,962 metres of Mt Aconcagua, the mountain which supplies the water for his Don Maximiano, Las Vertientes, El Ceibo, La Escultura and Sea vineyards, and which separates Chile from Argentina. Mt Aconcagua, known as the Stone Sentinel' for its treacherous slopes, is the highest mountain in the region. Regarded as the ancestral pyramid of the Incas, its melting ice supplies water to many Chilean vineyards. After four months of preparations, Eduardo Chadwick, his UK agent Patrick McGrath MW of Hatch Mansfield, Alex Smith and Richard Cochrane of Valdivieso's UK agent, Bibendum, and a friend, Jimmy Docherty, set off. After eight days of acclimatisation the team left its final camp at 5,900 metres. The journey to the summit started on 1 February at 4am via the Polish Glacier. Over eight hours later, at 12.30pm, Chadwick and his guide, Misael Alveal, conquered the summit for the team and broached a bottle of 1999 Don Maximiano. So far, the team has raised at least 15,000 for the Institute of Cancer Research to fund research into paediatric oncology.

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