Tom Hughes, 51, of Vienna; Bob Gaskins, 41, of Chantilly; and Ken Stringer, 60, of Reston, flew to the state of Mendoza in Argentina on Jan. 16 to tackle the eight-day climb to the summit, which peaks at 22,841 feet. Mount Everest, the tallest mountain on earth, measures 29,028 feet.

The trio had previously tackled Mount Rainier in Washington State in 2004. While that peak reaches 14,410 feet, Hughes said Rainier is technically a bit more difficult than Aconcagua.

Rainier is also much colder throughout the entire climb. While the peak of Aconcagua was covered in snow, the base of the mountain was enjoying an Argentinian summer.

“It was a big change within two days, you didn't know what you were going to be wearing from one minute to the next,” Hughes said. “We started out in shorts and short-sleeved shirts ... and by the time we got to the high mountain we were wearing big, thick down coats.”

All told, the hike took eight days from base to summit and two days to descend. The ascent is more difficult because of the obvious incline, but also because of the acclimatization the climbers must make to the altitude. To ease their bodies into the altitude, they used a “leapfrog” method of climbing up with gear to a base camp, unloading and descending a bit before setting up camp for the night.

Climbing too quickly can cause altitude sickness, which includes nausea, headaches and more seriously, pulmonary and cerebral edemas.

None of the climbers experienced any serious symptoms, but the altitude produced other curious effects beyond the morning headaches.

“We had crazy, crazy dreams. High altitude plays a crazy effect when you relax, they were vivid, there's just no way to explain them,” Hughes said.

Gaskins was the only one of the three who was unable to reach the summit. At 20,900 feet, his toes and feet went “completely numb” and did not respond to nearly an hour of efforts to warm them up, a problem he said was caused by the wrong equipment.

Part of the challenge was the extreme temperatures at night, which froze the condensation from their breaths on the top of the tents.

“When the sun hit the tent at 9:30, in a matter of minutes (it melted) and we got a nice cold shower,” Stringer said.

Although physically the climb was “truthfully kind of miserable,” the achievement was well worth the effort, Gaskins said, and he's now set his sights on Mount McKinley in Alaska, also known as Denali, which rises to 20,320 feet.

“These individual endeavors are in some way a test to see how far you can push yourself,” he said.

Stringer said he doesn't plan on tackling on any more mountains that are as daunting as Aconcagua, but “if I changed my mind it would be with Bob on Denali.”

The climb and descent took less time than the men anticipated, so they made use of their extra time and enjoyed Argentina's wineries and food for a couple days after their hike.

That accelerated schedule meant that they did not summit on Stringer's 60th birthday, as he had initially anticipated.

Instead, the men toured vineyards and enjoyed a nice meal closer to sea level to mark the event.

“The wine tours and steak dinners were pretty easy to handle,” Gaskins said.

When it was over, the men returned to their day jobs – Hughes as law enforcement technology developer, Stringer as a consultant at Booz Allen Hamilton and Gaskins as a financial adviser.