Unseen: Video Reveals Final Minutes of Climber Who Died 40 Years Ago on Mendoza Mountain

For more than a minute, Guillermo Vieiro’s Super 8 camera captured a moment of calm before the tragedy on Argentina’s Tupungato volcano. The newly revealed footage shows Vieiro and his young apprentice, Leonardo Rabal, resting at the summit shortly before they fell to their deaths.

Vieiro, 44, was a renowned climber known as the “tamer of Aconcagua.” Rabal was 20. They reached the summit in January 1985 after separating from a larger expedition to explore a route on the mountain’s southern face. A regional earthquake forced the rest of their group to abandon the mission, but the two continued upward.

The silent images show Rabal lying on his stomach among the equipment and backpack, writing notes and making what appears to be a drawing while looking across the rocks, clouds and snow. Vieiro holds the camera, panning and zooming across the surrounding peaks.

The footage came from one of several Super 8 rolls found inside Vieiro’s backpack. Other prominent climbers recovered the pack and returned the documentary material to the family. Vieiro’s daughters had undertaken a journey to recover it after the backpack was spotted in 2024, having remained buried beneath permanent snow.

The images convey satisfaction, emotion, exhaustion and the calm of reaching the summit. Minutes later, during the descent, Vieiro and Rabal fell down an ice wall and died. Their bodies were recovered and returned to their families, while the backpack stayed frozen on the mountainside for four decades. Other tapes are still being processed and may be released later.