BUENOS AIRES – A 64-year-old Australian climber died while making his way up Argentina’s Aconcagua, the highest mountain in the Western Hemisphere, emergency services officials said Sunday.

Robert Arden Huggins’s body was recovered by rescue teams in Mendoza province, where the mountain is located.

The climber, who was part of a larger group, began suffering from altitude sickness at about 6,500 meters (21,311 feet), police spokesmen told the official Telam news agency.

The Australian’s fellow climbers notified police of his death.

Huggins was the fourth person to die during the current climbing season on Aconcagua.

About 7,000 climbers try to reach the Andean mountain’s summit each year.

Aconcagua, known as the “Roof of the Americas,” towers 6,962 meters (22,840 feet) in Argentina’s Mendoza province, some 1,000 kilometers (621 miles) from Buenos Aires.