Aiming to climb and hopefully summit one of the worlds highest peaks can, in my opinion, be placed into two distinct categories “Foolhardy” or a “Real challenge”. Though this “Real challenge” only becomes foolhardy if you A. have not put the hours in to condition yourself for the rigors of high altitude trekking or B. do not have sufficient experience or both. I am now confident I have acquired both having spent approx 18 months training and, albeit 7 years ago, summiting Kala Patthar (located on the Everest Base Camp Circuit, East Himalayas) but hey, feels like yesterday.
Aconcagua is located west of Mendoza city in Mendoza province and in the principal Cordillera of the Andes mountain range. At an elevation of 6,962m (22,841ft) its summit is the highest outside of Asia, the highest in the western and southern hemispheres and the highest in the Americas. Its “normal route” to the summit is non technical and is considered the highest trek to a summit in the world. Making the summit in January can momentarily make a person the highest on terra firma as it is very unlikely there will be anyone summiting higher peaks in the Himalaya in winter! We will be taking the normal route up and we will be taking it with much due care and attention.
There’s two things that could prevent this from happening that are out of my control and that’s the weather and altitude sickness. We can’t control the weather (maybe room for debate on other such websites but lets remain realists on here) and symptoms of altitude sickness do not discriminate. You could be an extreme marathon runner, Park runner or walker of your favorite hound on a sunny, sunday afternoon. It all comes down to genetics, mostly. So touch wood (leans back on chair to reach wooden shelf at arms length away) all will be fine.
Before any of this there is just the small task of completing a 10 hour flight across the |Atlantic with approx 30kg of equipment in tow. My flight leaves at 22:10 tonight, Heathrow T5.
Bye for now, James.
Quote of the day.
“Why do you go away? So that you can come back. So that you can see the place you came from with new eyes and extra colors. And the people there see you differently, too. Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving.”
Terry Pratchett.
Aconcagua Trek. 
From The Lord of the Rings:
He often used to say there was only one Road; that it was like a great river: its springs were at every doorstep and every path was its tributary. “It’s a dangerous business, Frodo, going out of your door,” he used to say. “You step into the Road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there is no telling where you might be swept off to.”
Frodo Baggins about Bilbo, The Fellowship of the Ring, Three is Company
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Nice Tolkien reference Dave…… Keep it coming!
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