L'Aconcagua (Argentina) - a challenge : climbing by our own means !

Aconcagua : ribbon of sand in Quechua … A rugged beauty, steep, wild. Finally here we are, the one that dominates the Andes. 3 months & almost 5000km to get there !

We have never embraced the 4000 meters yet we are wanting to flirt with this Grande Dame of 7000 meters called Nature. Majestic and unpredictable at times, Aconcagua embodies the strong woman and so is not to be conquered by any man. It takes trickery to seduce her so we prepared our trip and as if this challenge was not enough, we’ve made it a little harder: we will climb this on autonomy that is to say without guide or agency!

But we are not suicidal: you do not mess with the (high) mountain. During one week, we studied cards, trails, reviewed the technics of acclimatization. We also read a lot of success stories (30% of climbers on average), failures, approached benchmark with equipment rental agencies and got our climbing permit from the local authorities.

Aconcagua : ribbon of sand in Quechua … A rugged beauty, steep, wild. Finally here we are, the one that dominates the Andes. 3 months & almost 5000km to get there !

We have never embraced the 4000 meters yet we are wanting to flirt with this Grande Dame of 7000 meters called Nature. Majestic and unpredictable at times, Aconcagua embodies the strong woman and so is not to be conquered by any man. It takes trickery to seduce her so we prepared our trip and as if this challenge was not enough, we’ve made it a little harder: we will climb this on autonomy that is to say without guide or agency!

But we are not suicidal: you do not mess with the (high) mountain. During one week, we studied cards, trails, reviewed the technics of acclimatization. We also read a lot of success stories (30% of climbers on average), failures, approached benchmark with equipment rental agencies and got our climbing permit from the local authorities … (read more)