A steady strong wind would probably have made it much easier to sleep. The problem was that several minutes of silence was inevitably followed by an ominous whistle, the precursor of a vicious gust, whereupon …
Continue reading11. The Wind Starts…
Author: greigmj
10. Carrying to 4900m
Peering out of the tent at 9:16 on 13th January, everything looked very much as it had done the previous morning, and the morning before that : the conditions were clear, calm and cold; the …
Continue reading9. Acclimatising
The next day (12th January) being a rest day I felt no guilt in staying in my tent until well after the “9:15 instant warm-up”, and in fact only got up because it got too …
Continue reading8. Plaza de Mulas
A couple of km further on I passed the ruins of a brick built refugio – it wasn’t obvious why it had been so badly damaged. I could only assume that it had been crushed …
Continue reading7. “Upwards Ever Upwards”…
Sunday 11th January dawned another calm and sunny day, but I couldn’t persuade myself to get out of bed before 9:15 am, which was the time the sun hit the bottom of the valley (having …
Continue reading6. Confluencia to Ibañez
When I woke up on 10th January I was encouraged by the fact that I’d slept almost continuously – much better than the previous night. The acclimatisation process seemed to be working. It was a …
Continue reading5. The Shimmering White Monster
I woke several times during the night, feeling short of breath, which didn’t seem a very good omen. I felt no urge to hurry in the morning. What was ultimately going to govern the length …
Continue reading4. Puente del Inca (2750m / 9000ft)
A kilometre after the Argentine border checkpoint the bus pulled into the side of the road at Puente del Inca, and off I hopped. The bus driver’s assistant elected to heave my rucksack out of …
Continue reading3. Santiago to the Argentinean Border
Thursday 8th January dawned : I had already bought my ticket for the one o’clock bus from Santiago to Puente del Inca, and set about doing the last minute purchases. After contemplating the possible effects …
Continue reading2. Preparations
Once I had decided to attempt to climb Aconcagua, the most immediate problem seemed to be the lack of any potential companions. Nearly 7 years had gone by since I had hatched my rather naïve …
Continue reading1. Prologue…
“Es muy muy muy frio…”, the Argentine mountain guide was saying to me in slow Spanish, which I found all too easy to understand : “…it’s very very very cold..”. The date was 1st February 1991, the place was …
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