aconcagua story 5

5 weeks ago I Ieft for South America. I had a lot of questions in my head about life and motivation. I had no idea what to expect from Aconcagua.

Now I am back in Europe. I had one of the strongest life experiences ever. My main goal was to try higher altitude and to see how I manage the ‘expedition life’. It was a great opportunity to measure myself against the best endurance athletes who tried to speed climb this beast before.

Aconcagua is one of the ‘Seven Summits’, highest mountain of the American continent, as well as the Southern and Western hemisphere! My ambition was to simply try my best. The record time sounded so crazy that I honestly did not expect to get anywhere near!

Sometimes life gives you a surprise. A moment when you can ‘reach the stars’. How did it happen? That day 27th December I was not ‘going for it’. My best try was supposed to come 3 days later (just before my permit expired)!

However, I made a good pace. Last couloir  before the summit was scaring me. The first two times up there were so desperate and painful, and I was moving so slow!

What happened there at 6600m that day is still beyond me. I knew that if I made it under 30 minutes I could break the record. But it meant going fast! Making a pace of    more than 800 altitude meters per hour is quite good even for sea level but making it at almost 7000m? At this altitude your VO2max (maximum oxygen uptake) is reduced by about 60%!!

I remember thinking: how often do I get a chance to break a world record? Second thought: I don’t want to do this again in 3 days!!

The rest is history. A blurry memory of pain, focus, feeling that my lungs would burst, my leg muscles giving up, but also excitement and pure joy; and when I arrived to the summit i knew I could not push any harder!

Aconcagua, thank you!