Aconcagua, South Face. I experienced with the Austrian Hans Schönberger a really great climb on the south face of Aconcagua. After a 20-day acclimatisation period in the Cordón de la Jaula, we arrived at the Plaza Francia on February 4 and set out the next day on the climb. We chose a variant of the French route, a little to the right of it at the bottom and to the left in the upper part. At about 10,000 feet we followed about 500 meters of the old route. The first day took us up the access slopes, then up a couloir formed by gigantic avalanches which fall from the upper glacier and up the first snowfield (4000 feet of steep ice) to reach our first bivouac at 19,000 feet under a rock overhang (Camp III for the French). On the second day we climbed upwards in continuous snowfall, reaching the upper plateau at two P.M., where we bivouacked at 20,650 feet (French Camp V). The third day found us on ice slopes and tiring rock pitches; the altitude was very high for such difficulties. We bivouacked for the third time 200 feet below the summit ridge at 22,300 feet. The next day a storm held us pinned at the spot until the fifth day, February 9, when we arrived at the summit.

José Luis Fonrouge, Centro Andino Buenos Aires