Aconcagua South Face. On January 3,I managed to climb the south face of Aconcagua on the direct (Messner) route, solo, in 15 ½ hours. It took another 5½ hours to descend the normal route. I was the only climber to do the direct route in the past two years. Three other parties were successful in December, 1990 and January, 1991 on the original French route: Japanese in four days, Koreans in five days and a solo Chilean in four days.

Thomas Bubendorfer, Deutscher Alpenverein