Aconcagua 2023: one mountain too many

Last Saturday 16th December I should have been jetting off to Argentina on a 3-week expedition to climb Aconcagua, the highest peak in South America, at 6,961 metres high.

Sadly, I decided to pull out a week before. Quitting goes against all my values and messages as a motivational speaker, but this time a number of factors were outside of my control and it felt like the right thing to do. Aconcagua is a BIG mountain with enough heavy load carrying, and you can’t add emotional baggage on top of that too. And my family don’t need any more anxiety right now.

My main adventure goal for 2023 was to make a comeback after Long Covid, and I think it’s fair to say I’ve achieved that with the Frog Graham Round, 13 Valleys Ultra, swimming Wastwater, and other things. Now I need to take myself away somewhere to reflect, recover and work out what happens next.

Thanks to the Climbing the Seven Summits team for being amazingly supportive and understanding of my situation. I wish them the best of luck and hope the mountain gods are kind!

And thanks to all of you on here for following and supporting my various peaks, troughs, and everything in between. It means more than you know, and I genuinely appreciate it.

See you all in 2024 – it’s going to be a big one…