The way down was tiresome but it took us only two hours. Finally Berlin, mattress, sleeping bag, warm soup and sleep…

While descending in the morning we came across Tom, who had spent the night at Nido and felt alright now. We put the Nido tent down (it had been standing there for exactly one week) and slid down (much scree) to Plaza de Mulas. This time even this was exhausting…

On the next day we were awake at 7.30 am and, having packed all the stuff, we were told that we… could not go down! Rio Horcones was too high at Confluencia – the bridge had been drown and there was no way across. We were sure we would manage the crossing, but the rangers did not let us get out of the base camp! What should we do? We did not want to stay any one more day at Plaza de Mulas. At last we decided to steal out. So we headed towards the refuge, which lay in the neighbourhood, and then along the stream, being covered from view of the direction of the camp we went round it down to a place, from which we could not be seen any more.

The way down was long and fatiguing and Rio Horcones turned out to be actually a little in spate but still we hopped over it a few times with less than little effort. After a couple of hours we came to Confluencia and there we saw the real Thing. Where there used to be the path, there were roaring and boiling-like waters coloured of coffee with a little milk. But the bridge was still there! We stepped down into the gorge and made our way across by wading, water up to our thighs. The current was strong but with use of the trekking poles one makes it really easily! What had they wanted us to stay at the base camp of such a reason?!

Then there was only the dull “kilometre counting” down to the Park’s limit, sore feet, aching back and then finally THE END. We gave our garbage sacks back (if we had happened to lose them we would have to pay $100 each), had some dinner at a bar (lomo con papas fritas y ensalada – beef steak with chips and salad) and a SHOWER – first time for two weeks. At last…

Just before returning to Poland we have also dobe some rafting but this is a totally different story... ;)

Aconcagua is not a very difficult mountain to climb. The biggest problem is high altitude and the anoxaemia related to it. Still, even for a person who has acclimatised well, spent some days at the base camp and at least one night in each high camp, the summit trial will be quite strenuous. It is, however, worth emphasizing that the peak can be a goal not only for well-trained alpinists or mountaineers. Nearly everybody of good physical shape and, say, alpine trekking experience, can challenge it. Whether successful or not? This depends on many factors, the most important of them being weather and acclimatisation capacity of the organism.

The cost of the whole expedition was approx. 1000 pounds per person, the half of which was swallowed by the flight ticket from Warsaw over Frankfurt/ Main to Santiago de Chile and back.