martin conway

When Bill Tilman travelled to the Pakistan Karakoram in 1937, he hoped to solve two unexplained geographical riddles: the existence of an icecap in Central Asia, and a glacier without any river outlet. He relished the opportunity to prove the scientists wrong.

The South Face of Aconcagua, with its tumble of icy seracs and snow chutes, has long been attractive to extreme alpinists who need a liberal sprinkling of danger with their climbing. The first team to climb it certainly got that.

When you’ve put so much time, money and physical commitment into a climb, it’s never easy to turn around just fifty metres from the top. Here are some stories from Aconcagua which help to shed light on when that decision should be made.

The riddle of Snow Lake and the glacier with no outlet

The first ascent of the South Face of Aconcagua

To climb or not to climb? Those last 50 metres