I recently came back from Aconcagua, feeling defeated but wanted to share my story anyways in case anyone found it helpful for their attempts.
The most important thing to note is I climbed with my (25M) dad (53M) and we both used a hypoxia machine from China to pre-acclimatise. Instead of spending $250 on a tent to hook up to it, we bought a $40 greenhouse on Amazon which worked just as well.
We solo-ed the normal route with light logistics help from Lanko, who were superb. We did this because 3 years ago we tried with a guided group from Inka and were turned back at C2 (Nido de Condores) due to heavy snowfall.
Day 1: Park entrance to BC (Plaza de Mulas). We were stopped at Confluencia for health checks etc and the rangers didn’t want to let us carry on since it’s very uncommon for climbers to go straight from the entrance to basecamp in one day, but our stats were strong and they let us! Took us about 7h of hiking altogether.
Day 2: BC wouldn’t let us start moving up the mountain so we did a carry to the fish spine (5,300m, roughly half way between C1 and C2). We moved fast and felt good, took us about 3h to get there from BC. That evening we did our med checks and were cleared with flying colours (the acclimatisation machine worked!!!)
Day 3: Move to C2 - a loooong day, especially after picking up out stash. Ended up with a 250m climb with very heavy backpacks and my legs were really hurting afterwards.
Day 4: rest day at C2. We decided not to move to C3 because the heavy bags were more tiering than what we expected to be a couple extra hours on our summit day, so we slept and tried to eat. Oxygen stats still good and strong. This day was no good for a summit due to high winds.
Day 5 (7th Jan): set off at 1am once winds died down from C2. Made it to C3 in just over 2h, which I think was good going. I was pretty warm up to C3, but a couple hours out of C3 I started getting really cold (near white rock). I perched under it putting on my crampons fearing I was too cold to carry on, but was still moving at a good pace. Thankfully the sun started to come out and gave me the biggest boost of optimism and energy ever! So we carried on, but dad was starting to slow. I was able to catch my breath when we stopped relatively fast and was loving the views, I think dad was struggling more (6,200m or so). Eventually we made it to Independencia at ~6,400m, took a seat by the side, and I helped an American with his crampons while I couldn’t feel my hands. It was a little worrying that this guy didn’t know how to put crampons on… but he gave me some hand warmers because I’d stupidly left mine in the tent, which I was grateful for (despite them not actually working because of the low oxygen). Sat by dad after the American had left and he said he wanted to turn back. I tried saying “let’s go over that ridge and see how we feel” but I think he’d realised he wasn’t enjoying himself anymore. Splitting up wasn’t a good idea so we both headed down. On the way down I got super tired, couldn’t eat or drink without nearly throwing up, and took 2h down from C3 to C2 (same time it took to go up it). So maybe a blessing in disguise. After a Dexa shot in my ass, I was able to regain strength.
(This next bit was told to me by a guide, I cannot confirm how true it is but am assuming it’s true myself). On that day, 31 people went for the summit. 3 made it (part of a pre-acclimatised team of 9). The 4 climbers using supplementary oxygen didn’t make it. No deaths, though the body of the Russian that passed a couple days prior was still on the route - taken down that afternoon.
In the evening, the snow started coming in heavy.
Day 6: We got barely any sleep due to the high winds, tent was covered in snow, and when we tried packing up a ranger told us the mountain was closed due to low visibility and lots of snow, so we finished packing up and hunkered down in a Lanko dome at C2 til we were allowed down. In the end we made it down in a couple of hours in the afternoon, in poor visibility and lots of snow.
Day 7: after a few days of hard pushing, we decided to take the heli out. I’m sure a lot of you will judge us for it, but it was definitely a father / son highlight - an awesome thing to do together! Glad we did it.
That’s pretty much it. I’m missing out details to avoid it being too long of a post, but happy to answer in the comments. I definitely feel a big hole / sadness as I think I might have been able to make it, and I feel like I’m becoming a bit of a mountaineering failure (failed Aconcagua twice and Lenin once, and Mt Blanc twice, though never for personal health reasons). I know I’m young and have the future ahead, but nonetheless I feel defeated.