We were naive on this trip. We planned on working our way up in altitude and the plan was solid: start at Cusco (3400m), hike the Inca trail (4215m), then climb the huge volcano El Misti (5822m), then Aconcagua (6960m). El Misti was amazing and taught us how cold it can get in the early morning at altitude and that we needed to prepare better with layered clothing and covering our extremities on our next trip. Our guide was from Peru Adventure Tours, and he was fantastic; unfortunately we can’t remember his name. For Aconcagua we went with a small guide operator Holmes Pantoja, who held the speed record for Aconcagua at the time. Boy, did we figure that out! Fantastic guide, very informative and prepared us well. We felt very safe under his guidance. We realised fairly quickly as we ascended from Plaza de Mulas to Berlin that we probably weren’t as fit or prepared for this trip as we should have been. Luckily we booked very early in the season and the weather was such that we couldn’t make a summit attempt. I strongly suspected that we weren’t going to make it anyway, but I’m happy enough to blame the weather. It was a great experience for us, and it was our longest time on any mountain thus far.