Free-flowing pizza, red wine, party music and flashing fairy lights.
This certainly wasn’t like any mountaineering expedition I’d experienced before, especially pre-summit. But then again, I wasn’t travelling with a standard mountaineering guide.
I’d joined an exclusive trip with Nepalese mountaineering legend Nimsdai Purja, who found overnight fame following his blockbuster Netflix documentary 14 Peaks: Nothing Is Impossible, in which he scales the world’s 14 highest peaks in a record-breaking time of six months and six days.
Sadie Whitelocks (left) went on an exclusive trip with Nimsdai Purja (right), who found overnight fame following his blockbuster Netflix documentary 14 Peaks: Nothing Is Impossible, in which he scales the world’s 14 highest peaks in a record-breaking time of six months and six days
The expedition took Sadie to the mountains of Mendoza, with the aim of summitting Aconcagua, the highest mountain in the Southern Hemisphere at 22,838ft (6,961m)
In total, there were 13 people in the expedition group, and all of them were keen to see what Nimsdai was like in real life
A view of Aconcagua’s basecamp from the surrounding hills on the way towards camp two
To get to Aconcagua, mountaineers fly into the Argentinian city of Mendoza
His go-getting attitude is inspiring on screen but even more so in person. To him, nothing is impossible, even with a hangover I learned.
Our aim, the day after partying the night away, was to summit Argentina’s Aconcagua, the highest mountain in the western hemisphere at 22,838ft (6,962m). In total, there were 13 in our group, and all of us had journeyed to the rugged peaks of the Andes keen to see what Nimsdai was like in real life.
He was late joining the expedition after getting held up in Antarctica, so he helicoptered into basecamp instead, in true film-star style, dressed in black, with his mirrored shades and signature baseball cap completing the look.
‘I haven’t slept for five days,’ he declared after touchdown. However, the lack of sleep didn’t appear to faze this machine of a man and he swiftly went about getting the camp into gear, coming up with an action plan for our summit and giving us a tutorial on how to dress for the mountain before uncorking the wine.
The expedition group get into the party swing of things, with red wine flowing at the dinner table
Sadie said the camp cooks were ‘magnificent’ and that they ‘whipped up restaurant-standard dishes in the most inhospitable of conditions’
Mesmerising: In this stunning shot by Sadie, Aconcagua is seen from basecamp with a starry sky above and high winds whipping the summit
Most groups tackle Aconcagua in three weeks. Sadie signed up for a fast-track trip, with the aim of venturing to the top on the 11th day after spending 10 days hiking from the park entrance to basecamp, which totalled some 23km (14 miles)
Nimsdai’s self-branded red wine – emblazoned with his famed slogan ‘Giving up is not in the blood Sir. It’s not in the blood’
‘I only take one thermos flask with me for summit day,’ he explained when running through his kit, adding: ‘I can make three litres of water with one flask because you can just use a bit of hot water to melt snow in the lid.
‘Another of my secret weapons on the mountain is an apple. I promise you – nothing tastes as good. Just have a little slice as you go. Coca Cola is another thing everyone should pack.’
After we’d all been given a military-style briefing – Nimsdai previously served in the military, spending six years as a Ghurkha and 10 years with the UK Special Forces (SBS) – we settled in for a pre-summit dinner, which swiftly descended into a scene of merriment.
Nimsdai’s self-branded red wine – emblazoned with his famed slogan ‘Giving up is not in the blood, Sir. It’s not in the blood’ – started hitting the table and it was hard not to be swept up by the party atmosphere.
Edwin, one of the…
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