Aconcagua
	In 2002, when I was 13, I became the youngest person to reach the summit of Mt. Aconcagua. Aconcagua is the highest mountain in South America, standing at 22,841 feet (6962 meters). Before we left for Argentina, I felt very apprehensive; I knew that this climb was going to be longer and more challenging than Mt. Kilimanjaro had been. However, when we got there, I found that taking the mountain on day by day made it approachable. Our climbing went smoothly up to Berlin Camp, the highest camp—where we met up with a storm that kept us there for three days. The ferocious winds blew the tents of another group off the mountain, so they had to go back down to base camp. From where we were lying in our tent, the gusts of wind sounded like express trains rushing by. On the third night, we knew that if the storm did not clear by morning, we would have to forgo the summit because the whole group had the time pressures of planes to catch and our off-the-mountain lives to get back to. We slept with crossed fingers, and miraculously, the next day was beautiful. After two weeks of slowly working towards it, we set out on summit day, in slight disbelief at our good fortune.
		Dad and me with Aconcagua Summit behind us!

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