Peaking at 6,962m, the Aconcagua mountain within the Andes region in Argentina is ranked as the highest mountain outside of the Asian continent.

More than a kilometre higher than Mount Kilimanjaro, such a scale would need a lot of preparation, and Celine Xuereb, who recently scaled the mountain herself, explains exactly how she prepared her body for the arduous trek: “Most training recommendations suggest you go hiking in nearby mountains to train on mountainous terrain and gain a bit of altitude, but since we live at sea level, I could not really train for that,” she explains.

Instead, she compensated with an intense physical regime, training a minimum of once a day (generally twice a day, with a session in the morning and another in the evening). Preparation for the ascent took various forms: hill training – going up and down the same hill for a minimum of two hours with a weighted vest of 20kg, gym training – core, cardio and lots of step master, again wearing the same weighted vest, fitness classes on free evenings and even occasionally joining the Kilimanjaro challenge team for Sunday treks.

Celine, who had previously scaled Mount Elbrus in Southern Russia in 2018, admits that she always wanted to do the Aconcagua, but she didn’t expect it to be so soon after: “At first I declined, but with some convincing from my brother I decided to take on the challenge and booked my spot in mid August,” she explains. Celine was the only Maltese in a group of 12 adventurers, with four Americans, four Australians, one Brit, one Indian and one German person, who together took the Polish Traverse route up the mountain.

The climb took a total of 12 days, with six different stops, while descent took only two: “Going up is tough because your oxygen saturation is diminishing but going down is tough on your knees,” she says, adding that the way up was far trickier. The most difficult moment occurred during the transition between basecamp and camp 1 with the terrain consisting of loose rocks on steep slopes: “Loose rocks are never that comfortable to walk on and the scree slope was a big challenge as you take three steps up and slide 2 back down. It becomes very demotivating,” Celine says. 

Apart from unstable terrain there are other issues such as weather, oxygen supply and energy resources. While oxygen tanks are not a requirement for mountains below 7,000m, the final camp along did have a supply in case of emergencies.

The cold was bearable during the day, but at night the temperatures dipped considerably: “At camp 1, the stream that we used to gather water froze during the night,” Celine says. She admits that sleeping in tents is not as difficult as one might think, but the wind did at times prevent her from getting some well-deserved shut eye: “You could hear the wind coming down the mountain – like the sound of a big wave approaching – and then the wind hits… I barely slept the first night in base camp,” she narrates.

Undertaking extreme exercise in such conditions means that every ounce of energy needs to be used wisely: “Skipping meals is definitely not an option as that is your daily source of energy,” she asserts. There were days were she kept a slower pace to reach the end-goal, but she had a good survival tactic: “Sweets! Plenty of sweets and pacing myself to have the energy for the whole trip,” she reveals.

Despite the hardship in reaching the summit, Celine says making it all the way to the top is an incredible feeling: “ The best part of it all is definitely reaching the summit and celebrating that achievement with your friends and teammates.” There is more for the local adventuress to achieve, but for now, scaling mountains is taking a back seat: “I am sure I will end up attempting another, however no plans as to which yet,” she concludes.

Rock on girl!