Complete: Memories of a Climb

One man's personal account of the first alpine-style ascent of the Messner Route on the South Face of Aconcagua.

In early 1980, three men set out to summit the highest peak in the Southern Hemisphere - Argentina's Aconcagua, standing at 22,838 feet. The trio would ascend via the Messner Route on the South Face, a route that had been climbed before, once, but never alpine style - no oxygen, no fixed ropes, no support team...just three men, carrying all their own gear, equipment and food. Aconcagua is a challenging mountain with unpredictable weather, falling rock and avalanches. The author and his climbing partners experienced all of that and more. In this personal account of his life-changing experience, Michael French brings the reader along into the world of those few weeks on the mountain, complete with highs and lows, loss and bittersweet triumph.

Michael French is an adventurer and a calculated risk-taker with a live-life-to-its fullest attitude and roll-with-the punches spirit. After a distinguished military career and retirement from the United States Air Force, Mike served in the State Department as a foreign service officer. The combination of experiences that colored his younger years in the military, the events of his second career, and the fortitude gained from his adrenaline-pumping hobbies have made him into who he is today. Now spending much of his time on the water, and with the energy of a teenager, Mike maintains and sails his beloved Ericson sailboat on the waters of Southern California and beyond, days, weeks and sometimes months at a time. When not at sea or at the marina, Mike resides in the coastal town of Encinitas with his wife, Patty, who indulges Mike's desire to explore and push limits, understanding and accepting that Mike hasn't yet "got it out of his system." Insta; sv_PeregrineHeart