(ot) <<<" Aconcagua is dangerous too, but not so technically difficult. ">>>
WallDiver - Yes it's not too difficult when you've been up - I crashed out at 21,000 ft on this beast, an agonizing 4 hours short of the top, after a 20-day expedition. I say just 4 hours, but it might as well have been light-years.
I know what you mean by the hardest thing, etc. When you're up there, trying to just even sleep, you swear you will spend your next vacation on a beach. Then, from only a month later the images are still in your head, and it's the most beautiful thing possible.
This is the closest I have gotten to the practice of medicine - on one's self that is. I got sick at 7,000 feet and had extreme dehydration for 2 days. Well I won't bore the board with the rest of it, but I did get to appreciate things like "Air" and "Water" and the "Sun's Warmth".
"....on the biotech battle-field, you need some élan...."