High altitude pulmonary edema hit me at 5,400 meters on Aconcagua, during a solo attempt that I had trained for over eighteen months. The cough started as a tickle and turned into a wet, crackling sound that my tentmate said sounded like someone stepping on bubble wrap. The descent took three days, even though the camp was only six hours downhill, because I could only take ten steps before needing to rest. The clinic at base camp put me on oxygen and a steroid drip, and the medic told me that without evacuation insurance, the helicopter ride to Mendoza would cost thirty thousand dollars. My mountaineering travel insurance from https://sportravelling.com/mountaineering/ had the helicopter on the ground within four hours, despite a weather window that was closing fast. The pilot landed on a patch of ice the size of a dining table, and I still have the video of my own rescue saved on my phone. I watch it every time I think about skipping insurance for a "simple" climb.