The elasticity and plasticity of materials at high pressure are of great importance for the fundamental insight they provide on bonding properties in dense matter and for applications ranging from geophysics to materials technology. We studied pressure-solidified argon with a boron–epoxy–beryllium composite gasket in a diamond anvil cell (DAC). Employing monochromatic synchrotron x-radiation and imaging plates in a radial diffraction geometry (Singh et al 1998 Phys. Rev. Lett. 80 2157; Mao et al 1998 Nature 396 741), we observed low strength in solid argon below 20 GPa, but the strength increases drastically with applied pressure, such that at 55 GPa, the shear strength exceeded 2.7 GPa. The elastic anisotropy at 55 GPa was four times higher than the extrapolated value from 30 GPa. Extensive (111) slip develops under uniaxial compression, as manifested by the preferred crystallographic orientation of (220) in the compression direction. These macroscopic properties reflect basic changes in van der Waals bondings under ultrahigh pressures.