Back to Life on 4 Wheels

Well, it has been about 3 weeks since I have gotten back from Patagonia, and I have already managed to climb twice as many pitches since my return as I did down there!  Although work has been slow (non-existent) around here, it has been nice to relax a bit and catch up with the family and some friends before heading back down to the madness that is Yosemite.  

One of the greatest things about having so much time on my hands (and power tools at my disposal), is that I was able to finally tackle a project I had been planning:  a sleeping platform/storage system for the back of my truck.  I based it of of several other people's designs, and took what I liked from each, trying to keep things as simple as possible and easy for one person to remove.  now it's finished and covered in a nice carpet, ready to hit the road down south in a couple weeks.  This baby is like the Four Seasons compared to throwing down next to the rig in a dust bowl outside Mammoth!  See you folks down there...

Aguja De la "S"oul

It´s been a long time since my last post, mainly because I haven´t DONE anything in the last few weeks! After the last attempt on de la S, there was a 2 week storm that either forced people to pack up and bail or to wait it out and endure a strange brew of Patagonian cabin fever.

Our cabana

With swollen rivers and deep snow, I was held captive my my gear cache at my high camp below the Rio Blanco glacier, so we sat out the storm in epic Patagonian fashion. Two long weeks were filled with seemingly unending asados (BBQs) with a live band courtesy Nico Favresse, Mason and Sean Villanueva, baking marathons, brief bouldering sessions at the Madsen boulders in town, and by going for days impersonating Borat.

Nico, Mason and Sean

Beckett crooning. Notice lack of opposite gender.

Nico on Vaca Muerte
boulder

When the weather forecast finally did show a 2 day window for the 22nd and 23rd, Wagner and I made plans to go back up and complete the Austrian route on de la S and retrieve my cache. I changed my flight back to the States so that this would be my last attempt- my patience was already worn too thin to wait for another good window.

Bivy Cave below Rio Blanco Glacier

We hiked up to the cave in good time and with light packs, arriving to find more food than I had thought I left, so we had a nice meal and settled in early. Waking up at 4:30am, we were on the glacier at 5:10 and making tracks up to the base of the route. As the sun came up and covered Fitzroy and Poincenot with a ruby red glow, I could not believe how much snow had actually fallen during the storm. All the open crevasses had been filled or covered over, and the SE faces of de las S and St. Exupery were blasted with rime ice.

Sunrise on Poincenot and Fitzroy

Wagner looking up at the route

Once we were at the base of the snow ramp, we were confronted with the harsh reality of Patagonia: climbing rock routes after a huge storm is dumb. There were two large slab avalanches that had come down the ramp (probably the day before), and the upper dihedral pitches were choked with snow and ice. With our backup route (the Bulgarian direct) also out of condition, we headed down.

The Calm before the STORM

On the way, the "good" weather decided to pack up as well, and was replaced by a mixture of snow, rain, and the strongest winds I have ever been in. At one point while hiking down from the cave, it was coming in so strong that I was being lifted OFF my feet and moved a couple meters!
So back down in town I began to pack up, and I bailed yesterday, taking a flight out of Calafate to Buenos Aires, where I sit and write this note. You can´t win em all, and for a first trip to Patagonia feel like I may not have accomplished any of the ambitions I came down with, but did get to stand on top of Cerro Solo, and now have all the beta and ideas for how to make the next trip down here that much better.

I'm OUTTA here!

Los Vientos de Patagonia

Hola chicos and chicas, Just got back down from an attempt on the Austrian Route on Aguja de la S, a peak next to the towering giants of Poincenot and Fitz Roy. The weather for the weekend was forecasted as being a good high-pressure system, but as it drew closer, looked as theough wind would play a large factor in determining the fates of most parties up in the mountains. Me and my partner hiked up from town to the Vivac de Cueva just underneath the glacier in about 7 hours, and made a camp just outside the cave due to high occupancy.


Despite getting an alpine start, making tracks across the glacier just as the sun was rising, and climbing the initial 150m 50/60 degree snow ramp in good time, we just weren´t able to make it happen with the weather window closing in on us.


The first half of the route, a clean dihedral system running up 300m to the col, is sheltered from the fierce westerly winds, but when it started snowing just as I finished leading the 4th rock pitch in boots, we decided to pull the plug as the summit was no longer an option. The storm continued to close in, and as we postholed out, we were repeatedly knocked off our feet by some of the strongest gusts I have ever felt.

I left all my gear cached up at the cave, and am planning on heading back up after this week of poor weather clears out. For now, David, Blake, Paul and I are cozy in our plush A-frame and are getting ready for the big party we are having tomorrow night complete with 2 30 kilo corderos (goat) we are roasting on the BBQ! More news and pics to come, stay tuned.

Cerro Solo

With a short weather windown forecasted this week, and with a limited amount of time available due to the work commitments of my partner Marcos, we decided on a climb that would we be able to do in a short trip from town and without having to hike a big load up to one of the primary basecamps.

Sunrise as we begin the ice pitch

Cerro Solo seemed to fit the bill perfectly. With a bivy site only 4 hours hike from town, we were able to leave at around 3pm and make it up there with plenty of time for a relaxed evening, and even a chance to get some actual sleep (on an alpine climb?!).

After crossing the tyrolean to the other side of Laguna Torre, we made it up to camp and chowed down on some leftovers we had brought with us from town. With enough daylight left, we hiked further up to scout out the couloir that would take us to the corner of the hanging glacier.

The next morning we woke up at 4am and took this route up to the glacier, but found out it was the wrong one, and this one had deposited us underneath the middle of the glacier! Instead of wasting hours climbing down and around/bailing to go get some breakfast, we decided just to go straight up, which ended up being a 50-60 foot pitch of AI2.

Fitz Roy and Poincenot

Now on top of the lower glacier, we were able to traverse and get onto the normal route which ascends the safest terrain through the upper glacier. One more short section of steep snow and we were on the summit, at 8:15am.

Summit shot with Fitz and Poincenot in background

The views over to Cerro Torre and Fitz Roy were remarkable, but looking west towards the Hielo Sur, the largest non-polar ice cap in the world, and the distant peaks of the Cordon del Mariano Moreno makes you realize how great the scale of things is here.

We descended quickly, as the snow was beoming quite poor and the snow bridges were too poor to be walked over safely in most cases.

Just a short hike out, and we were back in town for homemade pizzas and a cold Quilmes.

The weather looks good for this coming week, so stay tuned for more!

...internet is unbelievably slow here, it has taken me over an hour to post these 6 pictures, so there are more to come...

El Chalten

Some of you may be asking yourselves, "Is Ryan even IN Patagonia? He just posts pictures of himself climbing in great weather, with no snow, often in T-shirts!" Well I wasn´t too sure myself until now...

I am now (and for the rest of my trip) in El Chalten, a dusty frontier town which serves the springboard for all the major climbing expeditions to the Cerro Terro and Fitz Roy groups. With the free camping no longer available in town, most climbers are no forced to rent apartments or long-term rooms to serve a their base camp in town, while keeping a stash of gear and/or a high camp up at either Niponio or Paso Superior for when the weather looks promising. Luckily I ran into a friend of mine from WWU, Blake Herrington, so I am sharing a room (the Cave) with 3 other dirty climbers and a Rodesian ridgeback named Obie.

Since arriving on the Nightmare Dust Bus from Bariloche, roughly 8 days ago, I managed to hike up to Camp Niponino to learn the approach (it is a very circuitous 7 hour glacier approach), and watch a pretty nasty storm blow in and cover everything with ice.

There wa also the Festival de Boulders a few days ago, which has become an anual event held a tthe beginning of February to commemorate the first ascent of Fitz Roy. I competed in the bouldering competition, which was much more of a large gathering of pysched climbers ust out having fun for the day, and it all ended with a huge party.

So far so good, I am still waiting for my partner to materialize- with Amir back in the states I forgot what a drag it is to be in a climbing area without a partner when the weather is good!

Alpine Cragging at the Frey

Rapping with Monte Tronodor in the background

Alright all you cubicle jockeys, dirtbag rock monkeys and other riff-raff out there- grab a beer, kick yer feet up, and enjoy the latest cheap thrills coming at you from the Fin del Mundo in Patagonia.

La Tapia

I just got down from 14 days of great tower climbing up in the alpine playground known as Frey. Just a 4 hour hike out of the town of Bariloche, this place has got it all to keep even the diehard crack addicts and slab masters happy. But what really gets this place on the worldwide climbing map is the sheer amount of towers which end in super small summit needles.

Camponile Esloveno

Amir and I did 2 separate trips up there, as the initial haulbag load of almost 90 lbs (food and gear for 7 days) nearly killed me.

Me climbing up the 5th pitch of Imaginate (Camponile)

We climbed on nearly every major formation, completing several long notable routes on the Camponile Esloveno, Torre Principal, and the Cohete Lunar. Frey is known for its sandbagged grades, and didnt disappoint in this regard. Much of the climbing is pretty heads up, which makes for quite an exciting experience on lead here.

The weather stayed pretty good for the most part: we only lost one full day to a storm that blew in, and had several late starts due to morning squalls. Some of the days definitely gave me some preperation for heading down south, the wind coming over the Andes on the Camponile and Principal was pretty intense.

The scene up there is much more hectic than Arenales, as there are many more non-climbers hiking through, and much more crowding on certain classic routes,. but the spread out nature of climbing at the Frey mitigates some of these downsides.

Over all, it was a great 2 weeks, getting a lot of routes ticked off with Amir before I take off in a couple days to head down south and he heads back to the states.

Hopefully I can figure out a way to get pics off my camera soon, so again, all the shots are from Amir.

Until the next one, which will be coming straight from the deep down south, the icebox of El Chalten.

Success on Cerro Rincon

Cerro Colorado

Hola chicos and chicas, coming to you live from Bariloche, in the middle of the twister that just touched down, the newest installment of the Patagonia Sufferfest 2009!
After Arenales, I was unable to get a ticket down to Bariloche to climb at the Frey due to New Year´s crowds, so Amir and I went back up to the Cordon del Plata to do some more climbing at altitude, and I hoped to have a bit more success on some of the peaks in the back of the valley that I got too sick to climb earlier on last month.
We went out with light alpine packs and based ourselves out of Refugio San Bernardo where we could cook our food and sleep without having to take tents out with us. The trade-off is that the refugio is only at 9,000 ft. With three days out there to spend before needing to be back in Mendoza to catch our bus, we had limited options.
Day one we climbed Cerro Adolfo Calle (13,470 ft) for acclimazation, an easy trekking summit in the middle of the valley.

Summit of Cerro Adolfo Calle

The next day we just hung out around the refugio, sleeping and eating lots of food, as we planned to leave at 2am the next morning to attempt Cerro Rincon at the far end of the valley, in a single push. This would shape up to be a big day.
We left the refugio at 2:15am, hiking by headlamp. We reached Campo Salto (13,500 ft) at 7am, and rested for 30 minutes or so in the mess tent drinking hot tea and stretching, and trying to warm our cold fingers.

View towards Mendoza from below Campo Salto

Underneath the Supercanaleta on Rincon

The glacier and Cerro Rincon on the right, Cerro Plata in the background

We left shortly thereafter, crossing Stepanek Glacier, underneath the impressive but out of season Supercanaleta, to gain the East Ridge of Rincon. It was a long slog up the ridge to 15,500ft where we took our last break before the final push up to the summit ridge and to the top. The problem: this far into the season the normal snow couloir leading up to the summit ridge becomes a postholing nightmare through deep penitentes (suncups). We opted to flank the couoir through a series of rockbands. It took us 2.5 hours to routefind through some pretty nasty choss, but we finally hit the long summit ridge. I am feeling pretty toasted at this point, and am making a strong case for heading back, but it is purely physical exhaustion and not symptoms of AMS, so Amir pushes me on, and by 1:30pm, we are standing atop Cerro Rincon, at 17,017 ft. The views west towards Chile and unknown chains of peaks in the distance were breathtaking. The Andes are BIG.

The final summit ridge.

On the way down, negotiating the foul rock bands was no fun, and we got lost in a thick fog whiteout for 30 minutes or so before we navigated our way back onto the east ridge and down to Salto.
The clock stopped when we hit the refugio again, for a total time of 16 hours 25 minutes, 8,000 ft gained to the summit (16,000 total).

Amir on summit.

Me at summit

Sadly these are the only pictures I have for now, for some reason my camera isn´t working, so all photo credits go to Amir.
I am now in the Frey, having climbed sick granite spires for the last 6 days up there and leave tomorrow for another 8, so pictures and updates will soon follow.
Ciao...