On Wednesday we awoke to another windy & rainy day, so we had a slow morning & drank the now-standard two cups of coffee each as we read and did a little organizing around the apartment. After a walk to the grocery, we both packed up our duffel bags a bit and tried to get things in good shape for our eventual departure to Calafate, and subsequent flight to Buenos Aires. During the packing time, Isaac found a boxed cake mix that he & Justin had picked up a few weeks back, adn

After my solo maté coffee shop time, I popped back home to see what Isaac was up to. Since the weather was looking like absolute trash for the coming week in the mountains (crazy wind, lots of snow/rain, and cold temps), we decided to move our flights to Buenos Aires earlier, from Monday to Friday. Isaac has a friend, Paulo, in the city & he said we could stay with him for the weekend! I'm pretty excited to check out the city for a few days. The Chaltén chilling has been amaz

As the short weather window was coming to a close on Saturday, we knew our friends would all be making their way back into town. Isaac & I had a chill day, a good chunk of which was spent at La Esquina drinking coffee, reading, writing a bit, and just hanging around enjoying the cute coffee shop vibe. I had sent Evan some photos of the Austral parakeets I'd seen up near Laguna Torre (he does awesome water color paintings of birds) -- once he was back in town after climbing up

Since we weren't going to be climbing on Friday (the best weather day for the week) Isaac recommended I go check out the Torre Valley. This valley is on the west side of the Fitz Roy Massif and separates the Torres (Cerro Torre, Torre Egger etc) from the Fitz Roy ridge line & surrounding summits. We'd gotten some awesome views into the valley from the summits of Poincenot & Mermoz, but I hadn't been back that way on foot. The section of the valley I wanted to get to was about

We spent a few days lounging in town resting, hanging with Isaac's parents, and mostly eating food constantly (didn't feel a full post, so adding some details here). Isaac's parents, Dann & Dana, brought us out to a few more meals including an AWESOME lunch on their final day at La Tapera! This is a cute & unassuming little spot of our side of town that I'd walked by, but had not clue that it was a nicer restaurant. We ordered all sorts of things: guanaco lasagna, a few roast

We awoke on Saturday morning with enough time for coffee & breakfast before it was time to take a taxi 30mins north of town to the Río Eléctico bridge & trailhead. Previously, we had just walked from town to the east face of Poincenot, but the route we wanted to climb next was on the west side and required an alternative entry point. The plan was to make it to either the Piedra Negra bivy site or continue past that point to bivy on the snow/glacier at the base of the route in

The next morning was nice & slow. Coffee, check the forecast, and a little writing for me & work for Isaac. I was feeling pretty wrecked from the previous few days and spent a bit trying to loosen up the body. My legs, shoulders, and hips felt especially sore from the heavy pack, along with the standard climbing muscle soreness & a stuffy nose from a few nights of sleeping in the cold, wet tent. One thing that I didn't really anticipate (which is foolish in hindsight) is how

The Fitz Roy Massif. Peaks from left to right: St. Exupery, Rafael Juárez, Poincenot, Fitz Roy (tallest), Val Biois, Mermoz, and Guillaumet Although the photo above was clearly taken from google images, it really displays how dramatic this range is, so I felt it'd be useful. Our plan upon leaving the house in Chaltén was to climb Royal Flush on the east face of Fitz Roy, a ~4,000ft tall face and one of the longer routes in the range. I was anxious, as this would without a dou

After an absotuely massive night's sleep, we woke up feeling pretty refreshed. Isaac made us some coffee and I did a little #blog writing while he did some work as we let the caffeine wake us up. Since Isaac has spent over 2 months in Chaltén over the last years, he's definitely got much of the local life figured out -- the best groceries, which bakeries have the best chipas (an epic ball of cheese bread popular in Argentina & Paraguay), the best running loops from town, and

Packing for this trip was a daunting task. Although we had many shared & individual spreadsheets, on which I could "check" every individual item, I couldn't help but feel like I was missing something. Clothes, toiletries, camping gear, rock climbing equipment, ice & mixed gear, ropes, spare parts, electronics, food... The list was big & overwhelming. I've never done a climbing trip abroad -- I can usually just throw everything in the truck & wing it, knowing that most forgott

Although much of the training for this trip has been focused on technical skills, time in the gym, and dialing in the systems & gear, the rest of it was much more on the side of "Type 1 Fun". Emily and I opened up our alpine season together with our first summit of Mt. Neva in the Indian Peaks Wilderness! While mostly on trail, the final mile or so to the summit contains a beautiful, exposed, 4th class ridge to the summit. The ridge was clear of snow, but the surrounding peak

Whether explicit or not, much of the training for this trip has been focused on increasing our ability to suffer. By “suffer”, I don’t mean the unexpected, necessary types of suffering that life throws at you. I mean the fully avoidable, self-induced suffering that comes with big mountain adventures — especially in a place like Patagonia. Although I’ve never been, the climbing world is riddled with stories of the place. From talking to the Boulder old-timers who climbed ther

In late July 2022, Isaac & I set off towards the Wind River Range in Wyoming for a trip to the Cirque of the Towers. After spending a handful of "Alpine Tuesdays" together (days we both had off all summer long) in the Rocky Mountains getting acclimated and having some big days out in the mountains, we were ultra-psyched to get after it in The Winds. We had some objectives in mind and a few must-do's, but we were mostly looking forward to getting out into the backcountry in ne