Boulders & Beef

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 amazing, but by the weekend (and with no foreseeable climbing window) we thought we might as well spend a few days there.

We'd talked about going to the climbing gym when it opened at 4pm, but Evan asked if we'd want to go boulder with a big crew instead -- I was super psyched on that idea & quickly packed a little bag for the afternoon before heading over to The Hem. Isaac had a work meeting a bit later, but would join when he could. I made my way uptown & found Evan and Tyler in the yard hanging with the crashpads, attempting to rally the slow-moving large crew from the hostel to get going. We eventually left the hostel and, with a crew & 8-10 crashpads, found our way uphill to the Gato Negro bouldering zone. I'd head great things about the bouldering here, but HOLY SMOKES I was blown away by how amazing it is! Absolutely massive boulders with perfect rock, set in a lush forest, and a huge crew of friends, both new & old, all hanging around. What could be better?

I was primarily hanging with Evan, Will, and Tyler but the cast was rotating and all sorts of familiar (and unfamiliar) faces were rolling through to work on routes together. Miles & Katy, Kavika, Jane, Flavie plus some new friends Roddie and Mickey. And an additional 15-20 people who were friends of someone else around. This was probably just the normal routine for those who've spent time here year after year, but man I had so much fun. Trying hard & sharing beta and psych with such an incredible group of people was such a blast. Lots of laughs & sends & snacks & time laying in the sun. Isaac eventually joined us and seemed to have a pretty great time too just hanging and chatting shit with everyone around. There are many climbing areas where it feels like "the scene" is pretty intense, judgemental, and a bit too serious, but this place just feels so laid back. And all sorts of people were just flashing tall and scary V8s & V9s like it was nothing. A good reminder that being too serious doesn't mean you'll be any better.

I haven't bouldered too much in my life, which is a bit embarrassing given how long I've been climbing, but this day made me feel like I should be bouldering all the time. Especially with a big & stoked group. The hanging & socializing & snacking & trying as hard as you can is just such a blast in this setting. I climbed a few great boulders before moving with Evan over to his short-term project, a super long & tall V8. We spent a while here and I got pretty shut down by one specific move. Flavie and I climbed around on the second half, which was maybe V6, and had a blast figuring it out. We then joined the mega crew down at the main zone to try El Gato Negro, the MEGA classic Dean Potter V9 that's the area namesake. This thing is SO COOL! I spent a while trying it with Evan, Will, & Tyler and at some pointed Kavika and a few others joined too. I haven't tried many boulders this hard -- it was such a blast working the hand positioning, trying different feet, and adjusting hip positioning to make progress. I didn't send, but felt pretty psyched with the effort & continued getting higher and higher every try until I was absolutely toasted. It also felt awesome to feel like I was climbing well after a few weeks away from the gym & bouldering, and to feel like the boulder was theoretically doable in my current shape.

After like 4 hours of cranking on crimps, my skin was pretty shredded and my body was tired. Some of the crew was shifting to another zone, but Isaac and I decided that this would be a good time to head back home to get dinner going. We said our see-ya-laters to a bunch of the crew and a proper goodbye to Evan, who was leaving Chaltén to go back to Colorado the following morning, and started to hike back down into town. I still absolutely love walking down the main street in town -- so many people, cool restaurants & cafes, a million dogs running around, and just a general high-energy and excited vibe all of the time. And some incredible views of the Fitz Massif (which was covered in fresh rime/snow today). We did a quick grocery run for veggies, t-bone steaks, and some noodles to make a stir fry & pretty quickly got to chopping and sautéing once we were back home. The dinner was epic & we washed it down with a few bowls of cereal for dessert.

Now we rest & digest, and likely watch another movie here soon. Today has been one of my favorite town days so far & honestly makes me pretty sad to be leaving soon. A slow morning & coffee with Isaac, solo time out to do a little reading & writing, and then a dreamy day of bouldering in the sun with an incredible group of people... All doable without a car! That's been another awesome part of this trip and DAMN is it nice. Grocery? 2 minute walk. Coffee shop? 2 minute walk. Multiple bakeries? 2 minute walk. Breweries & restaurants & The Hem? 5-15mins maximum. Trailheads for Fitz Roy or Cerro Torre? No car needed. Ugh... life without cars is pretty incredible & this small town living is hard to beat. As excited as I am to be home and to see Emily & Summit and all of the Boulder pals, I'm definitely going to miss the simplicity of Chalten living.