To Chaltén!

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 forgotten items could be picked up somewhere along to way to Wyoming, Utah, or California. Emily listened to my daily "AHHH there's so much to DO!" complaints for the past few weeks as I gathered the last bits & bobs from the packing list (sorry Emily), but overall I didn't need too many new pieces of gear or equipment for the trip, which was nice.

The above photos show a good chunk of the list, but far from all. The final weight of all bags was ~115lbs with ~17lbs coming from food alone. Chaltén has plenty of food options, but not much in the way of freeze dried meals or easily transportable, protein-dense snacks, so I packed quite a bit on that front. Although packing for big trips is mildly stressful, I absolutely LOVE when it's finally time to really organize things. Once the gear, clothes etc. are all out and it's time to pack things into stuff sacks, dry bags, and eventually the duffels/backpacks... Something about turning the chaos into a well packaged & transportable bundle is just so satisfying.

And just like that, it was time to head out. I found out about a week before that our friend Greg was actually on the same flight out of Denver! He was heading to Colombia for a few weeks to go paragliding in the hills around Calí, and we were on the same initial flight to Panama. Emily was kind enough to drop the two of us off at the airport with our ridiculous load of bags & gear (THANK YOU!!), and after a sad "see ya in a few weeks" and some extra hugs, Greg and I were off. Greg had gotten a new credit card the day before which gave him access to the Capital One Lounge, so we had an awesome & unexpected snack and free (for me) beer while waiting to board. A pretty epic surprise & a perfect way to start the trip. Even better for Greg, since he'd forgetten his two burritos in the fridge at home which were supposed to be his dinner. We departed at 9:45pm & unfortunately neither of us got much sleep on the way to Panama...

A pretty uneventful flight overall, just fading in & out of semi-sleep wishing for a real bed for a few hours. Greg's friend Joey was on the same flight & we all spent a few hours hanging at Panama City airport drinking coffee, hearing about each others trips, and just hanging before they took of on their final connection. Since I still had 4 hours in Panama, a 7 hour flight, 7 hour layover in Buenos Aires, another 3 hour flight, and FINALLY a 2.5 hour bus ride to get to Chaltén, I was so so glad to have some company for the first leg of the travels!

The next ~24 hours were quite boring and very slow. After 4ish more hours alone in Panama, I hopped on the 7 hour flight to Buenos Aires. Took a nice nap on the flight, another long layover through the night, and then the 3 hour flight to Calafate. Once I landed in Calafate, I was starting to feel the excitement build. The flight in gave some glimses on the Fitz and Torre Massifs from a distance, as well as some INCREDIBLE views of two absolutely monstrous lakes -- Lago Arentina and Viedma Lake, Viedma being almost 50 miles long in the East-West direction. I didn't get a bus ticket from Calafate to Chaltén in advance since I was worried about the many opportunities to be delayed getting there, but quickly bought one upon arrival. After finding all of the bags & laying in the sun drinking coffee for 45mins or so, we loaded onto the small 12 passenger bus & started off for Chaltén

The bus ride from Calafate to Chaltén is about 2.5 hours and every minute of it is absoutely stunning. Calafate is a much more desert-y environment, but it gradually changes as you get closer to Chaltén. Most of the drive, you're either going along wide, glacier blue rivers or huge lakes. I probably saw about 100 guanacos (one jumping over a fence in the photo above), dozens of emus (unexpected), and a handful a rainbows over the mountains ahead as rain was coming down. We took a pit stop at a really cute little hotel, Hotel de Campo La Leona, on the river at one point for a bathroom break & empanada lunch. I didn't anticipate the stop and it was much appreciated as I really really had to pee and was getting quite hungry.

After this pit stop, the views on the drive started to get me so fired up! The hotel was at a crossing point on the Río La Leona, after which the next ~50 miles of the drive are along the northern shore of Viedma Lake. The views across the lake were wild -- glaciated peaks, massive valleys, and (way off in the distance) the first views of Cerro Torre, Fitz Roy, and the surrounding peaks which I'd heard so much about for years. I was glued to the window for the final 45mins or so watching the Fitz & Torre massifs come in and out of the clouds. The weather looked pretty bad up there and the clouds were flying by the summits, giving only brief moments where everything was visible before the disappeared again. The moody weather, obvious wind, and rain off in the distance honestly made me feel so nervous. I'd anticipated the peaks feeling huge, but from the road they looked absolutely monstrous.

As we started to get close to Chaltén, I sent Isaac an email that I was getting close (his phone was launched into the river weeks ago & he's been phone-less since then lol). Our driver asked if we wanted to take a moment to check out the view of the ranges from the Parque Nacional Los Glaciares overlook before the final descent into town -- There were only 3 other people on the bus and we were all 100% interested in checking it out. After some quick photos in the ripping wind, we boogied down the hill in search of the apartment. All I had was an address, but no clue what the place looked like, so our driver just dropped me off in the general vacinity. I spent the next 20 mins mostly just laying in a patch of grass waiting for a reply from Justin & Isaac, but since Isaac had no phone and Justin had no service (only WhatsApp), it took a bit. I was just psyched to finally be in town & out of a plane/bus seat.

After a short rest, the boys found me out on the road. Seeing the dudes walking down the road towards me, I was suddenly overwhelmed with excitement to finally be here. With huge smiles on their faces, we all hugged & they grabbed my extra bags (which I had zero chance of carrying all on my own) and we headed for the apartment. Justin had a last-minute, unexpected flight change from Aerolineas Argentina and sadly had to leave that evening instead of the following afternoon :( so after an introduction to the place, we took a nice long walk around town to get some groceries & ice cream. I'd heard the lore about Heladería Domo Blanco, the go-to post-climb ice cream spot, and Justin needed to get his final scoops before leaving town for the season. One of isaac's scoops immediately fell from his cone onto the ground, which was kind of expected given that they put multiple scoops onto the world's smallest ice cream cone lol. We all sat in the sun on a bench for a while catching up, talking travel & climbing, and generally hearing how their time had been so far. It would've been a blast to have had more overlap with Justin so that we could all climb together, but sadly he had to get back to work & "real life".

We continued our town walk, hit the grocery for some coffee, veggies, and ingredients for dinner, and went back home for a bit more chill time before Justin had to leave. Eventually, it was time to grab the bags & walk Justin the bus stop. After our goodbyes, it was just the two of us & it was time to stare at some weather forecasts on the computer to see how the coming days were shaping up. After a whole bunch of back-and-forth, we had planned a few options for the upcoming window -- It was looking like two short windows in an 8 day period, with a slight chance that the storm in the middle would be mild enough to stay out in the hills & make it one longggg outing. We left things there, since it was only Friday & the earliest we'd be hiking out was Monday. Plenty of time for things to change for better or worse.

We spent the next few hours unpacking my stuff, cooking an epic dinner at home, and generally just catching up on the details of Isaac's month in Patagonia so far, as well as my time back home in Boulder. We had to pick up laundry down the road at 8pm to get my clean sheets & our dish towels, which we turned into a dessert-search as well. Since Chaltén is so far south, it doesn't get dark until after 10pm! By 8:30 we were laying in bed watching TV & stretching, which was so so nice after the ~34 hours of travel. We fell asleep while it was still light outside (though it was after 10pm), and ended up sleeping 10.5 hours. My final thoughts before sleep were slightly nerve-filled given the short time until we'd be hiking out into the hills, but mostly I was just SO PSYCHED that I'd finally made it to Patagonia. Time to CRANK IT!