Town Time: Just As Fun As Climbing?

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 wet everything would be. Not just climbing gear & ropes, which I expected, but EVERYTHING! Wet sleeping bags, soaked gloves & layers, socks that never dried out. Which is fine for a day, but after a few days I was feeling ready to slip into a warm, dry bed instead of a cold, damp sleeping bag.

Isaac had told me that after he & Justin climbed Cerro Standhardt, he got a mild case of what he assumed was trench foot: a non-freezing cold injury caused by extended exposure to cold, damp, and wet conditions which I believe can cause mild nerve & tissue damage. I woke up and couldn't really feel the end of my right big toe (and still dont have full feeling a day later) -- a condition we have deemed "trench toe". Not too concerning, but a bit weird realizing that trench foot is a legitimate concern lol.

We hadn't unpacked our backpacks yet, as we kind of wanted to just eat dinner & get to bed the prior night. Isaac made a run to the bakery for some bread & whipped us up some scrambled eggs, and we got to unloading all of the gear to bring out into the yard to dry in the light breeze. The next few hours were very casual. I took a nap, Isaac did some more work, and we pretty much just hung around. Isaac's parents were actually getting into Chaltén that night to visit & explore the place! We planned on getting dinner with them when they arrived, which I was looking forward to as it seemed pretty awesome for them to experience this place that Isaac has spent so much time in.

Since we didn't have much going on & were just recovering and resting, Isaac took a nap and I wandered over to the bakery around the corner for some empanadas for a late lunch. I took a nice long walk after that, with the plan of wandering over to The Hem to see if Evan & Will were hanging around. On the way, I ran into Kawika and Jane -- Isaac had met Kawika at some point earlier in the trip and he had come over to our place a few days ago to get some info about a route on Fitz Roy which Isaac & Justin had climbed. He & Jane were just getting back into town after their Fitz Roy attempt, and we chatted for a while about how it went, what conditions were like, and what food they were about to go eat once they dropped their packs off. It's such an awesome feeling walking around town and running into familiar faces, especially such kind & stoked people with shared interests.

After that serendipitous run-in, I continued on towards The Hem. As expected, a whole crew was out in the yard drying out gear, grilling, and just hanging around. To my surprise upon walking up, Mathias was sitting with Evan & Will over by the house! Mat and I had met before in Colorado & have about a million mutual friends through the weird world of climbing, but I didn't know he'd be there. He'd just gotten into town on Monday and actually attempted a route on Poincenot the day after us. We sat around catching up, talking climbing & non-climbing things, and generally just sitting in the sun & chilling for a while. I was feeling unbelievably lucky to not just be in this place, but to be here with such an incredible community of people. Pretty wild to be thousands of miles from home, but have even more unexpected run-ins with friends than I do in Boulder. When it was time to head back home for dinner with Isaac's parents, walked extra slow back home just thinking about how special this place is.

I took a quick shower back at home & off we went to find Isaac's parents. When we were close by their place, we heard someone holler "Isaaaacccc!" from across the road & looked over to see his mom smiling & waving from the front door of their very cute rental spot. Such a blast seen Isaac's parents in town! Dana and Dann had come from the Bay Area and planned to stick around town for 5 days or so. They were aware that we may leave any time to hike back out into the hills if the weather turned good, so we planned to hang with them a bunch while we could! After some wandering, we found a great dinner spot in the northern end of town & caught up about all sorts of things while we ate. They were pretty psyched to hear details about the town, the climbing, and what recs Isaac had for them while they were here. After an awesome dinner, we popped down the street for some Domo cones! At Domo, we happened to run into Isaac (a different Isaac) & his partner Nicole, also from Boulder, whom I'd planned on getting lunch with the next day. Once again, this town was feeling small & full of friends, which was a pretty amazing feeling.

We eventually went our separate ways & I gave Emily a call before bed. We were testing out the Instagram video call feature (Emily has an Android so FaceTime isn't an option) and we caught up for a while while Emily was throwing a ball around for Summit. It was awesome seeing her face & hearing how the previous week had been, and especially nice to see her & Sums together in our cute little home :)

The next morning was another slow & casual one -- Dann & Dana had brought us some nice coffee from California which was SO MUCH BETTER than the coffee we could find here. I drank an extra cup while I got the day going. After a weather check, we decided that we'd hike out again the following day, Saturday, in hopes of getting some climbing in during a very short calm period on Sunday morning (we'll see how it goes), and started organizing gear, layers, and food. Around noon, I walked over to a coffee shop called PAISA to meet up with Other Isaac & Nicole for some midday caffeine! It was sweet to hear what they'd been up to so far on their month+ long trip to Chile & Argentina and I'm psyched to hang & catch up once we're all back in town. We also got to catch up with Tyler, who I had previously mentioned was attempting the Torre Traverse during the last window, as he was popping into the store next to us for some snacks & groceries. He shared some of his chipas with us (epic) as we sat in the sun hearing about their attempt of the traverse & his ascent of Torre Egger -- the final of the major 10 summits of the Chaltén Massif for him!

I got back home to a pretty awesome scene: Isaac working on his computer, and both of his parents napping in our room. They seemed pretty exhausted from the travels & crashed where things were comfy. Isaac & I then finished our packing list, did a final grocery run for climbing food & hike-out empanadas, and got our packs ready for the morning. After the speed packing, he needed a nap & I had planned to call my parents to catch up on their week. It was great hearing from Mom & Dad, chatting about my trip, and hearing about their very VERY busy week. We parted ways smiling (over FaceTime, that is) and I woke Isaac up so that we could meet his parents at The Asadores for our 6pm dinner reservation. We met up with Dann & Dana and ate an absolutely incredible 5 course meal with everything -- steak, sausage, guanaco empanadas, salad, pork, and so so many delicious sauces (thank you both!!).

As I write this back at our apartment on Friday night, I'm feeling extremely lucky to be in this place. The walk back from dinner with Isaac, chatting about the day & the people & this town, really just had me feeling grateful to be here. A day of great food, better people, and some moderate sunburns from sitting in the sun chatting all day had me feeling ready for a long sleep and, hopefully, some climbing over the weekend :)