Wednesday, November 08, 2006

Patagonia


Above is a photo of Refugio Frey, where Heather, Jason and I stayed for 4 nights. We skied a bunch of the couloirs in the backround. Two of the nights, different groups of high school students stayed there (in a different building, thankfully) and were fun to talk to. It seems that an iPod transcends culture, and is a great icebreaker. They insisted on a chess match with me, which consisted of all 42 of them packed in a small room watching the game. They all clapped when I came in, and I promptly lost to their gym teacher who seemed quite skilled. We experienced hot, sunny weather...classic spring skiing conditions. Everyone is very nice and Argentina is awesome. We are headed to Calafate in 1 hour via bus...30 hours enroute. Lots of time to study spanish. More later....


Refugio kitchen
Chess was very popular.  
Sunny skiing outside Frey

Greg Collins and Hans Johnstone left some equipment at Paso Superior on Fitzroy and wanted to retrieve it.  It was left hanging at ground level, but unfortunately wind deposition buried it under about 20' of snow.  We dug a long time but eventually got it.  Bean Bowers is in the green jacket above.  

Rolando Garabotti, Greg Collins and Hans Johnstone drove to Vespignani for a ski tour on Dec 17.  Cool to see a different area.

Jorge took me sport climbing in Valle Encantado, a really nice high desert climbing area next to a beautiful river.  

Jorge Kozul's place in Bariloche.  He makes a great asado.
Tons of granite towers to climb outside Refugio Frey.  Me on top of one. 
Cody Hood on the approach

One evening we got asked to assist with the evacuation of an injured climber.  It was chaotic, and nobody was in charge, but we got it done.