Campo de Hielo Sur

Jason Kwiatkowski, Heather Thamm, Karen Hilton and I departed on a trip to do some skiing and kiting on the South Patagonian Icecap.  We got dropped off at the Rio Electrico bridge and began the approach.  A couple days later we finally put on our skis.  We based out of the hut at Paso Marconi, which was great.  We had some great days kiting and skiing around, but didn't get on anything big.  We had a fair amount of bad weather, but only were tentbound for 4 out of 18 days....which is pretty good by Patagonian standards.

Some various phots of our trip to the South Patagonian Icecap. 

Below is Karen kiting in front of Cirque of the Alters. Cerro Torre is in the cloud just behind 

her kite.

Above is Heather, just cresting Paso Marconi at about 9pm. This day was a long push, and our first on the icecap.

On our way to Lautauro, Heather fell in a crevasse on Thanksgiving day.

At Paso Marconi is a hut, just inside Chile called Refugio E. Garcia Soto.  It's an abandoned science research station where climbers and skier stay.  The guides and locals seems to keep it up pretty well.  It's a great place to spend the frequent storm days.

Argentine boot dryer.

Camp at Cirque of the Alters, Cerro Torre in the background

Ready to Lauch

Jason with a heavy load on the way out.

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.  

Mt. Siyeh

Chris Gibish and I recently completed a new roue on the north face of Mt. Siyeh in Glacier National Park, USA. We climbed a route that topped out left of the summit. Here's some photos of Chris after a rather loose section, one of the N. Face from the approach and once on the summit. We didn't really name our route, it was more of an upward bail off our intended line which we decided we weren't equipped for physically or mentally.  We ended up heading straight up the fact to the obvious dark stripe at 2/3 height.  After giving it a go with some difficult aid climbing we traversed left on a ledge until easier ground led us to the top.  We also experienced a water container leak, which helped inspire our change in plans and lead to a very thirsty night on route. Fortunately there was a wonderful summit snow field that quenched us the next day. I'd call our route Grade V, 5.9+R 3000'....very chossy adventure climbing.

2009 Update: Kelly Cordes did a little write-up of Siyeh in the Alpinist, issue #27 (Summer 2009). Our roue is marked in the photo.

Mt. Alberta

Chris Gibish and I climbed the NE ridge of Alberta last week. Climbing the route and decending took 17 hours from the Mt. Alberta hut and back. The route was fairly icy, since it had snowed 20cm 5 days earlier. An excellent route with a wide variety of climbing. Some people who came by on the way to the Japanese route (which we descended) said that we were the first people to reach the summit this year. Fun!Below is Chris starting up the water ice section.

The Alpine Club of Canada hut.  Very nice!

Howse Peak

Chris Gibbish and I climbed the NE Buttress of Howse Peak last weekend, located in the Canadian Rockies. We spent one night on the route, about 2/3 of the way up, a second night on the decent, and arrived back at the car the morning of the third day. The route covers about 4000 vertical feet and follows the prominent buttress directly below the summit.

 Our bivouac on the route.

Chris and I huddled at 2am about 200' below the summit of White Pyramid, on the descent.  A thunderstorm rolled in with lightning but luckily we found a nice protected spot

Ski Kite Invitational

Last week a group of us spent a few days ski kiting on the Harding Icefield, outside Seward. My friend Jason put it together, the first annual Ski Kite Invitational. Below is Jason cruising back to camp after a day cruising around the icefield. We skied 2 very steep lines on the nunatak just above his kite, which is about 3 miles away...but easily accessible with some wind. Below is looking out across the icefield. It's just flat snow to the horizon, and past. The whole Harding is about 30 x 50 miles of snow and ice. HUGE!
Heather flying a 5 meter Ozone Frenzy in high winds
Mountain Anarchy