Editors Note: In honor of the return to the dusty campgrounds of El Chalten, I am posting this piece I wrote a few years ago. Life in El Chalten isn’t too complicated and many days that are spent waiting for good weather seem to pass in a similar fashion as I have written about below. […]
It is hard for me to go into the mountains and not learn something, especially when the trip into the mountains involves Chalten and the Fitz Roy massif. We, Matt and I, applied a lot of the lessons we learned last year. It is my hope and dream to next year apply the cumulative lessons […]
11 Enero 2013 — The purple “Turbo Wagon” slows to a stop in front of the maxikiosco. A bearded driver hops out and looks at Matt and me. “Gerry?” he inquires. “Si” I reply standing quickly, a small Osprey day pack light on my back. “Usted con Lago San Martin?” Matt asks. “Si” Sweet. We […]
2 February 2013 — BEEP BEEP BEEP “Shit.” I reach up and press a button to shut off the alarm. “Is it five?” Matt asks. “No that is the one a.m. alarm. I forgot to turn it off.” “Oh… is it set for five?” “Yes Matt” I reply as I roll over and try to […]
“The summit is optional, the parking lot is the goal; you have to come back.” The first time I ever heard those words was from Whigger Mullins. It was the summer of 1999 and I was working at Trails Wilderness School in Kelly, WY. We, a group of wilderness course students and I, were headed […]
“What are you going to say when you get to the top to let me know you are secure?” I ask Gosia (pronounced Gosha) in the predawn darkness. Ï´ll yell down off belay¨ she responds. ¨Great, when I hear that I will immediately respond with a ¨thank you¨ to let you know I heard you, […]
Whirrrrrr….. the sound catches my attention as I stand and stuff our sleeping bags into the bottom of our pack. First thought: oh, we are about to get buzzed by a plane. Second thought: hmmm, this is not the Fox Neve and I haven´t seen a small plane in weeks. Third thought: Oh shit… ¨ROCK!!!!¨ […]