Paine!

-and fast internet-

The allure of Patagonia summer has enticed another gringo to change his travel plans, pare down his pack, and "go gaucho". The Northern Hemisphere will always be there.

I'm now stationed in the old Spanish port of Puerto Natales, Chile. Located on a 100+ winding saltwater inlet, Natales is hanging out at the end of the world. Or, as some maps here show, perched aloof at it's apex.

I'm hanging out here with fellow gringo Clayton, a friend from Boulder who's been living and working here for the season. He has a wonderful network of Chilean friends here in town, and they've been more than enthusiastic to help me out as well. After all: "Los amigos de mis amigos son mis amigos"

So I've been hooked up with a free place to stay and a ready made set of adventurous friends with whom to share this amazing place. And thankfully we aren't that far from civilization, the internet is fast!

So, without further blather, photos from possibly my new favorite place on earth: the Paine!

The Torres (towers) of Torres del Paine National Park. The east faces catch brilliant morning light, so here's a pre-dawn shot of towers and stars.

The sunrise was obscured by clouds, so I was almost tempted to hike down. But lo, the clouds do part!

For over an hour, the clouds, propelled by the mythical patagonian viento (wind), opened and closed little serpentine windows of light across the faces of the spires. I literally took over 200 shots, as the light kept seeming to get better. These are two of my favorites.


Of course the climbing potential here is enormous, but I was glad to just be hiking. Packs are way lighter without all that climbing crap! (more room for whiskey!)

One of the unique aspects of the Paine is the forbidding, glaciar choked, vertical granite valleys are interspersed among lower elevation forests, meadows, beaches, and blue greeen lakes.

The Valle Francais, in the heart of the park, is maybe the most isolated and stunning spots I was able to visit. Ringed by ridiculous amounts of pristine white granite (with very, very little climbing activity so far...) this place inspires me to build a base camp and live here for two months. If only they had more than a few days of good weather per year.

The best part of travelling, or course, is the amazing people that you meet. Jay and Susie, both native Michiganders on a epic round the world ramble, were in Natales and so we all met up for this five day backpacking trip. Suerte Amigos!

On our last day, we wandered up the shore of the sculpted and enticing Lago Grey. Enticing, that is, until you round a corner and see the massive Glacier Grey, cascading directly into the lake. So no swimming here.


So yes, as soon as you close this page, go start searching for cheap airline fare. Start daydreaming, packing your bags, flipping through your old spanish textbooks. Start planning. Next winter in the North isn't that far away, exactly as far as next summer here.

-Scott

Route Photo

Success!

Full trip report to come, but for now just a quick note:

Blake and I have returned to El Chalten from a six day mission out to the Marconi Glacier, up the West Pillar of Cerro Pollone, over the long summit ridge tagging both the West and East summits of Pollone, down the East face to the Fitz Norte glacier, back over Paso Cuadrado to the familiar basecamp of Piedras Negras.

Pollone is the double summit in the center left of the photo.

In the process, we made the second ascent, and first free ascent, of the West Pillar. We mostly stuck to the route "A Fine Piece", which was put up by Jim Donini and Greg Crouch in the late 90s, but we might have been on new terrain for the first 4-5 pitches. Though each summit (West Pillar, Main summit, East summit) had been reached individually, we made the first integral traverse of the ridge.

All of the climbing went free, onsight, up to 5.11+.

More soon,

Paz y Cumbre!

Pura Vida!

"Pura Vida!" My friend Forest taught me this saying, "Pure Life!", on one of our first days climbing here in Patagonia. There has yet to be a day that hasn't brought this ubiquitous expression to mind!

We're here in El Chalten at the moment. Our trip started, though, further north amongst the unreal granite spires of the Frey. Forest has put up a series of excellent posts about our time there, and since he's a much (much much) better photographer than me, here's a link to his post:

http://forestwoodward.blogspot.com/2011/02/patagonia-dia-i.html

make sure to click all the days!

After a week of perfect weather and even better climbing, we endured a 40+ hour bus ride south to Chalten, the gateway to the BIG MOUNTAINS.

Though notorious for it's unstable weather, Chalten has graced us with 5 days of sunny and climbable weather. Not realizing the full extent of our good fortune, we planned for shorter climbs, and thus completed two "shorter" routes (both ~2000'!), each in single day pushes.

The first, which we called "Las Vent'uras", climbs entirely new terrain on the steep West face of Guillamet. Established in one 21 hour push from camp, we were soooo close to an onsight free ascent, but I fell on lead on the last hard pitch (a cold and wet pitch of 5.11 overhanging finger crack). The highlight lead for me came earlier, climbing a massive chimeny/OW system about 1000' off the deck. Thrutching way above my last cam (a worthlessly tipped out #5 Camalot), I inched slowly up to an OW roof, not knowing how I would climb it without any gear. Upon reaching it, though, I groped upwards and found a perfect finger crack, hidden just over the lip!

After a few days of rest and resupply in town, we rallied back up to our base camp at Peidras Negras. Our objective for the day would be "Cosas Patigonicas", a route established siege style by a team of Italians in the late 80s. It was unrepeated, and un-freed.

After one false start up the wrong corner system, we found the line and enjoyed a full day of difficult, sometimes wet, always steep corner climbing. We had to redpoint the wet crux 2nd pitch, but then onsighted the rest the route. 

The highlight lead on Cosas also involved a wide crack, but this time Blake was on lead. Above our hanging belay loomed a massive overhang, split only by a "Harding-Slot" style OW/chimney. To the right of the crack, we coudl see that the Italians had drilled an aid bolt ladder around the obstacle, not wanting any part of this beast. Blake led up into a cold dripping shower, stemming wildly and struggling up into the maw. Shouting every encouragement I could think of, I dreaded the possibility of having to redpoint this pitch. Blake sent though, and our day was capped by a fun ramble to the summit of Mermoz right as the sun set. An all  night rappel through unrelenting winds, with many stuck ropes, finally saw us back to camp safely as the sun rose.

Blake and Forest chilling in Bariloche, before out week in the Frey

Hayden going for a Rodeo clip during a session at the anti-mountains (steep sport climbing!)

The sport climbing crew walking back from the crag

Blake on a ridge approach to Guillamet, in the REAL MOUNTAINS

Sunrise in the mountains

Blake leading a perfect hand crack on Guillamet

Blake doing some alpine improvisation. Toothpaste tube=Spoon.

Scoping Mermoz

This beautiful corner was on our first, and incorrect, attempt at Cosas Patagonicas. We weren't equipped from this corner's unrelenting thin-ness, so we bailed from just a bit higher. We think this has never been climbed...

Making a tricky corner switch on Mermoz

Me leading on Mermoz

An Alfahore, a delicious post mountain treat!

Also, check out Blake's page for more pics:
www.blakeclimbs.blogspot.com

Here in the Argentine

Just a quick post, no pictures yet (at an internet cafe with slow access).

Anyways, my friends Blake, Forest, and I have arrived in Argentina after two days of uneventful travelling. We flew out of Denver on Saturday morning, enjoyed a brief layover in steamy Miami, and then a luxurious overnight flight to Buenos Aires. That flight, on Argentinian carrier LAN, was definitely a highlight: it was only three quarters full, so we each had an etire row to ourselves, and they served hot meals and free wine!

We had an entire day in BA, but unfortunately had to make our way across town from the international airport to the domestic one with all of our heavy bags. Once at the domestic airport, we were too early to check our bags, so were pretty much stuck there. We did take turns watching the bags, though, and had a chance to walk out and explore the town. Being a gorgeous Sunday afternoon, tons of locals were out enjoying the day. They were fishing into the ocean, playing soccer in parks, selling choripan, and generally being social.

Im really impressed with Argentina so far; its clean and temperate, theres tons of trees, and the population is active and friendly. I cant seem to find the apostrophe button on their keyboards, though...

Yesterday evening, a short flight took us southwest to Bariloche, in Northern Patagonia. We were picked up by a friend, who also provided a place to store most of our luggage, and we finally were free to roam with just our backpacks. So afternoon a fun evening exploring town, we camped out on the shore of the huge lake, and now were here in town the following morning, about to go buy groceries and hike up into the Frey!

Hasta Luego!

Leaving some loose ends...

I was lucky enough this week to enjoy some gorgeous sunny weather (typical Colorado January) with some awesome and motivated friends (typical Colorado folks).

I was not lucky enough to tie off two loose ends: the Evictor, and the Vasodilator.

Both are killer stretches of rock climbing, both are very difficult, and both kicked my butt this week. But we got some cool pictures:

Me on the Evictor (12d, not R!)

Images © Ryan Day Thompson, 2011 | ryandaythompson.com | ryandaylandscapes.com

Me on Vasodilator (13a)

Photos by Rob Kepley

como se dice "STOKED"!

-or-

Granite crack climbing in 14 easy steps

2011 is here, and I'm ready for some adventure. In case you're wondering what my plans are for the new year, check here.

So as training for the upcoming excursión a Patagonia, mi amigo Blake and I headed down to Colorado's own outdoor granite crack gym, the South Platte. Attempting to maximize daylight and mileage, we worked our way down the Cathedral Spires ridge, hitting up some of the most classic pitches in the Platte. Here's how it went down:

Cathedral Spires Day from Scott Bennett on Vimeo.

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the sharp-eyed with of course note that, in the "Mississippi Half Step" segment, we changed t-shirts for the far-off photos. Actually, the photos are from a few months back when our friend Garrett Grove paid a visit and joined us for a Tour de Platte. Thanks Garrett!