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Ventana Proyecto

I am working the crux of my project! (See bottom of post for more shots!)
May 29, 2009

My projects are kicking my butt!! I need to finish one of them! We went to Ventana yesterday for my day off and hung out, chilled, ate crackers and cookies, took photos, and I tried my 7c (5.12d) project there. Alisa and Pablo did some lead climbing so I snapped some photos of them!
Alisa at the top of her lead-climb, with Pablo belaying below. Go Alisa!
Alisa climbing and enjoying herself (can you see her laughing?!).
Pablo panorama! Lago Guiterrez is so nice and green-blue!
Pablo panorama! This time with Alisa in it, too!
In the crux.
Coming off the crux. Dang.
Off the crux. OooO! Nice view! Next time, Demoliendo Teles (name of the route)!

Chris Cashman and Valle Encantado!

Cashman and I, stretching and waking up with New Valle Encantado in the background!!
May 23 and 24, 2009
Before the Valle Encantado trip, we make pizza in our house. This is May 22.
Day 1: Chris Cashman, Alisa, Leo, Facu, and myself truck out to Valle Encantado for an overnight climbing and camping fiesta! After squeezing in a few climbs the drizzly first day, we hike our headlamp way to a cave and start cooking and setting up camp, searching for the driest spots!
Cashman, waiting for the 50 or 51 colectivo in Bariloche!
Alisa, happy and staying warm upon arriving. The New side of Valle Encantado is across the river, as seen in the background! Amazing, no?!
Day 2 is met by some more climbing, a misty but cloudless day! We eat and climb and Leo and I fit in a fun and challenging 2-pitch before leaving back to Bariloche!
Alisa pokes her head out of her new tent and Cashman looks up into the cave that we slept in. It feels early but it's not!!
A better look at our campsite. Here, Chris is enjoying the wonderful views (see below) and I'm thinking about making milk!
Wonderful view. Wonderful trip; can't wait to get back and climb, hike, and explore more!! Perhaps more pictures from this trip pending...

Your landescaper, n8

Rocodromo

I´ve been helping my friend Leo build a climbing gym!More photos pending...!

Stout Proyecto 1

May 15, 2009With two curious couchsurfing friends, Alisa and Nathan hitchhike, splitting into two pairs from our Km 7.5 house to the Trebol climbing at Km 19.5. Nathan climbed a 6a+ twice and then, without much more time left before his job began, the four moved to Nathan´s project, Stout (7c), which he hadn´t tried for what felt like a month! Above, Nathan Conroy moves through the lower crux, a triple left-hand bump through three underclings, whilstwhile the right hand cries out for help from its crimpy perch!

Alisa belays Nathan as he hits the lower crux of the Stout project.
Nathan sticks the big traversing throw move, while Alisa gives a good soft belay!
A somewhat closer look at the large move halfway through the route that somehow borrowed some of Nathan´s skin!
Nathan is bloody and happy after having another shot at Stout given the rainy and snowy days that make up the weeks. Now, time to have a Stout! haha
Hopefully there will be another post about Nathan´s attempts and general climbing community happiness before too much snow and rain descends upon the outskirts of the city!
Thanks to Alisa and the couchsurfing duo from Suissa+Colombia for support and a great day!

Ensanada, Pto. Varas, Pto. Montt, Entre Lagos, y Osorno - Chile

Monday, May 11th, 2009

Jumping for joy during the Sendero Rojo trek at Volcan Osorno!

May 8th, 2009: DRIVING to ENSANADA, CHILE

We set off to cross the Argentinean-Chilean border, a ritual we carry out every 3 months, to renew our Visas. This time, our - surprise! - neighbors from California are joining us! Introducing: Brittany & Miles!!!

We had to pull off before even reaching the one-hour-away Villa La Angostura to snap a photo! Road trip! We're driving into strong winds and rain!

We make it to the border! Unfortunately, all of the miradors (SEE: viewpoints) were clouded over and the volcanoes and mountains in this lake district that we recalled from previous trips were left to memory!BEFORE shot. Remember this shot for the AFTER shot comparison!

May 9th, 2009: VOLCAN OSORNO to PTO. MONTT (shopping) and PTO. VARAS (sleeping)

Going on the suggestion by Brittany and Miles, Alisa and I take a walk on the beach very close to the cabaña that we rented in cute little Ensanada, Chile. Here we are with Volcan Osorno looming a mere few kilometers away.

After walking on the beach and seeing Volcan Osorno, the four of us can't help but drive to the volcano before heading to Puerto Montt to do some shopping. Aside: the shopping in Chile is due to the fact that many things, like peanut butter, clothing, and electronics, are cheaper in Chile than Argentina. At the end of the winding uphill switchback road to the volcano covered atop by glaciers made of blue and white sugar, we find ski lifts, a restaurant, and a little hike! Bracing the cold, we start running and hiking! Alisa enjoying the view during the "Red Trail" trek at Volcan Osorno.
Alisa victorious and cold on the short trek! The wind and air was the first resemblance of winter that we'd felt in over a year. Heck, Seattle's rain didn't count: two years!
The goofy gringo crew, at the end of the trek! Time to warm up our hands and faces; let's run the 1k back to the car!

May 10th, 2009: RETURN to ARGENTINA

We wake up early and leave the nice little hostel that Alisa and I had stayed at a number of times already. I'm supposed to work 4pm to 12am today. Little did we know that there would be a lot of snow on the border passage and an obligation to carry tire chains, which would cost us a 50km drive back to and from Entre Lagos and an outrageous price for a malfunction-prone pair of tire chains.AFTER shot. Is that snow?!

Brittany and I and Alisa are tough car-pushers, necessary accessories for crossing the Andes/border, and a good replacement for chains!

We made it back to Bariloche to find that someone sprinkled - more like dropped - a lot of snow on top of all of the mountains here, leaving Bariloche looking like a bunch of green sugar-sprinkled gumdrops! Can't wait to go skiing and snowboarding!

-N8

Ventana and Peak Ahead

Thursday May 7th, 2009A quick hop over to Ventana was in order for Alisa, myself, and our buddy Juanjo. There were no photos posted from Frey last week (or the week before) because there were no trips to Frey recently. Unfortunately, although the weather couldn't have been better suited towards a Frey trip, my friends were either too occupied or too sick to go! Last week we went to Ventana as well. Cerro Ventana, that is.

Below Alisa leads a 5+ at Ventana.
Some things you might not yet know: I have a scar from leaning over to get a fallen cookie when I was young; I'm going to Chile this weekend with Alisa and our two next-door-neighbors from California in our obligatory tri-monthly border-crossing ritual; some day this November I want to quit my job here, go to Frey to climb and explore for a week or two, and follow that up with a month or more - if I can afford it! - in Cochamo, Chile, before returning to the states; I hope to repeat a big wall and feel out a FA bigwall as well, if possible; in the meantime I am teaching myself rescue, hauling, and big walling techniques and starting to put them into practice in a safe, comfortable setting!

If you know of any good grants for such a tackling, please forward them my way and I will rigorously apply to them, as more gear and food-money would be a huge help!


Below Juanjo is rappelling for his first time, under the tutelage of Alisa and myself! Go Juanjo, go!
Lots of love from Patagonia!- your landescaper, n8