Cumbre!!!

WOW are we the luckiest climbers and travelers EVER!!! Patagonia is known for it´s horrendous weather. People come here from all over and spend weeks or even months and sometimes don´t even get to do one climb. This is the reason we planned to have so much time down here and not much in B.A. and other places. However, it´s been sunny and beautiful everyday since we got here!!! We got our first summit (Media Luna) on the sixth day after we arrived in Chalten and climbed again the day before yesterday (el Mocho). It´s very awe inspiring here and the 20 hours of light a day gives us even more energy than we´d already have. We have probably hiked about 40 miles or so, at least 15 of those with packs of 40 lbs or more and we would have run out of food at high camp if it weren´t for my friend Jean. I love the glaciers-- the colors are incredible. We saw a condor on one of our hikes back down to Chalten... I could go on and on, but we just got a great little Casita to stay in tonight and I haven´t showered in 8 days.

Buenos Aires was incredible too and I really want to spend more time there. Since we´ve already gotten a couple climbs in and the weather may be holding, maybe we will get to do a lot more traveling. I´m hoping to get out of here by the end of February. We want to try to climb San Raphael and Exupery before we leave. I´ll try to write more detail later.

Added later... the above photo was taken from our high point on San Raphael. In it you can see the two little peaks we climbed below Cerro Torre (Media Luna and El Mocho). If I was techy I would put little stars on them or something... I guess I can try to do that tomorrow.