I just returned from nearly three months at our home in Patagonia...my first summer for the 2018 calendar year.
We were greeted within hours by Stumpy our adopted Caracara. This is the fourth year in a row that he has appeared on our deck. You can see his handicap, he was probably caught in a fox trap. Somehow he makes it thru Patagonia winters.
Our first trip was to the Exploradores Valley to fish for salmon. It is blessed with some beautiful virgin rainforest.
I got lucky and caught a 18 pound Chinook
The evening clouds were special
The trout fishing was pretty good tooPack rafting was one of our main past times
And a bit of kayaking
And of course an asado
For several years I had noticed an attractive peak on the western skyline when driving south on the Carretera Austral.
A little research determined that it’s name was Cerro Chueco and that it was unclimbed.
Angela and I took an exploratory two day hike to see if we could find a way to the peak.
The forest was open enough to negotiate...thank god!
There were several river crossings.
I made two additional solo hikes into the area and established a cache above tree line directly below the peak.
A couple of weeks later my partner from two years ago, Tad McCrea, arrived from guiiding Aconcagua and off we went.
A little phot essay of the climb.
The summer ended with me scoring a helicopter ride with my research geologist frieng, Greg De Pascale, to collect rock samples from the San Valentin (highest peak in Patagonia area.
Off to Cochise Stronghold tomorrow in search of warm rock.