Late Winter- Spring 2013

The coast has experienced a wild variety of weather patterns this season.

The Pineapple express came within a degree or 2 of really doing some damage but in reality it layered a thick cohesive layer of schmoo in the high alpine and filled in many lines that we have been waiting to hit.

Often a storm was followed by some high pressure and blue sky’s which is definitely an anomaly in these parts.

Photo- Julie Tennock 

High winds left behind my week old tracks

Talking with many skiers there was a mix of feelings on the overall snowpack and conditions.  There were those who felt that it’s been a less 
than stellar season and others that are fully stoked on how their year has unfolded.
The snowpack is approximately half of average ( that may have changed in the past couple of weeks)  With that in mind features tend to stand out more although a shallow snowpack can create terrain management issues.

There have been some down day’s waiting for a storm to pass or temps to fall to a reasonable elevation but what I personally found was the season has been outstanding. Often it took a little more effort or searching  a little further into the high alpine farming the snow.

My best days have often been where I’ve had low expectation,  often armchair  forecasting is inaccurate and you truly don't know until you go !

If I’m not skiing or working I’m thinking about the next mission and checking in on the social networks/blogs/professional forecasters to see how conditions and advisories in regions are lining up.

This helps with the slow buildup in confidence to explore new lines.

Shortly after the “Deep Winter Photo challenge” @ Whistler/Blackcomb I experienced a pinched nerve in C5  of my neck and it caused heavy numbness and weakness in my right arm. I couldn’t feel a pole plant. It worked but was an unnerving sensation to say the least. I scaled back some of my ambitions for a while and spent many day’s in therapy hoping to retain my strength and be ready for some planned trips in March, April and May.

This gave me some time to make some plans for the longer day's of spring. Those involved the backyard and also heading north for a trip to Kitimat and Bella Coola.
As the temps dropped back to seasonal averages so did the moisture in the snow.
During the high hazard day's its tough to beat Whistler-Blackcomb.
Storm day's are spent following the Avalanche control openings and subsequent day's are spent pushing into the near country. After that some confidence is gained to explore the more remote lines.

https://vimeo.com/62399740
Early March Tobin Seagel, David Gheriani and Penny Buswell headed on the long journey up to Kitimat and Terrace ! We went up there to gain a perspective on the possible impact on the Enbridge Pipeline and the mountains/oceans interface.
Part of the proposal is to tunnel through Nimbus Mountain near Kitimat. This seemed like the obvious choice to visit and possibly ski. As it turns out this peak has an amazing North Face that has never been skied.
The idea of a oil pipeline through this remote peak is absurd. The area has many drainages and slide-paths that the line would pass through.
Unfortunately on our week long visit the avalanche hazard was much too high to consider accessing this area.
The entire coast line is at risk for possible pipelines and oil tankers. Many of the
 rarely visited fjords are prime habitat for a huge variety of wildlife/sealife. It has the potential to be a massive environmental disaster to allow the movement of oil through these pristine areas.
Next we headed down to Bella Coola, another small town deep in the Fjord of "Inside Passage". This area is known for having wild mountains within view of the Pacific ocean.
Bella Coola Heli Sport was kind enough to have us visit their tenure in a ski touring format. We arrived shortly after a large storm and it looked like our timing was perfect. We met with the guides and discussed location and objectives. I was stoked, I finally meet "The Swede" I 1st saw him in my all time favorite "Matchstick Productions" Global Storming".. Not to mention Beat Steiner, Christian Begin, these guy's have layed down some amazing lines in the coast mountains for years- huge respect !
The avalanche advisory meant we had to ease into our 10 day's and carefully gain confidence in objectives. The chosen zone would be ideal for this. There were a number of couloirs where we could manage the risk we would be exposing ourselves to.
Soon West Coast Heli had us at the col where we chose to camp and we got to work at building a fortress incase we did experience inclement weather.
Strangely enough as we were building walls I noticed a North Wind was starting to build up. Before long winds were steady 40 km and gusting 80km.
Next day we woke to limited visiblity and gusty winds.

The next few day's we had challenging weather with some breaks but the wind had created a slab that was variable but disconcerning enough to keep us at bay.
We got 1 large couloir off and 3/4 of the way up another line on some amazine Spires before the spidey senses turned us around.

Spot Tobin Seagel and David Gheriani climbing !

We left that area with a great experience but a little frustrated at how close we were to getting some incredible couloir skiing. I can't help but be jealous when I see the Sherpas in that zone filming for their fall 2013 release of " Into the Mind" That crew will certain kill it in there.
https://vimeo.com/54348266
So back from our Northern Gateway Mission we started to get back on some of our favorite local lines. The past week has given up some great weather and improving stability.

https://vimeo.com/62567469

Cornice Control Crew !

The high pressure locked in on the coast has been legendary lately ! Sandals in the valley bottoms and deep stable pow on the North Facing gems has been the order of the week.
It is getting spooky on some aspects and respect of afternoon warming has to be on everyones mind.
With those considerations we have been getting some early starts to have projects complete  or choose exits that limit exposure to overhead hazards.

The other day Trevor Hunt and myself went up into the zone next to his burly spine. 
http://www.coaststeepskier.com/wphome/?p=21242 

I was amazed at how big this line felt.
 Trevor climbed the short boot pack to the summit while I chose to shoot from the ridge ( I also felt that only exposing 1 person on the last 200 ft was best )

T.Hunt 

Trevor snapped  a few as I dropped into the guts !

The line is about 1800 ft and the exit was straightforward back up to the ridge.

With this fresh on my mind I got a call from Jon Johnston to go in and do a line that has haunted me for a couple of years. I had a few previous chances  but came up with some lame excuse not to go. Earlier this winter I had a good view of the line and mentally decided to take this one off the list.
I'm not sure what changed my mind. I've got some good miles in the legs and being on the snow many days in a row gave me some good confidence that the timing was right.

Even the industrial machinery is big in these parts !

Jon and I headed in early to scope the line and then meet Trevor Hunt and Tobin Seagel later in the day.

Old Mining Shelter !

On our recon we ran into Dave Basterrchea, Delaney Zayac, Joe Lax and company, they were on their way back.
They gave us the beta and warned us of some difficulties on the approach.
We set the alarm for 4am to beat the daytime heat and quickly fired through the challenges of getting to the base of the south side.

A firm climb put us on the summit by 9am and I could feel my apprehension growing but I was relieved it was within reason and everything felt "Good To Go!"

We all had a quick word for "Jack Hannan" who passed away March 31, 2010 on Mt Currie.



https://vimeo.com/63137787
 We slid into the N.East face one at a time and it was stunning how much exposure this line gave us. 

GoPro Screen Capture !

There were numerous 2000 ft spines 50-60 deg to a traverse to the True North aspect and more steep spines and chokes.

Tobin Seagel coming at ya !

Trevor Hunt in the driver seat !

The snow was perfect and sluff was fast and sounded like a freight train. We all carefully picked our way down this 1st section and then leapfrogged each other the full 6500 ft to the valley Bottom.

Tobin looking on while Jon goes in for the kill !

The upper 1/3rd spines.

I doubt you could wipe the grin off our faces. For me that line was the pinnacle of my achievements skiing biglines.

Bigline Hunting ! 
This stuff works !







In the back of my mind my 6th trip into the Waddington is coming up fast and we are considering a recon mission by fixed wing to see if

the line is filled. The Bergshrunds are a real problem for access to the objective. This year we have plan "B and "C" in mind and are worthy projects for sure.
4 day's after I return from Waddington I am heading to the Caucasus Mountains in Georgia and Russia with 

Trevor Hunt- http://www.coaststeepskier.com/wphome/
Tobin Seagel - http://www.mec.ca/AST/ContentPrimary/Community/MECEnvoys/TobinSeagel.jsp
and Peter Schon who has done extensive travelling/work and photography in the region-
http://www.photographerspro.eu/peterschoen/
http://hilleberg.se/peter-schoen
We will spend close to a month in some regions that Peter has explored and has noted some possible 1st descents.
In the meantime, hopefully more missions to get ready for the upcoming adventures !
Cheers,
Chris

I've been super fortunate to be part of the MEC Envoy program ! Mec has been a great inspiration to me since I was a kid buying my 1st harness and hopefully  through my travels, photography and writing I can inspire others to go out and find adventure at any level they can achieve. 
I've also been involved with RydersEyewear since the beginning and it's been awesome working with them over the years and see the brand evolve. The latest action sport glasses and Gogs are dialled !

@MEC @Ryderseyewear @Intuition @GoPro @DPS
@/billygoattech

Strike 2 of the week !
Judgement-Fear or good Mountain Sense ! 
When to throw it down and get it done or turn heals and go home empty handed.

Last week I sat on the bench for the final lap of a 2 day mish due to a nagging shoulder issue. The crew nailed a big one while I played photographer with the safety of a long lens.
This weeks program I was determined to do something reasonably big and committing, maybe get back on that emotional high of accomplishing a project in the mountains.
We had a bit of a reset and slackcountry was pretty damn good through the week.
The long weekend gong show had me google earthing and searching for something new to attempt.
I felt the snowpack was a little touchy so a coulior was my preference to minimize risk while the snowpack tightened up.
Jimmy Martinello suggested a rad 900m line Jon Johnston and http://whiskeytahoe.blogspot.ca/
had done a few weeks ago so that was the obvious line choice. We got the beta and the plan was in action.
Trevor Hunt http://www.coaststeepskier.com/wphome/ also joined and my partner Julie Tennock.
The access is surprisingly fast and I had been up in this particular cirque many times but never saw this hidden line. Sometimes you have to think out of the box and the mountains open up many options of adventure.

We arrived at the base of the route and judging by the size of the avalanche debris the whole side of the mountain had cleaned itself out.

Not much to do in here ?
View from our climb,
Timing is everything !

This was both good and bad ! The route was clean but the skiing would be shite on firm bed surface. 

We decided to proceed and have a poke up the lower apron and stick our noses into the coulior.
Clearly we were slightly in the wrong spot as the initial choke contained a 30m vertical wall of ice.
Then we remembered Jon had cut left and climbed a steep face and traversed back into the coulior. Trevor took off setting a solid boot pack and Jimmy and I adjusted some gear and slowly followed.
The exposed traverse was a bit unnerving. I did a few quick hand shears on the 200m crossing and found moderate clean shears but felt ok as long as we avoided convexes or anything that wasn't supported.
The odd spot we hit shallow rotten snow but they were isolated and short lived.

More exposed than the image captures- 

Soon we were in the gut of the line climbing quickly on a firm Bed surface. Climbing was fast and as we pulled through a dog leg it was clear the entire coulior had slide a few day's prior and pulled out 2 separate aprons of snow. We were not looking at the greatest snow condition for skiing but the situation was top notch.

Then I saw a Double Greyhound cornice more or less staring down the top 3rd of the line..
This got some discussion going... How supported was it, are there safe zones we can dash between, what is sun doing, is there wind.. I started climbing again with my eyes locked on the feature and felt like it was probably ok as all the other signs were in check. No wind- The sun didn't appear to be a factor and with Jons Billygoat Plates we could move fast between safe spots.

No sooner had I convinced myself of this the winds started to pick up and it was evident the cornice was getting sun. Spindrift then weaved it's way down the buttress followed by a few small chunks of snow that whizzed passed me.  That was a enough for me to personally call it a day.

https://vimeo.com/59327410

Trevor and Jimmy seemed to agree and the feeling of the conditions were unanimous.
These moments alway's make me think about personal decision making in a group.
When I make observations I generally voice them to get a consensus on risk vs reward. Group dynamics can push a group to succeed and maybe pushing risk higher. At what point do you pull the ripcord and turn around. Ski Mountaineering is dangerous, all risk cannot be eliminated but certain aspects of it can be managed.
Our 1st error was leaving Squamish way too late. Had we been a few hours earlier, the afternoon warming would have been avoided. I believe the risk associated with that cornice would have been drastically reduced in cooler temps or at least a huge equation in deciding to turn or proceed would have been off the list.

Whats the problem ?.. Get up that thing !

Despite not succeeding the company was top notch as was the experience in this amazing location.
Cheers.

2013 Deep Winter Photo Challenge

Last month I was confirmed as 1 of 6 pro photographers invited to shoot in the “Deep Winter Photo Challenge” that took place this past week within the boundaries of the resort. Shooting began on January 12, 2013 and ended on the 14. The teams of athletes, editors and photographers then put together a slideshow presentation of 3-5 minutes to a frenzied powder hunger audience of 1300 at the Fairmont Chateau in Whistler. The event had a panel of judges that scored the show on Technical/Composition, Originality/Creativity, Theme and overall presentation.

A few of the photographers present have done similar shows in the summer time or other resorts and most had a solid game plan coming into the event. Over the past few weeks I had been brainstorming for a theme and asked a trio of rippers known as the Raging Cajuns. I met this crew over 12 yrs ago at the ski show when they had just moved out from New Brunswick.

They quickly put their stamp on both mountains skiing unlikely lines and living the Quintessential skiers dream. The Cajuns are known as: 

Dominic Melanson

 Kris Cormier

 Matty Richard

 I’ve shot with them on and off and I was always fired up to see the energy and commitment they put into skiing.

Over the years their commitment to the mountains never changed, but they all started to find their schedules were a little more hectic so the Cajuns didn’t ski together as much. I had the feeling they were stoked to devote 3 day’s of shooting and continue the Cajun tradition. We did some location scouting together and developed a plan with considerations for deteriorating snow pack and the inversion locked in. 
Day 1. We started off high in the alpine as I felt the zones that only received morning light would still hold blower powder. That ended up being a super productive day and we only ended up recylcling the lifts 1 time. 
Day 2. we had a solid look at where the trees’s were holding snow as the inversion damaged the alpine so we searched closer to the valley bottom.  We then followed instinct to find an amazing north facing pillow zone but had to keep in mind the shallow snowpack and probe landing zones for Pungy’s. We eneded the day in the alpine searching out the magical hour of light and nailed some great shots in an unlikely zone- I gotta thank the upslope winds for adding drama to the images. 
Day 3. we reviewed some missing items to complete the slideshow and ended the day a bit early on the mountain to hit some studio style shots.

My friend David Pearson arrived at my hotel and promptly started the edit for the presentation. 
www.designhousecollective.com
https://vimeo.com/45591691

David is a genius and it was amazing watching the images unfold into the best story he could pull out of the stock we collected over the day’s. He worked well into the night and we completed the show with about an hour to spare on the deadline. The only thing left now was to show up onstage for the 8pm screening and share our experiences from the previous day’s with the judges and capacity crowd. I drew the number 1 seat so my show ran 1st. Anxiety and apprehension were running a little high but it was great to see it all unfold on screen and felt I had a solid show. Before we knew it all the slideshows had ran and we were all lined up waiting for the deliberation.

All the shows took it to the next level in creativity. My feeling was I might be 2nd or 3rd but in the end I ended up out of the top 3. Looking back I feel I nailed it with the action imagery but from a storytelling perspective I think I needed to break up the action a bit in the middle and connect the Cajuns brotherhood to the audience and judges. Missed it by that much ☺ Here is my show- Enjoy. 


https://vimeo.com/57809296

Assistants-
Julie Tennock - supporting partner through all my photo obsessions !
Dan Stein

Thanks to MEC
http://www.mec.ca/Main/home.jsp
Intuition Liners 
https://intuitionliners.com
Ryder Eyewear
http://ryderseyewear.com/
Dynafit
http://www.dynafit.com

Congrats to the Photographers for inspiring:  
Russel Dalby 
Andrew Strain 
Rueben Krabbe 
Mike Helfrich 
Nic Alegre 
thanks to the sponsors:-
Whistler Blackcomb- Arcteryx -Gore-Tex- GoPro

The Following day my good friend and I Michael Horst went up into Garibaldi Park and skied off the summit of Garibaldi.. It was refreshing to lay down some turns on bullet proof ice above a huge Bergshrund ! Sometimes nothing else matters except the next turn :)
Happy Adventures..

Coast Range- Remote Lines and exploration !

Some names modifed to protect our sensitive areas :) Well shortly after the world survived the Rapture we found ourselves with the arrival of Christmas and getting through the frenzy of those that get in their vehicle 2x a year. A couple of day's after Christmas Jon Johnston, Tobin Seagel, Kye Peterson and myself hatched a plan to leave the craziness behind and head up the Hurley Pass to explore a wild zone known as Dope Creek Spines and Billy Jean Spines. HIgh pressure and growing confidence in the snowpack meant it was time to start stepping onto some of the bigger remote lines . I had been into the Dope Spines in the past but only to shoot stills. I was fired up at the thought of stepping out onto this face and shredding this natural playground. We arrived to perfect bluebird and we all scouted our line of choice from a safe distance. The area reminds me of mini Alaska, multiple spine lines, huge spires, cornices and a fine exposed ridge walk to access the entrances. Once again Jon took charge and smashed in a boot pack that left the rest of us in the dust. I'm constantly thrown off by Jons mellow demeanor! When it comes down to getting things done, he's half finished before you can get your boots done up.

Soon we were all on top in time for the arrival of some low cloud that created some flat light. Jon and Tobin chose a steep face While Kye and I chose a splitter spine that caught my eye on arrival. Jon dropped in 1st while Tobin observed, Soon we saw Jon safely pop out 1500 below so Tobin was next up.. Once Kye and I saw Tobin in a safe zone I watched Kye work the walls of his line choice. It was pretty rad standing above him watching him work his way down because I had just watched his Sherpa's teaser segment "Into The MInd" Soon my turn came up and I chose to share Kyes start and then cross over onto my spine zone. That option alloowed me to bypass a convex roll in the start zone. The snow quality was variable, an upslope wind had pushed the snow down into some variable pockets of low density blower to stiff, supportive slabs. Overall the skiing was good, the position were top notch but certainly not conditions to point the skis fall line. 2nd lap Kye and I eyballed a chute that looked like it might be more protected from the wind. The travel was much faster in our established boot pack but the low ceiling had dropped even more. Kye and I waited on top hoping a window would open up so we could safely drop into the line.,We waited for awhile and observed Jon and Tobin close to our 1st descent. Soon after Kye decided to make a move and drop in, he quickly disappeared over the roll and I anxiously waited to see him skirt out to the rest of the crew. Shortly after I slid into the ping pong ball, white room and simply pointed it fall line and busted out some Wigley turns knowing the chute terminated in the big open bowl below. Snow qualiity was blower, visibility was nil but it really didn't matter. The steep fall line chute had me grinning ear to ear ! We grabbed a quick bite and just as I was thinking the day was over Jon was already looking off to the Billy Jean Spines.. I doubted the weather but he sensed it was going to crack. Before I knew it we were headed in that direction and sure enough, it went blue. It's hard to explain the excitement and mixed anxiety riding big lines in these remote corners. Jon is one of the most experienced big mountain riders on the West Coast so I feel pretty fortunate that I've done numerous trips and gained alot of knowledge in a short time with him. It's also comforting to know that we all have each others back out here and everyone brings some strength to the table. After about an hour skin we find ourselves on the summit of the unnamed peak and Jon is sizing up the entrance. We find a safe entry and I get my 1st look into the objective. The line is complicated with numerous spines, flutes and terrain traps. The 1st 800 feet we can see the obvious line but then it rolls into the steeper unknown. Again Jon gets at it and controls the line to a safe spot. Tobin pops in next and I soon follow.. The pow is blower and I dabble deep off the spine, staring straight down into mega terrain traps. The zone is playful but serious. Soon the 3 of us are together looking back up at Kye who is standing on the higher entrance.. He drops in and fires the main face off like it's his backyard.. super impressive on-sight big mountain skiing. The steeper finish to the Billy Jean spines go off without any drama and soon we are skinning in the dark and making our way back to the Hurley Pass.On the drive back to Pemby we discuss the next day’s mission and some are on the fence due to other commitments but Tobin and I are stoked- I’m amazed as Tobin has been hitting hard coming into this day but he does not hesitate when he mentions a zone he had been researching up in the Meager area. I had been up there a few times over the last couple of years and had some attempts at some projects so I knew whatever he had up his sleeve it would be worthy. I had heard of the zone but the only folks that had any info had only been in there to climb- Beta was --- IT'S BIG !

Next day comes fast and we are sipping some brew at “Mount Currie Coffee” and more or less enjoying the warmth and talking with folks about their adventures. We get a bit of a late start but are organized so the trip in goes off without a hitch. Tobins navigating is spot on and before we know it we are staring up the gut of one of the biggest couloirs I have seen in this range. The travel is pretty fast, Tobin’s stoke is evident by my inability to catch up to him. At times I wonder if I’m just slow or if the added weight of carrying a full camera rig does make that much difference.

As we are ascending my eyes rarely leave the west-facing wall. The sun is pounding off the rock face that holds 2 additional couloirs and shelves of snow. As far as I can tell there is no cornice so that is a relief. After about 2.5 hrs of skinning we come to the choke where we have to decide to continue or bail. We discuss some of the observations and taps on the shoulders the line was giving us and decide to bail on this route and cross over into a zone that had more of a NW aspect. The terrain is super deceiving and huge- WeWe cross some huge paths 1 at time until we arrive on a spine feature that was low angle enough to skin to a large Bench.

We have a quick drink just as the sun drops behind Plynth and we fire our skis on our back and start climbing. I would have given it 45 minutes but once again we are fooled by the scope of the wall and it takes 1.5 hours of hard charging- Tobin was on fire for the last 30 minutes and thankfully we just beat last light as we stepped into our skis. We give a good high 5 and next stop is 4000 grand below. We stop a few times in safe zones on the descent and the snow quality is blower boot top. It takes discipline not to open up into huge GS turns but on this occasion milking the run seemed like the right thing to do.

That night we cooked and brewed some awesome food and shut it down by 10 pm with the idea of getting up early to go back to the original line. We both felt really good about the idea to beat the heat and we had the added bonus of a fresh skin track so it was a no brainer. Alarms were set for 6am so it was a civil hour to get down to business. Good coffee and a few bites saw us off on our skin track and wasn’t long before we got in the groove. 1.5 hrs got us to our previous high point and transition to climbing. I had brought Jons snow ghosts so I knew Tobins payback for trail breaking was about to be redeemed..

Even with the modified crampon snowshoe it took 4.5 hrs to climb the couloir. Tobin wallowed in my path and really suffered in the last 100 feet of rotten snow. Nothing is a given in the big mountains, you have to really want it but not be blind to ambition and risk assessment. The Couloir doglegged so we were a little unsure if we would be faced with cornice- as we gained height we finally got a view of the ridge top and cornice issues were minor in nature.

We had many discussions on the climb. This day sun was not the issue but the wind was redistributing snow. The amounts were not alarming but had to be observed. A few pockets of slab had me anxious but they were short lived, and isolated. When Tobin summated we were ecstatic- we were about to ski a 5 star Coulior.

Tobin dropped in 1st and tested the snow.. I was able to keep an eye on him and the fact he went past the 1st safe zone gave me the feeling his confidence was high in what the conditions were. We leap frogged each other and the line went at almost an even 4000 ft. Definitely a huge feather in the cap and a highlight of the season. Be tough to beat this one !

Main Coulior- 4000ft- 35-45 deg

Happy and Safe adventures in the New Year ! Since I signed up for Facebook I've neglected the Blog ! Well, time to get back on it for some creative updates :) Winter has started off with a bang ! Thankfully the closest we got to the forecasted Mayan Prophecy was choking on neck deep powder through Dec. I’m super excited to announce my new involvement as “Ski Mountaineer/Photographer” with “Mountain Equipment Co-Ops” new Ambassador initiative program known as the MEC Envoy Crew. I’ll join a solid cast of characters who represent in their respective adventure sport to share experiences, inspire, innovate and promote healthy living in the places that we visit. profile coming soon ! Dec has been a busy month, as the snow line dropped, plans were being hatched for ski adventures. We have some great plans for the season, more on that later. The legs are strong from a great season of mountain biking and the transition has been smooth to finding the ski legs. The snow pack has been setting up nicely, early season snow seems to create long-term stability issues but the advisories are indicating there is some strong bridging in the snow pack.

Hopefully this trend continues and we continue to ease onto onto some of the bigger lines that were missed last year. The photography end of things has been going strong. I was guest editor at “Ski Canada Magazine” in the Dec issue. I have numerous images in circulation on the editorial side and have some high profile images on the commercial end of things. Last week I was notified I will be competing in the annual “Deep Winter Photo Challenge” in Whistler. http://deepwinterphoto.com/pro-contest/ 3 day’s of shooting followed by a presentation at the convention centre will surely be one of the highlights of the winter. Stoke and anxiety are a strange mix.. Can’t wait to get at it! I’ve been busy brainstorming a storyline and it’s looking like I have a solid crew to collaborate with on this project. The ability to think out of the box and roll with whatever the environment throws our way is key. It sells out fast so check it ! Stories and adventures to follow shortly Cheers, Chris

A quick update to the SA Travels !
I finally got myself free of airport hell in Beunos Aries after hours of delay's because of maintance delay's and overcrowding on a long weekend.
If it wasn't for the humour of tourists losing thier shit with demands that were completly out of anyones control, it would have been a long day.
Anyway,
I've been in El Chalten for 11 day's. I really hope I have not used up all my weather luck for the winter. We have had bluebird for 10 day's straight with moderate winds.
I think I've scrambled and trekked just about everything there is to do here. A big downer is I could not find a partner to do an Alpine route with. It's a little early in the season so there were not too many people climbing the amazing walls here. Last ditch effort I decided to hire a guide to climb with..Felt odd to hire a friend so to speak but I'm jones-in to get at something techy !!
Well i waited too long..No Guides !!
I hooked up with an Irishman, Noel O'Leary who runs adventure camps in Ireland, we did an amazing alpine scramble with incredible views..



I'm travelling with a super light sleeping system and i gotta say the Mountian Hardware Compressor pants are dialed..
Bivied up high 1 night and caught some climbers heading to Fitzroy..


Hanging out in camp after a long day is actually comfortable now..stoked..

@ the hostel last night a french girl asked if i could load some images from her CF card onto her micro drive using my computer. Seems like caught a virus from her :( of the software type..
I can't load my images onto the pc and it corrupts my CF cards. I'm spending my last full day in El Chalten recovering images and trying to sort out what the hell is going on with my pc.
I will miss the people I connected with down here, it was an amazing experienec and I hope i can come back sooner than later.
A great hostel is
http://www.condordelosandes.com/
Back to Santiago for part 2 of the trip.. shredding mtb's for a few day's before heading to Ecuador for some climbing and moto adventure off the beaten path.
CC out !