Whit enjoying Desmo's splitters!

Just arrived in Rifle, after a great five week trip to Patagonia. What a blast!
During the first three weeks the weather was miserable, so I bottled up my hopes of soloing Fitz Roy, and focused on bouldering. I managed to do some problems that I couldn't touch last season--always nice to see progression in your climbing--and put up a couple of new classics of my own.

As you saw in Whit's last post he arrived just in time for some good weather, lucky devil! After our ascent of Blood on The Tracks, we scurried back up to high camp to try a new free line on Desmochada. Unfortunately we were beaten back by icy cracks and poor conditions high on the peak, but not before getting in a great day of climbing. We managed to free climb the aid section of our intended route (which roughly follows the sun-shade arete in the above photo), and laid some great groundwork for a future attempt, and related "mega" project. Unfortunately I had to head home while the weather was still pretty good--painful to say the least! But Whit had one more day, and re-psyched for an attempt on the Poicenot's classic Whillian's route. As I write this, hopefully he's swilling drinks and resting tired legs on the flight home after a succesful climb.

Patagonia continues to be a place that captures my imagination. It's truly special to be able to live in a comfortable town, boulder every day, spend time with friends, and have incredible mountains within a five hour walk when good weather arrives. There's no place quite like it, and I can't wait until next year!