Earplugs and Gravel:

We’ve taken to wearing earplugs in the car. It’s not that we don’t want to talk to each other (although, after five months of talking to nobody else, a few hours of silence is ok). It’s the combination of a gravel highway and a VW Bug is enough to make your ears ring for days. This is one rugged road trip down “highways” with four inches of loose gravel, with nothing but flat land and sagebrush as far as you can see for days, and wind so strong that your car door is likely to get ripped off if you dared to open it. Thankfully we only have one more long day without pavement ahead of us. After that, we’ve reached Southern Patagonia and all that we’ve been looking forward to seeing: Mt. Fitz Roy, El Calafate, Torres del Paine, Tierra del Fuego, mountains, glaciers, fjords, etc.
Pictures of Patagonia Road Trip #2

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Call Guiness:

Lee’s going down in the all-time rock skipping hall of fame. Out on the edge of the lake, the conditions were perfect. Calm water, super flat rock, and precision throwing. He wound up, let the rock go, and it skipped not once, not even twice, but TEN TIMES along the surface of the water! If you get a moment, make sure you e-mail Lee and congratulate him on his triumph.
Pictures of Patagonia Road Trip #2

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Shoo Fly!!!!!

Well, we’ve added another hike to our list of “never agains”. Our guidebook suggested a day hike to the top of Cerro Alto Dedal, a peak overlooking a good portion of the national park. We set out pretty early knowing it would be a long day. The first two hours of the hike were spent bushwhacking our way through an endless forest of bamboo shoots and thorny bushes so thick that it was like walking through a tunnel. Suddenly, relief……..or so we thought. We had reached the rocky (and plant-free) ridge leading up to the summit. This is where the swarming began. Mutant horse flies the size of quarters!!!! The were incessant….buzzing and circling around our heads, in our ears. We pushed on until the torture was too much. After five hours of hiking we didn’t have anything to show for it.

Pictures of Patagonia Road Trip #2

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Back in Colorado!

Ok, not really, but we got your attention right! We´re still here in Argentina, but we did climb a peak called Cerro Colorado the other day. It was just outside San Martin de los Andes, and, well, it´s named after our home, so we had to climb it! The peak is just over 5,000 ft., which doesn´t sound like much. But, considering we gained nearly 3,000 feet in under two hours, it was a lot like climbing a 14er! The very summit is all dark red volcanic rock. It´s very striking, especially since not a single other mountain surrounding it looks the same. The view from the top looked out over two huge lakes, and the largest Volcano in the entire area.

Patagonia Road Trip Pictures #1

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Triumph on Aconcagua!

The picture says it all, we made it to the summit of Aconcagua! I don´t even know where to begin to describe the trip, it was definitely in the top 5 most difficult things I´ve ever done during my life. We survived 3 straight days of 80mph winds at 19,000ft Camp II to finally arrive at the suffocating elevation of 22,841 ft above sea level at 1pm on Wednesday the 11th of January. The trip was full of unique mountaineering challenges as well as fun times. We are extremely happy with the result of our expedition, and now we are glad to be back in Mendoza eating good food and drinking wine! Of course, I am most excited to be back with my beautiful wife after over 2 weeks of no contact whatsoever. For those of you who are interested in the particulars of the trip, I´ll try to add a detailed account to this blog entry at a later date. I will also be posting pictures with descriptive captions to give you an idea of what it was like up there. For now, I wanted to let you know we made it and are home safe. Hope everyone is doing great back home, and we can´t wait to see you soon. Lee

Lee´s Aconcagua Photos
Brandon´s Aconcagua Photos
Rob´s Aconcagua Photos

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