Rather than produce a lengthy dissertation of our course and all of the events that took place, I've chosen to use the following photographs and a few brief captions to detail our Patagonia Year Mountain Section.
The Calluqueo Glacier. Our route would eventually follow the snow ramp trending left below the moon.
My co-instructor Christian and I scouting a route through bare ice.
The view before a storm moved in and slammed us for four consecutive days. From November 22-25 we received over two meters of snow, wind gusts upwards of 80 km/hr, were forced to shovel around the clock, lost a student tent due to the wind, and had a strong gust snap a pole in our tent.
Yours truly scouting a route through a saddle that would eventually become our notch to freedom. This day we walked for 12 hours breaking trail through snow from mid-shin to hip deep until we were able to escape the glacier into magnificent Lenga forest.
While our students were traveling on their own, we had the absolute pleasure of spending time with Lucho and Lucy Soto on two of the campos they own. (From L to R: Riley, Tre-C, Lucy, Lucho, Christian)
Lucho and Lucy's grandson, Ammado, was visiting his grandparents and provided endless hours of entertainment for the three of us.
The day before we left the field I spent a portion of my morning helping Lucy to catch lambs so we could tag their ears.
During our final meal we were visited by one of the most amazing creatures I've ever seen, Aegorhinus Bulbifer (more commonly known as the Burrito Walking Insect). I think it looks like a hippopotamus.
One final view... Aren't the skies of Chile and spectacular?
Riley says: "The trick is what we emphasize. We either can make ourselves miserable or we can make ourselves strong. The amount of work is the same."
