Dean Potter

Today's Photos 6 images

Steph and I were here in Patagonia last summer, most of December and January. All that time, except for one short week in mid-January, was spent fighting the weather. Our days consisted of more walking than I thought possible, entering the mountains with unstoppable determination, only to be halted over and over by things of nature beyond our control.

That was my first year here in Argentina and the first time I was not able to overcome a climbing barrier with my standard bag of tricks. The things I had learned in the States had not prepared me for the patience needed to sit through months of unclimbable weather.

Now we are here again, filled with the intense emotions of want and will, but we know that our most important ally is patience (and hard work). Here in Patagonia, all the talent in the world doesn't amount to anything if the weather isn't cooperative.

I sit beneath a tree and feel it move under the constant force of the wind. I breathe, feeling my connection with this overwhelming place. I am so happy to be here, even though the peaks are entrenched by clouds and I know there will be no climbing today. The beauty of this place and just the possibility of climbing these enormous walls of granite are plenty to keep my mind still and at peace.

Steph Davis
Only 72 hours after leaving the Salt Lake City airport, and Dean and I are established at our Base Camp here in Argentina, below the east side of the Fitz Roy range. It seems outrageously fast, considering we had to change planes several times, catch two buses, shop for food and fuel, find a horseman to pack our gear, make a low camp in the town of El Chaltén, and get here to Rio Blanco (the actual Base Camp) and make a second low camp. This is my fourth trip to Patagonia, so at least I've got the logistics dialed!

We arrived in El Chaltén feeling nervous about the weather. Last year was Dean's first trip to Patagonia and we stepped off the bus into a perfect day. The Patagonia climber's nightmare. Horrified, we frantically pawed through our pile of baggage, and an hour later were hiking with full loads up past the Base Camp of Rio Blanco, to the high camp of Paso Superior, and out onto the glacier headed for Fitz Roy. After two straight days of travel with no sleep, we were worked, and the six hours of frantic hiking was a hard task. Just as we neared the base of Fitz Roy, high winds picked up and we were in for four solid weeks of storms. A harsh start to the season.

Thankfully when we arrived in Chaltén yesterday, the wind was blowing and clouds were cruising around the peaks. We looked around town for our Argentine friends and anxiously asked about the weather. "It's been terrible for the last two months," my friend Yamila said. Dean and I started jumping up and down hooting. We haven't missed anything!

Patagonia is about strategy. And hard work. And plain old luck. Dean and I now think that the best strategy is to have comfortable camps at all possible levels here. We started by setting up a tent down in El Chaltén itself, at the lovely free campground at the trailhead to our real Base Camp Rio Blanco. The best boulders around are conveniently located two minutes from the tent door. The best nightlife around -- a brand new disco that opens at midnight -- is a five-minute walk up the dirt road. Chaltén is definitely growing.

A two-hour hike up the trail in the wind and rain took us to our next camp, at Rio Blanco. (Well, I walked and Dean ran to catch the horses and take pictures of them.) We've made it as stylish as possible, with a sleeping tent and a cooking tent. Some climbers use the traditional wooden huts.

Around camp is evidence of climbers with too much time on their hands--wooden fingerboards and pull up bars, elaborate hand carvings, the scars of ice tools in dead tree trunks.

As we set up the cook tent, I looked over to see Bernd Arnold in the tent right next door. Bernd and his partner Kurt Albert, both Germans, are some of the most accomplished, and downright fun, Patagonia climbers. Bernd told me in heavily accented German that he'd just arrived and that Kurt would be arriving tomorrow. Definitely a good sign--those two always seem to show up at the right time. We also saw what looked suspiciously like two condors landing right next to Bernd's tent. The condors are a longstanding good luck omen here in Patagonia. Well, maybe they weren't condors, but we're just going to assume they were!

Our job for tomorrow (unless the weather suddenly seems perfect) will be to carry a load up the steep, snowy slopes to Paso Superior. After that three-hour slog (it would be a trade route in the Alps, but here it's just part of an approach), we'll dig out a snow cave and try to make it as comfortable as a snow cave can be. From that camp, the bases of Fitz Roy, Poincenot, Mermoz and Guillaumet are about an hour across the crevassed glacier.

With our snow cave dug, and our gear up high, Dean and I will be in position to climb! Last year we summitted Poincenot, St. Exupery, Innominata and the S (Aguja de la S) in a four-day weather window. We'd been based on the west side at Campo Bridwell when the weather turned good. We managed to summit Exupery and Innominata from the west side, carry our entire Base Camp down from the glacier, carry loads around to Rio Blanco and up to Paso Superior, and then summit Poincenot from the east side. Not the most efficient way, but it got us on top of as many towers as possible in the brief window.

If we can climb Fitz Roy and Mermoz (as well as Guillaumet, which I climbed with Charlie Fowler two winters ago) this season from this side, Dean and I will have stood on top of the seven major summits on the Fitz Roy skyline. An enticing carrot! Still, even with that hope in mind, we've learned that the most important thing in Patagonia is to remain flexible and be prepared for whatever the weather will give you.

The beginning of a trip to Patagonia is always a nice time. You're rested, relaxed, hopeful. Everything seems like a sign that the weather will be good....

— Dean Potter and Steph Davis, MountainZone.com Correspondents