Raul Marin Balmaceda..... Good Surfing!!

View out to Bahia Tic Toc from river mouth

When working in the mountains for 2.5 months straight sometimes your legs need a rest and floating in a kayak is pretty sweet. I had a great opportunity to jump on an advanced sea kayak seminar that headed to Raul Marin Balmaceda located on the northwest edge on the Asyen Region of southern Chile.

Raul Marin Balmaceda (RMB) used to be only accessible by water until 2 years ago when they pushed a road through down the Rio Palena. Rio Palena is known by NOLS for having really good surf and rough water practice which suited our seminar well.

Puerto Raul Marin Balmaceda

To get there from Coyhaique you need to head west to Puerto Cisnes and at the turn off to Puerto Cisnes head northwest through the Queulat National Park(the rainiest place in Chile and then to La Junta which is where you will find Rio Palena and head west to the coast.

Our trip started with some review of skills and rescues in flat water. After that we headed out to play in the surf. On day 3 we headed to Bahia Tic Toc which had our crew paddle about 10-15 nautical miles in great conditions and arriving at Rio Tic Toc in the late afternoon. The weather to this point was just blue bird and very little wind... which I have to say is not the typical Patagonian weather.

Paddling by Hue Pan Island on the way to Rio Tic Toc

Sunset

We spent 2 days at Bahia Tic Toc and relaxed on the beach did a bit of river mouth surfing and fishing. Then planned our move back to RMB.

Mauro fishing in Rio Tic Toc with Yeli Peak behind

Bahia Tic Toc

On the move back we had some weather coming in which was super fun to be in seas you hope to never paddle in with a large group of students. We had probably 10-15 knot NW winds, beam seas at 1m and an exposed committing move to get back to RMB.

Once back we started to get the real Patagonia weather! We woke to rain and heavy winds probably up to 40 knots from the NW.  I was pretty psyched to get in the surf and play so a group of 5 of use went and played. A few of them ended up swimming and doing some good self rescues and then after a nice surf session we headed back to camp.

A little hail, it is had to capture a picture of the willywalls. It was pretty windy and rainy!

The next day involved some chatting about different certifications to take to develop more as instructors and why at NOLS things are a bit different. That afternoon we paddled to the vehicles for an early morning departure the next day.

Pete, Rio Tic Toc, Yeli and the fuego

Thanks to Mauro and Fabio for putting on a great seminar and to Steve, Peter, Pilar, Carrie and Emily for some great times paddling in remote Chile!

Patagonia..... The Land of Fire and Water

View from the NOLS Campo

Life has been just cruising along this past few months and to be honest faster then I would like. After my time in the Bugaboos I ventured back to Vancouver Island, Washington State to work a mountaineering course for the National Outdoor Leaderships School(NOLS) and now I have just finished a mountain course in the Aysen Region of Patagonia with NOLS.

The Nido.... my home when not in a tent

The course was 32 days with 17 students 3 co-instructors and a Chilean instructor in training. Needless to say there were a lot of us!

We started in the town of Coyhaquie at the NOLS Campo and got on a bus and headed for Cerro Castillo National Reserve about 90km east.

We hiked into the park from the northeast to the Rio Turbio and then headed to the base of the Penon Glacier to introduce the students to some basic mountaineering skills.

El Condro.... FA in 2009 be Christine, co instructors and NOLS students

As Christine Steidle, the course leader and long time Chilean NOLS instructor, taught the students the glacier rig and travel Cait Parker, Riley Hopeman and I headed for a near by couliour for some instructor development. We climbied about 250m of steep snow, 50-70 degrees to a short step that we then placed a few pitons and roped up for the crux that was M4 and then 30m more of 50 degree snow to the top. We made it back to camp for about 1pm and helped Christine teach the remainder of the classes that afternoon. Thanks to Christine for the opportunity to go play!

The famous "Great White" Riley Hopeman

Our couliour

The next few days involved more skills to get the students ready for the glacier. Once ready we headed up the glacier to be in the snow for a few days. The weather rolled in as we settled into our camp, snow and wind had use tent bound for 3 days, on the 4th day we broke camp and headed back to cower in the lenga trees.

Students heading up Penon Glacier Valley

Riley enjoying the view on Penon Glacier

The crew heading up Penon Glacier

Looking down from the pass where we camped

Sunset from camp

Our home in the snow

After a few days and more travel we worked our way over a pass and down to Estero del Bosque campsite on the southeast side on Cerro Penon and Cerro Castillo.

Cerro Penon from the Southeast aspect

More skills and a transition in leadership from instructors to students presented a new dynamic and it turned out to be a very fun one. Our next move involved going over another pass to Los Portadoreas campsite on the west side of Castillo and a few kilometres south of the New Zealand Camp.

Cerro Penon from the west aspect

Cerro Castillo's East Face

We re-rationed at Los Portadoreas and then headed to the infamous New Zealand Camp. In the 70s a group of Kiwi's came to Patagonia and did a number of first ascents in this region hence the name New Zealand Camp. We set base camp here for about 5 days did skills got about 12 students up on summit, ice climbing and had a large number of them also do single team crevasse rescue.

Christine teaching a class on running protection... pretty nice classroom eh?

As the last few days of the course where coming we decided to break into 2 small groups and go 2 different ways, 8 students/2 instructors pre group, and go exploring. It turned out great both groups had tremendous experiences and where sharing stories non-stop when they came together.

Sam heading down on a fixed line toward Penon's south ridge

Grant high up on Penon

Grant and Daniel high on Penon

Christine high on Penon

When on a long wilderness trip there are commonly things that you think about that can change your plans like: medical/ non-medical evacuations, steep impassible terrain, weather that stops your progression....... I mean what else could you think about?? Well there is something and we where on red alert once informed that a near by Volcano had/was erupting. We finished our course a day early. Pretty exciting seeing the mushrooms clouds a 100 or so km away.

Facial hair protects you from the sun!

A large un-named peak's east face

All in all the course was fantastic and we are all back at the NOLS Patagonia Campo healthy and happy. The students will soon be headed out on the ocean to sea kayak, the Chilean instructor in-training, Felipe will be heading back to Puenta Arenas, Christine and Riley head out on a Patagonia Year Mountain Section, Cait also heads back into the mountains with more students and I have a few days off and will be right back in the field for more mountain goodness. Hope you enjoyed the reading and photos!

Climbing... so good!

Bugaboo, Snowpatch, and Sean

Well, where do I start??? hmmm.... Yak Peak, Bugaboo Spire, Snowpatch Spire, South Howser Tower, the weather. I'll start with Squamish.

So I arrived back in Vancouver on the 2nd and headed pretty much straight to Squamish! Met up with an old friend, Sean Pickersgill, and we just started climbing lots. Started on St Vitus Dance a 6/7 pitch 5.9 crack and over the 8 days  in Squamish we climbed Intergator, The Squamish Buttress, The Split Pillar, did some cragging at the Smoke Bluffs and Nigthmare Wall, and even a few hours of bouldering.

St Vitus Dance Photo by Sean Pickersgill

I'm sure most of the climbers in the world have heard of this magical granite dome that sits just a few hours from Vancouver. It is as magical as it sounds. Squamish is a cool little town that has a good vibe and a great farmers market of saturday mornings to avoid the weekend rush to climb and you get some great local foods! 

St Vitus Photo by Sean Pickersgill

  

Also during that week we headed out to climb Yak Peak. Another good friend, Steph Peacock, joined us for that and it was a stellar day of granite climbing!

Steph on the first pitch of Yak Check

 Photo by Sean Pickersgill

Sean climbing on Yak

Sean pulling through on of the crux moves

On one of the top pitches of Reality Check on Yak Photo by Sean Pickersgill

Looking up at the route Photo by Sean Pickersgill

To finish the the days of I met up with another good friend, Anja Sigloch, and we did a lap on Banana Peel and climbed a few slabs at the top of the Apron descent. Squamish and Yak Peak where fantastic and then it was time for a stint in the Bugaboos!!

Slab climbing!

I've heard so much about the Bugs and have wanted to get in there to climb for the past number of summers and finally it all came together this one. Sean had the time and was super keen to go so we planned it and headed out on the 11th.

The Bugaboos are an alpine mecca! The granite spires are beautiful and Crescent Spire is home to what is said to be the best Alpine Crag in the world. There are numerous spires and peaks of varying difficulty and something for everyone. If you just want to go mountaineering, travel on a glacier, climb 5.12 finger cracks it's all there!

Sunset on the upper Vowell glacier with Bugaboo, Snowpatch and Pigeon Photo by Sean Pickersgill

We started hiking in at around 8pm and arrived at Applebee Campsite around 11pm. We planned for the Northest Ridge of Bugaboo Spire for our first day.

Applebee campground in the Bugaboos

Woke at 6ish and headed out climbed up to the Bugaboo Crescent col and just started climbing, it was great long easy climbing for hundreds of metres, traversed the summit block and headed down the Kain route to the Bugaboo/Snowpatch Col and back to camp. Our first day in the Bugs was awesome and just increased my motivation to climb more and more. 9 hrs camp to camp and again a great first day!!

Climbing the first pitch of the Northeast Ridge of Bugaboo Photo by Sean Pickersgill

Sean on the second pitch of the Northeast Ridge of Bugaboo Spire

Traversing the summit ridge of Bugaboo Spire Photo by Sean Pickersgill

Descending the Kain Route with Snowpatch behind Photo by Sean Pickersgill

During dinner me and Sean where cruzing the the guidebook and found a route on the west face of Snowpatch that looked sweet, Wildflowers 5.9 9 pitches, so after a good night sleep we headed up to the col and on the Upper Vowell glacier to the base. This route is awesome! It starts with a short 4th class scramble up to the base of a massive left facing corner a pitch of 5.7 then sustained 5.9 corner/crack climbing for 5 pitches until it eases to 5.7 for the last pitch or 2. the first 6 pitches are all in the shade and it was pretty cold, but it is the alpine so you just have to deal!   

Sean climbing the 3rd pitch of Wild Flowers on the West Face of Snowpatch Spire

Topping out on Wild Flowers with Pigeon and the South Howser Photo by Sean Pickersgill

The next 3 days where slower for us, we wanted to climb Mctech Arete a classic 6 pitch climb on the Crescent Spire but when we arrived the where a number of parties and we just weren't into hanging out in line so we headed back to camp. That night it snowed and rained as well as the next day. The following day the weather cleared but things where still wet/snowy so as they dried out we run into Golden for  some more food. We arrived back to camp early that evening with plans to go climb Surfs Up the next day.

We got up around 6:30am and headed to the col and to the base of Surfs Up. There was one party ahead of us and they seemed to get off route on pitch 3, which seems to happen to a lot of parties, as you start pitch 3 go up and slightly right for 20+m and find a big alcove with some tap and scramble up and back down to Surfs Up ledge. After a few more pitches we hit the summit and then descended. Surfs Up is a classic 5.9 and is commonly on many peoples hit list so an early start is recommended. Fortunately we passed that one party and there was another party slightly behind us.

Climbing the second pitch of Surfs Up Photo by Sean Pickersgill

Sean working hard on one of the upper pitches of Surfs Up

That night it rained for a bit and Sean's thermarest got a hole in it so our trip in the Bugs was going to be cut short. Fortunately we found a patch kit and fixed the mat and headed for East Creek Basin with the goal of climbing the Beckey-Chouniard a 800m buttress on the South Howser Tower.

Sean and Pigeon Spire on the way to East Creek

The Beckey-Chouinard is a highly esteemed alpine classic that was first climbed in 1961 by 2 of legendary climbing hardmen Fred Beckey and Yvon Chouinard. The route goes free at 10+ or 10- A0 with a tension traverse left on the last technical pitch.

Sean with Minaret Buttress and the Beckey-Chouinard on the left

After Sean's thermarest was all fixed up we headed to East Creek with food for a few days and plans to hangout there and enjoy the area. We arrived took lots of pictures, eat lots of food and had an early night  with a planned wake-up for 5am for our go at the Beckey-Chouinard.

We woke, ate some granola and headed out after some scrambling we got to the first pitch of more technical climbing and roped up. We where the only ones on the route that day. We swapped leads throughout, climbed well and took short breaks on Big Sandy Ledge and the Summit. We descended the North Ridge of the South Howser and landed on the Upper Vowell Glacier at 8pm and then got to our camp at 9ish. It was a 16hrs camp to camp push that had the best alpine climbing and I have ever experienced.  This truely lives up to the hype it gets!

The first 10- pitch of the Beckey-Chouinard Photo by Sean Pickersgill

Summit of the South Howser Photo by Sean Pickersgill

Descending the South Howser Photo by Sean Pickersgill

The next morning we slept in organized or gear and planned to head back to Golden for the night and finally back to Vancouver and the island on the 21st. Thanks to Felix for letting us crash at his place in Golden and to Dani and Kristen for another great gathering at their place!

Special thanks to Sean for the sweet month of climbing granite splitters! Nice work buddy!!

Hands after some granite climbing

Pigeon and the Howsers

Me and Snowpatch on the Upper Vowell Photo by Sean Pickersgill

Descending into East Creek Basin with Fingerberry Tower on left Photo by Sean Pickersgill

Sunset in East Creek Photo by Sean Pickersgill

Beckey-Chouinard and the Minaret Photo by Sean Pickersgill