Feliz Navidad!

Happy Holidays from El Chaltén!

The winds have been blowing hard the past few days, and we have been passing the time hiking around and taking photos, painting/drawing, and preparing for our next attempt.

On the 23rd, we took a light hike out to Mirador Fitz Roy where we were treated to amazing views of the Fitz Roy range. Sheila started a painting and I set up a photo. Then I waited for 3 hrs for the clouds to clear. Nothing here happens quickly.

Yesterday we spent the morning collecting up food and a couple snow pickets. Steaks, cheeses, chocolate, and butter were top priorities for their fuel to weight ratio. On our first attempt Tim, with terrible Spanish language skills, made the mistake of buying butter when he thought he had bought cheeses and now we're thinking we should always travel with half a kilo of the stuff. After visiting six or seven stores - from panaderias to supermercados to mini mercados--we basically got everything on our list.

With trip prep work done for the day, we took off for the afternoon on a ~20 km out to Lago Torre and back. The lake was like nothing we had seen before. Lago Torre is the terminus of Glacier Grande and Glacier Torre, so you have the glacier falling into the lake. Meanwhile, the winds were absolutely nuking. If we jumped, we landed about 6 inches away. These winds were making 1-2 ft waves, which is amazing because the lake is not big at all. On the side of the lake where we were, huge blocks of blue ice floated at the surface. The wind generated waves would crash into these blocks and create spray that the wind would grab and take horizontally, sometimes all the way to shore. It was incredibly violent, completely inhospitable, yet gorgeous and awe-generating. After grabbing some drawings and photos, and after having been exfoliated by the wind, we made our way back for Argentinian Christmas eve dinner.

Argentinian Xmas eve dinner was so big that it deserves a post to itself -- and it will get one next.

It looks like we have a one-day weather window on the 27th, meaning we will slog up to Piedra Negra again tomorrow. At least this time we don't have to carry very much gear because we stashed almost all of it up there after our first attempt. We will likely attempt the Brenner-Moschioni route which avoids the nasty snow we had to deal with on the approach to Comeseña-Fonrouge. The route also plays to our strengths on rock as opposed to snow and ice. We will make the final call tomorrow once we are up there and can assess conditions.