Final Days in Mendoza

San Rafael turned out to be the place where we climbed the most in Argentina. Despite that fact, I still wanted to head back to Mendoza to hang out with some of my friends for a few more days before heading to Peru. Who knows when I'd see them next! There were still plenty of things to do in and around Mendoza. After calling up Diana, we took our rental car and 2 of her friends up towards the mountains to a place called Potrerillos. 

Potrerillos has a giant lake that feeds the Mendoza river where many tourist activities flourish; rafting, kayaking, sailing, wakeboarding, etc. We brought our food up there and hung out for a few hours, taking in the scenery and the sunshine; such an awesome rest day activity! The wind was pretty chilly so jumping into the lake would have been quite chilly. There were mountains surrounding the lake in every direction. In my head, I knew Aconcagua was out there somewhere to the west... we'd have to find it with our 3 days left.

The lovely ladies at Portrerillos; Diana, Clara, and Karen

The next day was a climbing day and we went to a place recommended to us by a guy in San Rafael called 'Escarabajo' which means 'beetle' in Spanish. We convinced Diana to come with us and try out climbing for the first time. She was a natural! Escarabajo was near Potrerillos so getting to the area shouldn't be too bad... so we thought. Finding the right turn off seemed to be super difficult at the time. We ended up bothering this poor man because we accidentally went up his driveway thinking the climbing area was there. He was super nice though and told us where the differenet spots were. We ended up finding the right place after 20 minutes or so. The rock was pretty crumbly and didn't inspire much confidence. Diana climbed a couple 5.10's, her first climbs ever! Pretty solid of you ask me... Alex and I also found a giant roof to climb; something around the 5.12 range.

Cacheuta Hotspring; No entry fee here!

Our rest day consisted of going to 'Cacheuta,' an area where there are natural hot springs. A spa has been setup around a portion of the hotsprings, but that would have cost around $30 US and we didn't want to do that. Diana mentioned that there were some other hotsprings that didn't require money so we definitely were into that. We parked on the side of the road and hiked down to the hotsprings, wine bottle and snacks in hand. The water was perfect temperature; not too hot since it was pretty warm outside and definitely not too cold either. Seemed like we stayed there for almost 3+ hours!!! I could have stayed there all day; hotsprings, wine, and good company. Oh, I forgot to mention that NO one else was there too!

Christ the Redeemer, border of Chile and Argentina near Aconcagua

Aconcagua is the highest mountain in the Americas and it's only 2.5 hours from Mendoza. I was hoping to do a short trek and see what the terrain was like but permits were not given out at this time of year since the climbing season is over. Pretty sure we missed it by just a few days... Luckily, we were able to drive out to the start of the trek and get a glimpse of the mountain in person. We picked up some hitchhikers along the way, Auriane Marsan and Franco Mariutti, current students in Chile. We found out that Auriane is from France, in the same town that Petzl is based out of; we spent the whole day together, sharing mate, talking about climbing, skiing, and where to go in France when we will be there. Hopefully we'll be able to meet up!

We all drove up to a monument dedicated to a peace treaty between Chile and Argentina over where the true border between the countries should be back in 1904. This statue is roughly at 12, 572 ft high above sea level; we could feel the altitude for sure. To the east of the statue, you could barely make out the peak of Aconcague hiding between some other peaks in front. After dropping our 2 friends off along the road back to Santiago, we headed back to Mendoza, stopping one more time to gaze at the beautiful mountain. Maybe sometime I'll be able to come back and give the mountain a shot!

Aconcagua, tallest mountain outside of the Himalayas

We had one more full climbing day before we had to leave the city so we went to this placed near Potrerillos again called El Salto. This place really reminded me of climbing at Bishop's Peak at San Luis Obispo during college. There were about 20+ routes or so varying in grades from 5.9 up to 5.14. Diana came with us again and rocked it like a champ! Temperatures were perfect and there wasn't a cloud in the sky; climbing couldn't have been better. We climbed maybe 5-6 routes there, including a 5.12 that I almost flashed. Got to the last bolt but fell!

El Salto climbing near Mendoza, Argentina

That night, we went out to dinner with Diana, Clara, and Tamara. We ordered plenty of beer to go around and had a great time singing songs at the bar. We had to go dancing since it was our last night there, so we headed to this place called 'Por Aca.' Alex was feeling a bit sick so he went back while Tamara and Diana and I went in. It was a righteous time, dancing and singing until 5:30am when they kicked us out. I couldn't have asked for a better last night, not to mention month in one of my favorite places!

Our flight was the next day around 5:30pm but I had to get up at 10am to pay a parking ticket that I got a couple days before (you have to keep your lights on while driving in Argentina at ALL times). I also ran to the market to buy an Argentinian flag; everyone in our hostel who had helped us out over the past month signed it and gave Alex and I their best wishes. It's definitely going up on my wall or maybe in my van when I get back to the States! :)

I definitely want to thank everyone who helped us out over the past month in Argentina for making it such an unforgettable experience. Rodrigo, Macarena, Cyril and Nicolas in Arenales, Tratamundo hostel, Celina for the beta at La Frazada and for making a bomb topo, Tamara, Mailen, Franco, Santiago, and Sophia for being so welcoming and helpful, and most of all to Diana and friends Clara and Karen for spending so much time with us and giving us memories that we won't ever forget. I miss all of you already!!!

Movil Tour buses in Huaraz

Alex and I spent a night in Lima before we planned on taking a bus the next night to Huaraz, Peru. By some random stroke of luck, we were able to share a beer 1 hour before this bus with David Kaufman and Zach Land-Miller, 2 friends who I had NO idea where down in Peru. Like David said, the world is super connected; we couldn't have met up with it being so!

We boarded our bus at 10:30pm and had a restless night sleep traveling to Huaraz, getting there around 6:30am. Luckily, our hostel knew that we were coming at this time so they had a room ready for us when we get there. It's time to see what this true mountain town has to offer; multiple peaks 5000-6000+ meters tall, the best sport crag in all of Peru (at 14,000+ ft no less!) and amazing boulder problems established by some super strong locals and some of Americas own, Matt Wilder and Jason Kehl to name a few.

I hope to get up some of the beautiful peaks here, along with acclimatize and climb some hard boulders and sport at over 10,000 ft. :) I'm so very sad to have left Argentina but a new country awaits with plenty of climbing to be had. Let's see what happens in the next 4 weeks while I'm here!!!!!

Missing Argentina and feeling the altitude,

Top-Rope

La Frazada, San Rafael

Possibilities were endless since we had rented a car. After climbing in the frigid temps of Arenales, we were heading back to Mendoza thinking we'd head to Santiago to meet up with an old friend Camilo. Unfortunately, it had snowed the night before and the road over the mountains was closed. Time to change our plans! We did meet some Argentinian climbers who mentioned La Frazada has some of the best sport in Argentina so we decided to take their advice.

The entrance of La Frazada and Embalse Valle Grande in the distance

Luckily, I was able to scour the internet and find a rough pdf of where the climbing spot was and basic directions on how to get there. After off roading our little Chevy classic for a little while, we came upon La Frazada and it's abundance of climbs! Argentinian climbers must be all about safety because the path to get into the canyon was WAY over protected with via ferrata. We first showed up on a monday so no one was around. We were climbing all day by ourselves; it was great!

Via ferrata to get into the canyon

The place was just like climbing in the Owens River Gorge near Bishop, CA. The rock was volcanic so there were tons of sharp pockets and edges for holds. Some of the climbing was definitely not obvious due to the large number of 'holds' dispersed throughout the walls. There were some cracks to climb as well but I was definitely wary of the cam placements due to the 'not solid feel' of the rock. All of the bolts were bomber.

The canyon had a creek running through it so we had a pleasant sound all day long while we were climbing. There was a bunch of sand though so we tried to keep the rope clean on our rope bags. We climbed here 2 days on, took a rest day, then 2 days more. During the 4 climbing days, we racked up a pretty solid list of climbs over that time. You can check out our complete ticklist of the entire trip here!

The surrounding mountains and landscapes really reminded me of Arizona with it's red and orange rock walls and desert shrubs everywhere. Us Californians are pretty lucky that we have some of the most abstract and cool landscapes super close to home!!!

In between our 4 days of climbing, we took a rest day and went to the oldest winery in San Rafael, circa 1880's! They still used the same equipment that was used at the beginning of the winery!!! La Abeja was actually making wine the day we showed up so we got to see everything in action; we were SUPER lucky. We also got a private tour of the entire grounds for free. We couldn't have had a better rest day activity.

After a week in San Rafael, it was time to head back to Mendoza for a few more days. Objectives on the itinerary: see the highest mountain outside of the Himalayas: Aconcagua, hot springs, and take a shot at some of the routes at Mendoza's local crags! Look for that post in the next day or so!

Alex and I are currently in Lima, Peru waiting for our overnite bus to Huaraz. It's a mecca of climbing; sport climbing, bouldering, and mountaineering, not to mention gorgeous!!! See you in Huaraz! :)

Chao,

Scooter

La Grandeza del Arenales

After spending a few days in Mendoza with my friends from Lake Tahoe, it was time to finally get some climbing in. Our first stop was to get to Arenales, supposedly a crack climbing mecca a couple hours south of Mendoza. Luckily, I found a pretty cheap rental car online and after paying $720 US for 16 days, we were on our way!

After traveling south on highway 40 from Mendoza to Tunuyan, we headed west towards the Andes. After 30-40 minutes of paved road, it turned into a nice gravel/dirt road. Along the way there are military checkpoints and we were hoping to get passed the 2nd one, Refugio Portinari. By now it was 11pm or so. We met the refugio host and he didn't speak a word of English; we had to explain who we were, what we wanted to do, what gear we had, how long we were planning on staying there, all in our best Spanish. Pretty intense to speak Spanish to military guys at 11pm at night!

Fortunately, they could understand us well enough and they let us crash in the breezeway instead of trekking our stuff up to the refugio at Arenales proper. It was definitely around 35 degrees F or so that night as well! Chilly! That next morning, we awoke at 7:30 am for the guys to open the gate and let us through to Arenales and were driving by 8:30 or so. We were so excited!!!!!

From Refugio Portinari, we had about 4 km of driving up hill to the parking lot. From there, 1 km of walking to the refugio up the valley. When we got to the parking lot, you could see why everyone who has been there talks so highly of the place. There were granite spires and cliffs everywhere on both sides! 

We hiked all of our gear, food, and beer up to the refugio which was nestled amongst huge granite boulders; one was specifically used for aid practice (nothing but hooks Andrew!). It was time to start climbing! We went to a short sport cliff to feel the rock and wake up our muscles. The rock looked a lot like Cabrillo in San Luis Obispo; orange, rounded feathers with random edges and seams running through it. It felt sturdy enough though. We definitely were psyched.

Climbing here gave you the feeling that you were down in Patagonia; the weather was ridiculous! Cold temperatures mostly (hovered around 40+ degrees each day), winds were pretty high, and the approaches were pretty long (1 hr +) and uphill! The cracks were spectacular though; it felt like we were in the High Sierras. The rock is bombproof and there's tons of places to put in protection.

We were able to summit one of the spires, roughly 3400m tall called Aguja Campinelle Alto. The route was called Armonica, 5 pitches, 6a. It was super windy, super cold, but we made it up and back down safely... WOOHOO!

After 4 days of climbing here (1 rest day due to weather), we felt it was time to move on to another area. Our hands could only take so much of trying to climb 5.10+ multi-pitch at ~45 degrees F! We met some great people while we were there; Rodrigo and Macarena from Mendoza, and Cierul and Nicolas from France. If you love alpine granite cracks and summiting spires, you GOTTA come check this place out; totally worth it.

We originally planned on going over to Santiago, Chile with our rental car but turned out that the paperwork wouldn't be ready for a long time AND the highway over the Andes was closed due to snow. Change of plans!!! While researching different things to do in Mendoza, I came upon a blog post about an amazing road just north of Mendoza called 'The Road of 365 Curves.' Since we had a car, we definitely went to check it out.

We were sort of skeptical about whether this was legit or not, but after we got there, everything was reassured! It was spectacular!!! As we were going up, there was cloud cover keeping the sun from warming us up. The road went up so high that we got over the clouds and could see only a blanket of white over Mendoza.

Alex and I had an Andes liter beer to split, along with some cheese, bread, and avocado... MMmm! :)  Quite the rest day activity! Our Chevy Spirit was stick luckily so we got to play around plenty. 

We heard from a group of Argentinians at Arenales that if you want the best sport climbing in Argentina, you need to go to San Rafael to the place called La Frazada. We took their advice and are now in San Rafael; just got into town about 4 hours ago and plan to head out there on Monday. Apparently, there are over 300+ routes that have been developed in less than a couple years! We are super psyched for slightly warmer temps and a higher concentration of hard climbs. Wish us luck tomorrow and tune in next time to see if La Frazada lives up to our expectations.

Ciao,

Top Rope

Life in Mendoza

Alex and I have been living in Mendoza for the past 4 days or so and there's basically one word that can describe it all... CHILL. Everything is so relaxed here; no rushing to and from places, time almost slows down. The city seems to run on personal interaction which is such a difference compared to the US.

El Parque Independencia

Everyone is always out with friends, family, or their significant other; walking, talking, doing anything to pass the time. Plenty of couples are just making out in the random squares in front of everyone, not seeming to care one bit. Many things are sold with the thought that you would share it with someone. Take the beers for example, the standard size is a liter. That's a lot of beer for one person!

Liter Beers

A standard day would be to get up at 9 or 10am and have desayuno (breakfast). This consists of mostly pastries and fruit and a coffee. At 1:30 or 2pm, everyone will have almuerzo (lunch). Many people will drink a glass of wine and plenty of carne (meat). At 4-5 pm, people will take a break from work and have a snack, usually with a coffee. Dinner will usually start as early as 8, but normally around 10pm.

Cappuccino with cinnamon

You can see how your night would extend into the early hours of the morning when your dinner does not end until midnight! Alex and I are desperately needing to catch up on sleep. Having friends here to distract you constantly really isn't helping our sleeping habits very much. So it goes...

Ketchup of Argentina, smooth and tasty

Mendoza is very well known for it's wineries. I've heard it called the San Luis Obispo of Argentina, can't remember by whom. One of friends hooked us up with a buddy who had a car so we drove down with them to apparently one of the best wineries here. It was gorgeous! Thunderclouds were in the distance, making the light have lots of contrast.

We got to tour the inside of their facility and see where the fermentation happens, the storage, and the bottling. I couldn't help but draw parallels between the wineries we've seen in the states. The US gives way more tastes per tasting. We got 3 different wines to try; Chardonnay, Merlot, and a Malbec.  

All three were pretty good. Chardonnay smelled super sugary but when you tasted it, it was quite nice. I do have to say though, I am still a fan of our wines from Napa and Sonoma. There was much more conversation about how they make their wines, the things that they're tasting. US seems to get everyone drunk with the sole hope that you'll buy wines. This experience felt much more geniune, regardless of whether I could understand what they were saying or not!

After dinner, many people will go out for drinks, usually around midnight or so. We have been following the customs pretty well! I need to give my liver a rest for a bit though... Today, March 7th, we head down to Arenales. I was fortunate enough to find a super cheap car rental place in Mendoza to get us down there. Even some of my friends said that they were surprised at how cheap the car was to rent for the rest of our time here.

It has been raining the past 2 days and we are definitely hoping the rain dries quickly. The forecast shows sun for the next 2 weeks... WOOHOO! I'm super psyched to get on some sweet granite cracks up in the mountains. We have stuff like this to look forward to!

Alex and I are heading to the grocery store this afternoon; hopefully they have a good selection of camping friendly foods for us to buy. We'll see how long we can go without showering up there! Wish us luck and see you in a few days!

Top-Rope

Buen Viaje!!

It has been nothing but a whirlwind for the past month or so getting ready for the first leg of our year long adventure to climb around the globe. I fortunately was able to fit all of my belongings into a 5' x 10' storage unit near my house in Redwood City; super grateful for all of the help to those who helped me cram it in there! I really hope that I packed all of the necessary items that I'll need for the trip. I was able to pack everything into my large red North Face duffel and my 37 liter pack.

Alex and I had 4 flights to get down to Mendoza, our first one leaving on March 31st at 12am midnight. We had a huge bon voyage party. It was awesome having everyone there yet at the same time pretty difficult knowing that we wouldn't see our closest friends for nearly 3 months. We flew to Ft. Lauderdale and had about 8 hours to kill so we decided to head to the beach.

This was the first little bit of down time to really take a breath and figure out a few things that we needed for our trip. These included renters insurance for all of our gear if it got stolen, coordinating hostels in the cities coming up, seeing when friends would be able to meet up, activities to do in Mendoza, etc. On our way back to the airport by bus, we ran into a girl and her mom traveling from the UK. They said that they were getting on a cruise for a week where there are nothing but classic and hard rock concerts every night!!! They had heavy british accents too which was HILARIOUS! They were super friendly and definitely sold us on heading to Malta for a couple days when we're in Europe; we'll see if we can make it happen. Watch out for the portaloos! haha

After making it back to the airport, we had a 6 hour flight to Lima. Here's where our first scare happened. So we were flying Jet Blue and then transferring to LAN from Lima to Mendoza. Our bags needed to be transferred and we needed to check in and get our new boarding passes. Unfortunately, they told us that since we had a connecting flight we need to go through security, not customs, and head back up to the terminal... our bags still waiting for us at the baggage claim passed customs!

We ended up trying to explain ourselves in spanish that we still had our bags to check to Mendoza. It got to within an hour of Alex's flight till LAN told us they were going to search for our bags, tag them, and then re-check them through Santiago to Mendoza. This would TOTALLY not happen in the US. As you can guess, we were super thankful. We arrived in Santiago, Chile and only had 1 more flight to go. I was super excited for this part because we were soon to fly over the Andes. MONTANAS!

You always here about these majestic mountains and I was finally seeing them with my own eyes! The shot above is looking south towards Patagonia. If you were to look north, you would have seen a giant mountain, Aconcagua. I wanted to climb some giant mountains for sure even though I was super tired. I couldn't wait to get out of that plane.

We got a hostel for $10 a night per person. It definitely has everything that we need for the next 4 nights; shower, closet to lock our stuff in, and a bunk bed. That night, we met up with my friend Diana who I met working in Tahoe almost 4 years ago! It was so great to see a familiar face. She showed up with 2 of her friends she new from choir; we had a fun time catching up and learning new words in Spanish, new things to go see, etc.

Today, we rented bicicletas and went for a ride into Parque General San Martin, a large park with lots of sports clubs, tennis, golf, theatres, etc. We rode to the top of the hill and got a great view of the surrounding area. Many thanks to Diana for showing us around.

Tomorrow, Franco and Mailen show up to Mendoza, more good friends from the Lake Tahoe work days. Franco, Mailen, Diana and friends, and Alex and I are planning on finding some fun places to go dancing! Hopefully our hips are loose because we'll need as much help as we can get. Mailen has a car, so we'll be able to head towards the mountains, go wine tasting, and check out some of the countryside!!! Hopefully Tamara and Sofia can come out with us as well.

We are planning on heading to Arenales on Sunday or Monday. Arenales is one of the best places to climb in Argentina; lots of high quality granite walls and boulders. Can't wait!!! Sounds like it will be quite the adventure to get out to this remote area... tune in next time to see how we end up getting there. :)

Scotty "Top-Rope Scooter" Mathewson