The Start of a Grand Adventure-Day 6, The Final Day

One moment I'm clinging to this crumbling rock face and the next I'm falling. I'd fallen before but I knew this was different. I wasn't stopping. I hear a crunch, metal deformation at high speed, then a startled, "Fuck!” "Busterman" flashes into view, but only briefly. We're both falling, accelerating, visions of the world flashing around while we tumble through the air. The talus comes into view right before I crash into it. I can almost hear it, that sickening crunch of a softer body hitting that ever present, harder, more immovable object, the ground . . .

The Start of a Grand Adventure-Day 5, Disappointment Peak

We slept in today. There was no reason to rush. We'd tagged our goal (Grand Teton), the summit we'd been dreaming about since the trip was conceived, so we slept in a little bit, had an unhurried breakfast, and started breaking down camp to move down hill to the Meadows camping zone. Our goal for today was Irene's Arete 5.8 III, A nice six pitch climb that with a little scrambling and hiking would bring us to the summit of Disappointment Peak. After our gear was packed we made our way toward our new home. My knee was actually starting to feel better for some reason. Despite this "Busterman" was still out pacing me on the approaches and descents.

Reconnaissance in South America

The flight from Toronto to Santiago was a cold, restless twelve hours of tossing and turning in my seat.

Click here for the rest of the story over on Climbing.com. This post is about my recent trip to Chile and Argentina, and the obstacles and opportunities I found about and within the climbing community.