Bienvenidos Estados Unidos!

Cajon Arenales

Asador Marcello tends the coals for our farewell asado

Repacking (again) with Crystal & Juan's van

Crytsal and Juan climbing on El Teton in Arenales

Joel and Juan sampling some polished face

Joel and I are back in the USA after our four month odyssey in Argentina! Flying into chilly, snowy Salt Lake City was quite a change from the muggy haze of Santiago Chile.
We spent the last week of our trip in Cajon Arenales in the Andes west of Mendoza, the land of sun and wine! As we rode through the Mendoza valley and into the dry foothills in Crystal and Juan's sweet van, we were greeted with great views of the high and white Andes. Amazing to to see these snowy giants far above the hot vineyard country!
Arenales has some really interesting granite, some of it very polished, making for some interesting face climbing! The upper canyon holds the longest routes around with a true alpine character following great crack systems. High spires tower thousands of feet above the narrow stream cutting the valley and the desolation of the Andes is evident from these perches.