Happy Holidays from the Austral Plane!

On December 13-15 Marcus and I took advantage of some nice weather to climb Gorra Blanca.  We approached via Paso Marconi and spent two nights at Refugio Gorra Blanca, Chile.

Paso Marconi (1500m)

Rime ridge climbing on Gorra Blanca

Fitz, Marcus, and Joel

Marcus and Sun Dog

Looking West toward Passo Mariano Moraino

Refugio Gorra Blanca with

Gorra Blanca (above and right of portal)

Thank you friends and family for making this possible.  Specifically, a huge thanks to you Marcus for making this a real fun time in the hills!  For anyone planning on heading into the mountains or specifically to El Chalten to climb, please read Rolando Garibotti and Dörte Pietron's recent post on pataclimb.com;  

http://www.pataclimb.com/knowledge/articles/pdf/risk_managment_pataclimb.pdf

Thank you to the Comisión Auxilio and to all those that have volunteered their time and risked their lives on the various rescues in and around the Chalten Massif.