Some of the most insane mountain photography ever from this amazing winter ascent of Cerro Torre by Colin Haley
Notes (1046)
After many previous failures incl managed hosts going out of business, I've finally got up & running on an old 2017 mini-pc from home
@richard
Allows me to do longer mountain posts with more images & also my grumpy ramblings & failings with technology, without clogging up this Mastodon feed.
As the introductory pinned post states "If you're a mountain person who loves tech (or a tech person who loves mountains), we probably have things in common."
Been a frustrating couple of days trying to install automatic webcam image capture & ftp upload to my website. Most programs are far too complex for this simple situation. Ended up with a simple python script. Doesn't help too when my computer wont stop sleeping, suspending or hibernating.
Then, one morning, all at once everything clicks and works fine 😀
In a few days I've gone from a southern hemisphere late spring/early summer to a northern hemisphere late autumn/early winter environment. Nowhere was this more evident than yesterday when hiking in the Vereda de Estrella, near Granada, approaching the north face of Alcazaba. Just glorious autumnal colours!
Walking
Back after 3 days of travelling and last night slept the sleep of the gods in my own home. You can't beat nearly 10 hours solid sleep
Looking out from Cerro Paredón near El Chalten towards the east over Lago Viedma to the mountains beyond. Horizontal lines of steppe, pampas, lake, mountains, cloud and sky. A few icebergs can be seen on the lake surface having broken away from the Videma glacier
This is quite an unusual image that we didn't realise we had captured until later that day. This is the magnificent Cerro Torre summit in the late afternoon sun. We knew there were condors flying around but didn't expect to see a paraglider appear in the image too 🤣
The story of our recent encounters with the Andean Condor
The Condor approaching was anything but steady, tossed and jostled by the cliff-face turbulence. She was coming home to find her mate.
With an expert’s grace, she mastered the chaos. She lined up her final approach, adjusted her primary feathers with microscopic precision, and then, folded her wings and dropped like a stone, landing perfectly on a rocky perch just below our vantage point.
Short video of her coming in to land on the cliffs outside El Chalten
Apologies to all my veggie friends for this. I live with a vegetarian and eat almost 95%+ vegetarian food. Love it. But sometimes, especially in Patagonia, you just have to eat a half a sheep.
Our final week here in El Chaltén, Can't believe 4 weeks already. Comfortable here, surrounded by warm, friendly people & a great selection of bars & restaurants. We've been doing lots of stunning trekking routes among some of the most dramatic mountains on the planet.
1 rough week but the weather has been superb. Nothing but t-shirts & shorts lately. Days incredibly long, with light from 4:30 am until 10 pm.
Could easily see myself living here. Be sad to leave. It's been an absolute blast.
Close up images of the summits of Cerro Torrre, Egger and Standhardt. from the Torre valley.
After our failure with photographing the Andean Condor yesterday today we opted for a more static subject. Yes, the magnificent Cerro Torre. I might be biased, but to me this is the finest looking mountain on the planet.
Cerros Torre, Egger & Standhardt mountains. Some close ups to follow.
And guess what ... on the journey back to El Chalten the sky where we were yesterday was full of Condors. Typical eh! 🤣
The day was perfect, sun-drenched, warm, with only a gentle breeze. Below us, El Chalten lay like a miniature model village. Across the horizon, the entire Fitzroy and Torre massifs stood stark against a brilliant blue sky, their snowy caps gleaming.
We paused to watch tiny, heroic figures of rock climbers clinging to the granite. I was a little envious.
Yesterday was to be our "Day of the Condor". Weather perfect. A chance to photograph Condors up close. Guess what? You've guessed it, 6 hours and just two small specks in the sky in the distance.
We had drawn a blank. Our quest had ended not with a majestic flap of wings, but with a quiet sigh.
Nice views anyway 🤣
The guardians at the refuge showed us a recent video of the resident Puma at the campsite. It was on a trunk of a fallen tree close to where we had just camped. The Puma didn't seem at all disturbed by the presence of humans.
Travelling back through the forest it's slightly off putting knowing that a Puma could be on the trail just round the corner. I must admit to being slightly twitchy!
Of course to all my fediverse American friends this is the norm I guess 😃
Stream coming down from Piedra Negra to Refugio Piedra del Fraile
From the pass it was an easy ascent to Laguna Pollone. This is a special place. We sat down, ate some energy bars and just gazed at that awesome, dramatic scene. The reflections of the mountains echoed in the waters of the lake, which still had some morning ice drifting across. All was still. No wind. Such a tranquil moment for us both.
We emerged onto the flat plain of the Rio Electrico valley, through some old terminal moraines, continuing over a hillside to emerge at a small pass overlooking the Rio Pollone.
What a view! Ahead was the white wall of the Cordon Marconi and to the right Gorra Blanca towered over the valley. We could see our previous campsite at La Playita, the other side of the lake.
I looked wistfully at the grassy strip outside the refuge. It was there I had laid, battered, bruised, beaten and snow blind after retreating from Paso Marconi in 2010 (photo). Utterly exhausted we had dumped our overweight packs and stretched out in the warm sunshine on the lovely soft grasses to sleep.
15 years later ... @khusky re-enacted those precious moments 😃
