www.arareko.net

A few years ago, my infamous and extraordinary friend, Cedar Wright, told the world that Patagonia was “light” – as in weightless, fluffy, insubstantial, carefree. So I sit, rolling that word, like a little rock, around my mouth. He was referring to the Internet weather forecasting, the coffee, the beer, the pizza, the access to town, in contrast to the remoteness of the Karakorum or the era when Jim Donnini and Yvon Chouinard first came here. Yes, this place is light; it has paved roads and fancy hotels. But who is he to say that this makes the climbing in Patagonia light? And who am I, as a rock climber, to be writing about alpine climbing when I hardly know the difference between neve and alpine ice?..

The Cleanest Line: Alpine Light?

So I opted for a change in plans. We came back to my place and while Odina took a long nap I played with Mokka and did some housekeeping stuff. She woke up at noon then we had a long philosophical chat about life… At 2 p.m. we realized we were starving so we went out to get some tacos for lunch. On our way to the taqueria, we passed by the circus and bought a pair of tickets for the evening show.

After lunch we noticed that the clouds were almost gone and that the afternoon promised good weather so we picked up the crash pad from my place and went for some bouldering at Chiluca’s cave. I taught her the basics of climbing and she was able to do a little bit of the traverses on her own, she definitely has abilities. We rested and chatted as the sunset came close then headed to the circus because the show was about to begin.

We greatly enjoyed the spectacle, it had been a very long time since we went to the circus. We saw acrobats, clowns, horses, tigers, etc. for almost 2 hours, we were amazed just like every other kid in the arena. After the show we called it a day and headed back home, really happy that we ended up having such a great time despite the change in plans

It’s amazing how fast the body can re-adapt to rigorous training, muscles do have memory. During this period I’ve increased mileage from almost daily 5 km to 15 km every other day. I got a little bit of knee pains in the first couple of weeks, but nothing that good icing and aspirins couldn’t fix. Losing weight (with diet) and strengthening the quadriceps has helped a lot as well. I’ve also mixed the training with endurance bouldering sessions and quick mountain ascents in between running days, training at altitude is very important.

I feel like I’ll be ready for running my first short ultra of the year in about a month, which will be Carrera de Resistencia en las Montañas in its “short” 63 km (40 miles) version. You might remember that last year I didn’t felt so well during the race so I had to bail at the halfway point. I’m hoping to finish it this time and with a respectable time, lets see how it goes… But now back into training!