And plain old luck. Dean and I now think that the best strategy is to have comfortable camps at all possible levels here. The best boulders around are conveniently located two minutes from the tent door. A two-hour hike up the trail in the wind and rain took us to our next camp, at Rio Blanco. We've made it as stylish as possible, with a sleeping tent and a cooking tent.
Some climbers use the traditional wooden huts.
As we set up the cook tent, I looked over to see Bernd Arnold in the tent right next door. Bernd and his partner Kurt Albert, both Germans, are some of the most accomplished, and downright fun, Patagonia climbers. Bernd told me in heavily accented German that he'd just arrived and that Kurt would be arriving tomorrow. We also saw what looked suspiciously like two condors landing right next to Bernd's tent. The condors are a longstanding good luck omen here in Patagonia.