From Frey to Eternity...

I would say Frey lives up to the hype of being one of the best alpine crags in Sud America... well, I havent been to any others  yet but it was pretty rad and fairly sandbagged. Bosco, the refugio keeper belayed me on 6 stellar pitches so I got to lead all of Sifuentes-Weber on the Frey and Diedro y Jim, both rated 5plus which seems to be a catch all rating from anything 5.8 to 10b. Rapped SW in the dark. Bosco smoked at every belay and spoke perhaps a touch more english than I did Spanish. M2, a beautiful spire perched above the lake rewarded with a sweet single pitch crack, like 9plus in yosemite grades and an excellent 6b immediately right with overhanging hands. Stunning positioning over lago toncek. Poured rain the last night with the fierce Patagonia wind gusts. At 6 am Maureen woke to the alarm of diareah and vomitting. I added some weight to my 70 pounds of gear for the hike out so she could make the walk unencumbered. She kept the pack for an hour having perhaps zero strength, dont know how she did it... today we catch the 14 hour train to the dusty town of san antonio oeste, a slight detour to watch the sunset behind the andes via locomotive rather than bus. then its a 24 hour bus to mendoza - we both need the recovery time... to drool over Arenales, the other standout alpine Andean crag and wish we had more time and warmer temps...