Before accepting an invitation to join an expedition to Patagonia Lisa already knew the area's daunting reputation for thundering wind, rain, and hail. She'd heard tales of committing granite spires with unforgiving steepness, caps of ice and avalanches of rocks. But rising to the challenge, Lisa was determined to test her mental and physical limits in a bid for a summit in this Alpine proving ground. Most of all, she wanted to complete a free ascent of a spire here, climbing all the way from glacier to summit in a quick push.

Joining Lisa on the trip to the southern hemisphere was Alpine climbing master Kevin Thaw whose list of Patagonian summits is hard to beat, and, uh ... me, Wills Young who agreed that climbing a mountain once in a while can't be such a bad thing. I knew I was going to be hurting if I didn't get in some fitness training for the trip, so after a few trips into the Owens River Gorge I knew I was in trouble. The minute I arrived, my eyes began wandering toward the boulders on the outskirts of El Chalten! Lisa, meanwhile, recovering from a third knee surgery, had been hiking and doing long days of back-to-back rock-climbs. A natural athlete, she arrived in Argentina prepared to tackle anything, and after a brief stop-over in Buenos Aires, she was staring longingly at the biggest-looking most forboding, yet stunning peaks either of us could ever hope to see.

The Agostini basecamp at the lower end of the Torre Glacier proved a beautiful yet tormenting location. Brilliant blue skies would tease us, while cloulds streamed like smoke from the summets in the distance, driven by gale-force winds. Then, for a week or more, much thicker clouds would hang about the upper glacier or move down-valley menacingly to throw rain across the green lengua trees of the riparian woodlands.

Repeatedly "flushed" from the upper valley, as Kevin liked to say, we would retreat to El Chalten town where dozens of cups of coffee, apple pies and alfajores from the local chocolateria were consumed eagerly during long sessions of lazy chatting. I took the opportunity to crank some of the area's testpieces on the outstanding blocks above the Madsen campsite -- some truly wonderful bouldering, which fortunately remained well beyond the cloud-zone thrown out by the Patagonian ice cap, basking instead in breezy but pleasant sunshine. Indeed it was almost hot at times.

The skies cleared just before Christmas day and we were able to dash up-valley yet again. With a short weather-window predicted, a rapid free ascent of Saint Exupery spire became the objective. Clara de Luna, a guidebook 5.11c on goodish rock (perfect in places) was the choice, but Lisa was determined to go a step further than most climbers by insisting on an all-free ascent. She blasted the lower crux pitch, stuffing just a couple of cams into over 100 feet of climbing, we were off to a great start. I always knew that when Lisa gets it in her head she's going to do something, there will be no stopping her.

Much of the climb was well below the 5.11 level, indeed several pitches of 5.5 to 5.7 would fly by of which I can honestly remember nothing at all, but every now and then, a section of splitter granite required thoughtful contemplation with a fluttering heart as I stared up at a line of rope running 200 feet ahead, 50 feet to the nearest piece, and down three or four thousand feet of rock and talus to the glacier below.

Fortunately, the weather remained good as the afternoon moved on, so we were able to slow a little and enjoy the experience toward the top, and we even found a ropelength of technical crack climbing by a variation on the final headwall, finishing the route off with a clean piece of golden rock -- maybe 5.10+ -- that ended with a mantel to gain the summit.

Lisa was abuzz with the thrill of ascent and eager for more, but sadly, the good weather never came again. Even so, we certainly had a fun time hanging in El Chalten with friends we met and made there, including locals and visitors alike. Lisa left with a will to return for more. Me too -- only I'm going to take a crash pad and a lot of good books to read because it will be a cold day in hell before you get me back up on one of those terrifying mountains.

-- Wills Young