At 12:18 p.m. on New Years Day I stood atop the western hemisphere. Four days later I've descended to reality, finding myself stranded in a hyper-Americanized hotel in downtown Mendoza left to enjoy my free breakfast buffet and contemplate the fact that the world seems to have taken little notice of my grand achievement. (My feelings about this are best conveyed by the look of shock on Doc's face in the final scene of Back to the Future Part 2 when he succeeds in sending Marty to the future only to have him return moments later with little changed.)
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So I plan to write about the adventure over the coming days before heading to southern Patagonia and a small climbing town at the base of the Fitz Roy for the next phase of my travels. In the meantime, here's our summit pic:
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| Tomorrow he might return to the valley and be swallowed up by all the mediocrity of life, but for one day at least he had looked full at the sky. - Lionel Terray |