Rock ’24
Written By: Art and Eleanor
Friends and family, welcome to this final exped blog post! Crazy! That’s all! We’ve completed the itinerary. All things minus some packing and paperwork have been done. I’m feeling proud of all of us rock students, especially with how this group showed up in this last section: Cerro Aguila.
This camping could not have been more different than our time spent at Cerro Apidame. Located on some rolling hills above a farm, we were wind sheltered, horse-visited, and wedding-tent-occupiers. That’s right, a previous group set up a wedding tent-esk looking structure complete with a wooden floor and a big sink! There was also a space dome (think The Martian) where we stored climbing gear and occasionally slept in.
The scene has been set: beautiful camp spot. Now, after we woke up in that oasis and it was time to go climbing, all we had to do was walk uphill on a dirt road for roughly 15 minutes and we were at the base of two beautiful crags hosting a variety of climbs for all of us! Many people chose a “project”— a climb they planned to work on for more than one session, while others chose different goals for the section. The only downside was the dramatically strong wind.
Another part the final journey was a solo lasting almost 20 hours. Students had an early dinner and packed breakfast and lunch and then were placed along the road in different places along the road. There was also rain the forecast so some students brought tents along, or tried to find cover under trees. One person also got the privilege of spending the night in a cave. A rainy but peaceful night for some, a longer and far more wet night for a few people, and a battle with a very large demonic rat for one. Later students woke up and had until 3:00pm to just relax. During this solo time students also worked on their Full Circle; a reflection of their experience during the semester to be shared at the Final Circle.
Then on the final day of exped, during the possibly the most pleasant weather we had the whole time, we climbed in the morning and then packed up and brought our bags down to the road. A bus, a four hour wait and a couple incredible games of yatzhee, and a sunset ferry ride on the large ferry back to chile Chico and another bus… we were at Juan’s hostel.
Trek ’24
Written By: Henry
Howdy! This is Henry, writing to provide your regularly scheduled blog post. On December 6th, we left the field for the last time, marking the end of our eleven day expedition through Patagonia National Park. It was a super fun trip, made even more special by the fact that we, the students, were the ones to plan it. Each semester ends in a Student Planned Expedition, which is a time for us to showcase everything we’ve learned over the last two months. Before we took to the field, we had to plan our route, figure out when we were staying at each campsite, and ultimately decide what the trip would look like. It was a super cool experience, and a great send off for our group. We set out on a route spanning three different maps, hiking through a lush river valley that had been carved out by glaciers centuries before. With rain clouds hanging just overhead, we saw giant gorges, cliffs, and waterfalls.
On the 28th, we teamed up with our instructors to have a Thanksgiving feast. Cooks prepared stuffing, mashed potatoes, and a very delicious vegetable pot-pie. We also got our first glimpse of sunlight, which we were all very thankful for. From there, we headed towards a hut, built by long time friend and partner to HMI, Juan. We got permission to use the huts he uses to guide people through the park, and enjoyed our time there by playing games, sitting by the fire and swimming in lakes formed by melting glaciers. This was also where we had our 24-hour solo, a HMI tradition every student gets to take part in. Shortly after, we traveled to the second of the two huts, and prepared to hike out. We met with one of Juan’s guides, who would be helping us with two tyrolean river crossings.
These last two river crossings are a little to tricky to navigate on foot, so we opted to do them on ziplines and cables. It was super awesome, and a fun way to wrap up an incredible eleven days. But before taking off, we had to do our Full Circle, an activity students have done at HMI for years. We each wrote a passage about the things we learned, the things we were greatful for, and what our biggest take away from the program were. It acts as a way to have some closure, and help us get ready to return to our regular day-to-day at home. This trip was a great opportunity to step into more of a leadership position, and show off everything we learned about exped-planning during our time here. It really was an amazing experience!
