“Yeah, but I really think this is the route...” I shouted to Katie. She didn’t reply.

Where the hell was that bolt? If I could locate it, I was sure she’d head up. Damnit! “OK, you guys head over to Insomnio, and I’ll catch up,” I hollered. Defeated. Then another voice spoke up: “Come again, rogue? You and the illustrious Katie Brown do a mere 5.11a?” It was my ego, which had oddly taken on the voice of Darrel Hammond’s SNL impersonation of Sean Connery. “The day will be lost, you putz!”

I looked down, spying the meadow and Refugio Cochamó, a former farm and since 2005 the basecamp for climbing in the valley. It shone, a smooth, green patch carved out of the primal forest and crowded by ominous cliffs — a small raft of civility in the primitive sea that surrounded. Hosted by the American Daniel Seeliger and his wife, the Argentinean Silvina Verdun, the refugio provides a welcome touch of comfort for visiting climbers and trekkers. I thought longingly of Silvina’s fresh-baked bread, my book . . . a Thermarest in the sun.

“Shake it off, ya pansy!” Connery growled. The tábanos buzzed angrily.

Right! I came here for adventure, not to enjoy myself! If I merely wanted to have fun, I would be in a seaside bar somewhere, hitting on Chilean chicks in pidgin Spanish. I assumed there would be plenty of time to reexamine the murky topo of Marisco and march back up for another try. After all, we had almost a month.

II.
“Part of me was afraid of what I would find and what I would do when I got there. I knew the risks, or imagined I knew.”

Valle Cochamó has long been a rough but passable foot route through the mountains and into Argentina — even rumored to have been used by Butch Cassidy and Tom “Sundance Kid” McCarty during their short-lived stint as Argentinean cattlemen. Today, a fairly straightforward, three-hour walk up a well-used horse trail takes you to Refugio Cochamó.