Argentina febrero, 2022: Valle de Uco adventuring and Arenales & Potrerillos climbing

After a long flight to BA, we were picked up by Giselle’s cousins and spent some days recovering at their campo in Lujan.

Their campo resides in a polo community with polo canchas so we were able to watch some matches close up.

From Lujan we drove to La Consulta, Valle de Uco southwest of Mendoza and stayed in style at a beautiful airbnb.

Our crew at our Air BnB
Our Airbnb near La Consulta
Our Airbnb near La Consulta

Valle de Uco is a world famous wine growing region and of course we visited a few bodegas. Most impressive to me of the many impressive bodegas was Bodega Zuccardi Valle de Uco.

Cellar with “The infinite Stone” — an amazing place.

Where Zuccardi Concreto Malbec is made
Zuccardi Concreto Malbec is made here!
Wine and dinner at Zucarrdi

From La Consulta, we made day trips to Cajon de Arenales, maybe 20 minutes away.

Arenales
Arenales Valley
Drone footage by Juan Manuel Ondetti
Drone footage by Juan Manuel Ondetti
Drone footage by Juan Manuel Ondetti
Infinite rock surrounding the refuge. Drone footage by Juan Manuel Ondetti.

We managed to get two days of climbing in with Gustavo Lopez-Lopez, guide and local Arenales expert.

Gustavo, Our Guide at Arenales
Gustavo (@turulexo), Our guide at Arenales.
Belaying Gustavo

On our second day at Arenales, we hiked up to Sector Jardin Japones. This sector is a very beautiful, secluded part of Arenales with water, shade and many quality routes of all grades, both trad and sport.

Climbing an unknown 5.8 at Jardin Japones

Drone footage by Juan Manuel Ondetti.
Climbing an unknown 5.8 at Jardin Japones, belayed by Gustavo.

Below Giselle on Day 1 on some of the beautiful, featured granite– the particular sector escapes me at the moment 🙂

Giselle climbing at Arenales, febrero 7, 2022. Photo by me :)
Giselle climbing at Arenales, febrero 7, 2022

After Arenales and many other adventures, we drove north to Potrerillos, along the Mendoza river. The 5 minute approach to Sector Conglomerado was a nice change from the 30-45 minutes approaches we had at Arenales. Sector Conglomerado at Potrerillos is a bolted sport climbing crag with many short, well protected routes. The rock is very similar to the conglomerate of Pinnacles, California.

Giselle climbing "Monarquia" at Sector Conglomerado, Potrerillos, Argentina.
Photo by Mariana Pacheco-Ondetti
Giselle climbing “Monarquia” at Sector Conglomerado, Potrerillos, Argentina
Los Gatos
Los gatos living around our cabin near Potrerillos.

Day trip near La Consulta, canyoneering while the water was low.

Canyoneering
Canyoneering day trip
The narrows 🙂

We also took a day to visit the parque and hiked the Aconcagua touristo trail.

Aconcagua
Aconcagua from the approach trail
Touristo on the Aconcagua hiker trail
Primos Guille y Mariana on the Aconcagua hiker trail
Selfie on the Aconcaagua hiker trail