Back to El Calafate

Hola todos! Hello everybody!
For those of you eagerly awaiting news from our trip, wait no more. We have made it out of Torres del Paine National Park in Chile, took a rest day in Puerto Natales, and then fishing for a day. Now we are back in Argentina for the next couple of days in the city of El Calafate.
We had absolutely amazing weather in the Park while backpacking. We feel so lucky! And we have a ton of pictures to wade through and share in the near future. Highlights of our backpacking trip include a view of Las Torres, a sunny day in the French Valley cirque, hiking high above the Grey Glacier, and views of all the prominent peaks under blue skies with fresh snow on them. Oh yeah, and we road a boat from our last camp within 50 feet of the front of the Glacier and were served drinks chilled with glacier ice. Living in the lap of luxury.
We went fishing with two guides yesterday and I had the most amazing morning of fly fishing Ive ever had! The afternoon wasnt so good but we still had a great time. That was a pretty cool birthday present... The rest of our down time since we came back to civilization has included sleeping in, eating wonderful hostel breakfasts, tasting the local flavor (including an Argentinian twist on classic sushi, gelato ice cream, empanadas, and a sandwich cookie called an alfahore).
Tomorrow we have bus tickets to go to Perito Moreno glacier in Argentinias Glacier National Park. It´s supposed to be one of the most active glaciers in the world, with ice calving off the front of the glacier into the water every 5 minutes. Can´t wait! Then we leave El Calafate on Monday and begin our whirlwind trip home so that I can go to class on Wednesday.
I´m on the hostel computer so no pictures right now, sorry. We´ll get them up soon, promise!

Year 2012 Wrap Up

Since I have basically failed to blog since June I'll try and catch you all up to my world over the past six months:

I went to the Young Life property Washington Family Ranch (affectionately referred to as WaFaRa) for a week in June with my high school buddies for summer camp. As advertised, it easily qualifies as one of the best weeks of my life.

The guys in my cabin at camp. They are awesome!

I asked my girlfriend to marry me while at the top of Bridger Bowl Ski Area, fulfilling a life-long goal to propose with a ring-pop.

I worked for 7 weeks of my summer in Lewistown, MT. My research work with Western Transportation Institute involved building a test road at an old B-52 landing strip. It was a frustratingly long process where the contractor underbid the job and took them much longer than expected.

The "Trench": an imitation of a weak road base that we strengthened with plastic meshes. 

We had a family reunion on the Oregon Coast. So good to see everyone and share Alli with my family!

School started again in August and I had a pretty full load trying to take 3 graduate classes, teach 2 sections of lab, and work part-time for WTI. I wound up telling my boss that I couldn't work any more of the semester in October.

The highlight of my hunting season was killing my first antelope opening day the beginning of October. I had a blast chasing elk through the woods, and was relatively successful finding them. However, I was still unable to close the deal on any opportunities. There's always hope for next year...

Hunting in Anaconda with Alli before Thanksgiving.

I married the love of my life on November 10, 2012. I never thought that this would be the first thing checked off my bucket list made almost 3 years ago.

We visited Mom and Dad for Thanksgiving in Kalispell, had a birthday celebration for Alli, and we both got our first tattoos! Although I won't admit to any tears, I will assure you that commitment like that hurts really bad.

Alli and I just recently found out that we received an honorable mention in an outdoor adventure checklist contest we entered. There was a list of 20 activities to be accomplished in the Bozeman area and we completed 14. We got a shout out as the love-bird couple who did the tasks together and got engaged along the way. No prize money, but there's always next year...

Alli and I on the top of Hyalite Peak the last weekend in September, one of the tasks for the Outside Bozeman Hitlist contest. 

The semester of school refused to die and I spent an inordinate amount of time in my office at school trying to finish several papers, projects, and reports. After I finished we left for a weekend trip to Kalispell, and then flew to Kansas City to visit Alli's parents and grandparents.

Our final adventure of the year is our Honeymoon! We leave on Monday for South America for some Feliz Navidades! We plan to see the sites, taking it all in as we backpack and flyfish in the area of Puerto Natales and El Calafate. More updates of our trip to follow.

Christmas Travels

So it's been a while since I've been blogging and hopefully this trip will encourage me to pick it up again. This should be your one stop shop for all the adventure stories of Colter and Alli; the first being our honeymoon trip to Patagonia. We hope to be able to blog throughout our time in South America.
This is the first test blogging with smartphone so likely it'll be short but hopefully fun. This should be an indication of how our blogging will be throughout the trip.
Well we are off and running on the first part of our journey to Kansas City. There's been a little hiccough in the weather but seems like we'll make it okay. The perk is we've been bumped to first class which is a new experience for me.