After my workout last night, I stopped in at Feather Friends for a slide show from Jim Donini about some of his exploits in Patagonia. There was a pretty good showing of people there, though I think the Mark Westman show definitely had several more people attending. Motivation, was the thesis of his slide show and through all the joking and kidding around, I think he really struck a note with a lot in the audience which was a little different than some of the other slide shows I have seen recently. Not to mention Fred Beckey was in the crowd.

Donini is really a living legend and at the young age of 62, he is still putting up hard routes in an area that at the turn of the century was considered to remote an extreme for any serious attempts. The Fitz Roy Group, which has been his main focus, is located on the Edge of the Patagonian Ice Sheet and is notorious for storm brewing up with hurricane intensity. It is precisely these storms which have produced some of the most Epic stories to come out of the area.

Some of the other climbers that he did many of the routes with was a veritable who's who in early American mountaineering history. Among them were Jeff and George Lowe, Jack Tackle, Conrad Anker, and Michael Kennedy with whom some of his best climbs where partaken. One story in particular that stood out, was his attempt on the North Ridge of Latok II, where Jeff became ill nearly at the top of the route and they had to back down on very difficult terrain.

It was an excellent slide show and if you ever have a chance to see this living legend in person you better drop what you are doing and jump at the chance. More on Fred later...