Patagonia
I am back after treating myself to 3 months of a mega climbing trip. After having climbed a number of big walls in different places, travelling to climb the granite spires of Patagonia was perhaps the obvious next destination. The size increases while the commitment level undoubtedly raises. I embarked with a vague sense of what's it like but plenty of desire to try myself at it, I found myself lacking experience, there was lots of learning on the go, but this only increased the intensity of the experience. It has been a whirlwind of climbing activity and unprecedented physical efforts, interspersed with amazing moments of the climbing trip's B side, the people and the moments spent with them. El Chalten's vibe sucks you into a parallel world where real hero stories blend with the myth of climbing. I was consumed by it, for the length of my stay the peaks and the climbs became the most important thing, without contest. Such is the power of this pursuit of questionable purpose.
Now, to the actual climbing... I intended the rest of this post to cover the more terrestrial aspect or the details of the climbing. I'd like to reflect on the things learned and pen down the experience of certain climbs.
An exciting bus ride!
An exciting bus ride!
Weather
After arriving to Chalten on 11th of December, the initial weeks were turning out quite poor. This, combined with the arriving number of keen climbers, led to rumours of a possible extremely bad season happening. With no reference of a good season, this made me savour the few micro-windows even more, trying to make at least something. However, until the end of February, there had been 3 major weather windows and in conversations with locals I'd started to realize we were indeed having a stroke of luck! The high pressure area off the west coast of America swaying down south creates days of perfect weather which are almost hard to believe the first time you see it. When it's good weather, it's really good weather!
Nonetheless, if I am not wrong this season has been anomalously wet, creating unfavourable conditions for many climbs. Snow accumulating on ledges subsequently leads to wet rock, while snow accumulating in cracks turns to ice and makes progress super slow. I reasoned wet and icy offwidth is kind of the name of the game here in Patagonia so tried to not mind it, but I also enjoyed doing some more ice and mixed climbs instead. Indeed, only in the last weeks warmer temps have finally led to much of the walls cleaning up.
la brecha - the gap in bad weather; esperando la brecha
when the weather is generally bad, you're waiting for a break, for that high pressure spell that clears the skies and calms the windsthe brecha is everything, it's the Chalten climbers' holy grail, with the brecha arriving, it's like sounding an alarm, everybody scrambles to go big! also brechon when it's really big
After arriving to Chalten on 11th of December, the initial weeks were turning out quite poor. This, combined with the arriving number of keen climbers, led to rumours of a possible extremely bad season happening. With no reference of a good season, this made me savour the few micro-windows even more, trying to make at least something. However, until the end of February, there had been 3 major weather windows and in conversations with locals I'd started to realize we were indeed having a stroke of luck! The high pressure area off the west coast of America swaying down south creates days of perfect weather which are almost hard to believe the first time you see it. When it's good weather, it's really good weather!
Nonetheless, if I am not wrong this season has been anomalously wet, creating unfavourable conditions for many climbs. Snow accumulating on ledges subsequently leads to wet rock, while snow accumulating in cracks turns to ice and makes progress super slow. I reasoned wet and icy offwidth is kind of the name of the game here in Patagonia so tried to not mind it, but I also enjoyed doing some more ice and mixed climbs instead. Indeed, only in the last weeks warmer temps have finally led to much of the walls cleaning up.
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| turning back after a disheartening approach through waist deep snow to Paso Superior |
Chalten, and the life on the ground
Chalten is being consumed with rising numbers of travellers, trekkers, people coming to marvel at Fitz Roy and the beautiful nature - and a considerable number of climbers, too. I have made sure to savour the delights of civilized living in the village between bouts of activity in the mountains, although perhaps, at the end of the day, I would have preferred it the old-fashioned way, expedition style, fording rivers and porting with horses to a basecamp in the lenga trees, at the sides of the glacial lakes... Those times are gone, however, and the flux of international travellers sometimes makes it feel like another tourist resort somewhere in Europe. Meeting the very friendly and motivated community of local climbers has made it feel special, and leaving it after 2 months was like leaving a dear place!
The life in Chalten, when not climbing, can be immensely entertaining, as long as the weather is at least marginally ok, which turns out to be most of the time (in stark contrast with the mountain range only 10k away). Meeting and hanging out with your fav climbing celebs, bouldering on world-class problems within a short walk's distance, Domo Blanco ice creams along with plenty other good eating options, a bouldering gym that will surprise you in many ways... I stayed at El Mochilero campsite which is definitely recommended if you want to economise, meet Argentinian climbers, improve your Spanish and eat lots of asados. It definitely looked like the most hippie campground (least aimed at gringos) - I'd stayed at Relincho as well and didn't like it as much, even if it had an important asset, which was a good Wifi.
Climbing partners
I had been reassured by Chalten regulars that arriving alone, it shouldn't be too difficult to find people willing to climb with me. I had planned a longer trip and my friend David could only join me for a month, so I would be without a partner at the beginning and the end of the trip. Finding a partner was no fuss and in addition I had a stroke of luck, too, since all the rope teams we formed worked really well. After quite some solo climbing trips and sometimes finding less than perfect matches, once again psyche was stoked by making new friends with very similar climbing appetites and preferences for fun. A great thank you is due at this point to all of those for sharing the rope! The most obvious advantage of my one-year Erasmus in Grenoble finally showed and it has to be speaking french, for I ended up climbing a bunch with the French, and once again, what a privilege it was to climb these big mountains with strong, experienced and well focused people.
Injuries
Sometime during the second or third outing, while hiking back to town, I started feeling pain in my right knee, located on the outer side. The long approaches with heavy backpacks started accumulating the fatigue and wear. I soon concluded I was having a classic presentation of iliotibial band syndrome, or the so-called "runner's knee" (one of the two types, the other being inflammation of the patellar ligament). Every hike-out (involving lots of downhill) made it come back with intense pain, so the next day I could hardly walk, but after 2-3 days, it subsided and I could move well enough. Clearly, rest is the only real treatment here (well, there's physio and surgery too, but at least in the short term), but that was a hard proposition. It was looking slightly tragic and slightly lame to be on a climbing trip with an inflammed knee. My fears got worse after Colin Haley stated that, despite having had broken bones and other injuries, the ITBS inflammation has been the most persistent and most pesky little injury of his career. I resolved to resting as much as possible between trips to mountains, doing some good stretches, keeping Ibuprofen handy in the pocket and gritting the teeth a little bit every time coming back to town.
Miraculously though... after a month, I noticed I was having less pain, and during the last trip to Torres del Paine, I'd even forgot I had any pain before (and yet we walked a LOT). So that was without really making any particualr effort to heal it... I'm a lucky guy. It was the first time I had this happen, and it's hard to say why it appeared and why it went away. For the duration of it, it was really annoying and depressing - walking was painful and running was out of question. Maybe though, it was a matter of adapting to the much increased amount of difficult hiking. I tried to prepare at home with some uphill training with weight in my backpack, but in hindsight, my training was nowhere near the effort in Chalten!
So my story with the pesky ITBS is rather optimistic... it may not be the case for everyone though. Apparently, it's super common as well. Ibuprofen definitely helped me in short term, and some good stretching too. There's a lot of conflicting evidence on what helps, and I am by no means an expert. Best advice is probably: try to learn about it yourself, try different things to see what helps, give rest an absolute priority and consult a physio for professional advice. Good luck!
The climbing
Even if lots of fun was of the second type, it was one of the most fun climbing trips ever, but... I will now stress that in the technical terms the climbing in Chalten has not raised the bar (ok well, hard to beat Yosemite or Squamish or Marmolada or...). In fact, I think it was about 5 pitches in total that required chalking up, and an equal number that weren't icy, dripping wet or it wasn't windy. Anyway, rock climbing highlights were a couple of pitches on Voie des Benitiers and some of the climbing on the W traverse in Paine, which also happened during a very warm brecha, which made it that more enjoyable. Saying this probably underlines the fact I've always been a rock climber and will most likely remain one, more so than an alpinist. That said, this trip was an incredible experience and I would love to come back to Chalten one day.
Here the list of ascents and attempts:
16th December: climbing Aguja Guillamet via Amy-Vidailhet in a single push mission, a great intro, the first taste of Patagonian summits, with Fernando and Wernix. Making use of short windows.
19th December: an overly eager attempt directed at Poincenot which had to be aborted even before reaching Paso Superior, after wading through waist-deep snow
20th - 29th December: sport climbing, chilling, killing time, even a tourist trip to Perito Moreno glacier west of El Calafate.
31st December: summiting Fitz Roy via Supercanaleta, an experience bordering onto surreal with a lot of things aligning (super strong partners, good route choice, starting as 1st party in the colouir, persevering through the rimed-up upper pitches) for a dream-like last light of the old year, and a dreamy 8 hour rappeling session to reach our bivi next morning.
6th Jan: hiking into Niponino with Ross but ending up "only" drinking mate in a drizzle at the foot of El Mocho
11th-13th Jan: first climbs with David, doing Aguja de l'S via Austriaca approaching from west side and Voie des Benitiers on El Mocho (high quality climbing on the crux pitch which I sadly didn't manage to red-point)
18th Jan: an attempt on Whisky time in the east face of Poincenot, which, after much hacking off ice and wet rock was aborted only 3 pitches up. Still a LOT of ice visible in the offwidths above... lots of effort and some frustration, while in hindsight it was an obvious poor route choice.
21st Jan: getting success on 3rd time attempting Poincenot, this time with David on the classic Cochrane-Whillans route, an incredible route up a majestic spire. Descending in rappel across the epic verticality of the east face (via Patagonicos desesperados). A micro-window well timed, except for some strong winds on the summit, we avoided the big rain that came in afterwards.
26th Jan: hiking into Niponino with a double rack and big cams for an attempt at Grey yellow arrow on El Mocho. I bailed in the (wet) crux offwidth 3 pitches up... this is the little tough one that deserves somebody with courage and skill to free it! It felt similar to the Monster offwidth on El Cap, it's about the same size. Wider than #6 cams would be needed if you wanted to bounce the cam all the way up.
31st Jan: climbing Hypermermoz on Mermoz within some meters of the point where it joins the Argentina route. Besides the delicate 6a-6b slabs below (which are cool), the 6c crux pitch on this route is a gem. Once again with plenty of ice in cracks, but at least I could use my axe in an offwidth!
Then, strong winds inspired palpable fear and a quick bail was carried out, reaching the foot of the wall before dark.
4th-11th February was the arrival of the mother of all brechas, a veritable brechon... lots of activity went down with myself and David climbing Titanic on the east face of Torre Egger over two days (7th-8th Feb). It has been a wish of mine to try climbing in the Torre group before leaving, and with David leaving in a couple of days, this badass route was perfect choice for the last route in Chalten.
20th-22nd Feb: after making the move to Puerto Natales with my friend Chris, we took time to organize a mini-expedition to Torres del Paine: obtain the permit, some information on routes and access, buying food, sorting out gear etc. We got lucky with the 3rd major window of the season, in which we managed an enchainement of sorts between the three Torres of Paine, the Norte, Central and Sur (the "W traverse": Via Monzino on Torre Norte, Bonnington-Whillan on Central and Via Aste on Torre Sur). It was a lot of vertical ground covered, the best way for sightseeing in Torres del Paine, great use of the 3-day brecha. Comfy bivouacs, warm temps, enough food and lots of fun with a great partner.
-no more mountain climbing until the return home into coronavirus misery on the 3rd of March, with a honorable mention of El Comision, a great single-pitch trad/sport crag just out of El Calafate (Don't miss it if you have a day to spare in Calafate).
In the end, it was a lot of trying and dabbling at a bunch of different routes. I left without a particular objective (apart from a quiet wish of doing either Fitz or Torre, if everything goes well, maybe...) and we tried to make use of any little spell of good weather. Judging the ever-changing, tricky conditions for routes in Chalten is the intellectual crux... thus our diverse list of attempts and many failed ones.
La Supercanaleta
I carried out the ascent with Damien and Benoit, two french climbers from the Pyrenees I met at the crag in Chalten who soon became friends. The weather window had been eagerly awaited since there hasn't really been one up to that point. With lots of precipitation precluding it and relatively cold temps, the route choice was ideal (indeed, some friends going for east face of Fitz Roy found ice in cracks and water streaming down the face!).
We planned a 3-day round trip from Chalten, approaching through Piedra Negra and Paso del Cuadrado. We used the first day of the 3-day brecha for the hike-in. Setting up camp at the base of the wall, the diplomatic crux appeared: 5 other teams with the same plans as us. Crowds on Supercanaleta can definitely be a deal-breaker since most people consider climbing in an ice couloir with other people above too dangerous. My friends resolved to the diplomatic argument of power and decided to simply start super early and hope for the best. Thus, we set the alarm clock for midnight.
The start went well, there was a team in front of us, but with the ice being in good condition we were advancing unroped with a fast pace and finished the couloir in 2 hours, arriving to Bloque Empotrado at first light. Cruisy, entertaining pitches of ice and mixed followed, allowing us to make good progress, arriving to the little shoulder on the south ridge at around 1 PM. We chilled out for a bit, not realising the rimed-up pitches on the ridge (which were well visible) will slow us down considerably. In the last 5 pitches on the ridge, the angle steepens and the route weaves through a system of ledges, interrupted with vertical walls. Here, we encountered rime-plastered rock which, alongside with winds, made climbing in rock shoes impossible. Damien put on a fine display of climbing in crampons (on some grade 5+, I was happy not to lead it), while I battled through a sort of dihedral/chimney blown full of rime to get us to the summit ridge. We were buzzing with excitement to have the summit so close at this point, and the efforts of the last pitches made that sensation even stronger. So we climbed the final slopes (slabs of hard blue ice and some snow-covered rock) and stood on the summit at 9 PM, alone on Fitz Roy on the last evening of the year. The views were amazing... the massive shadow cast by Fitz, the pampas and lakes in the east, the Patagonian Ice Cap in the west, the Torres, everything else... looking small from high above!
However, we were concerned about getting off, since the wind was pretty strong and that could make rappelling the couloir difficult. Rappelling Franco-Argentina, the normal descent route, seemed out of question since nobody of us had been on it. We got ourselves off the summit quickly and were relieved to find the wind easing off a slight bit. We commenced the rappells into the 1200 metre couloir... With the rappel stations in place and reinforced by some team in November, rappels went fast, but their number was soul-destroying. Some 30 rappels later, I stopped counting, we stopped talking and started falling asleep on rappel stations. Finally, some 8 hours later we pulled the last rope, coiled it and stumbled back to our bivy, falling asleep with dawn.
After a few hours nap, we hiked out, wrecked but elated, and hitched a ride to Chalten. The episode finished with a couple of beers, some good food and a deep sense of satisfaction.
One thing I remember from the rappels was how much of the ice of the previous day has melted. It has not been a very warm day, but the couloir does get some hours of sun. Anyway, it would have been much trickier already that second day. We got lucky, and that is in several ways! It was a great time on an epic mountain, and I really enjoyed climbing this route. To think that the first ascent was done in 1965 in two days is simply mindblowing. That must have been an adventure!
Chalten is being consumed with rising numbers of travellers, trekkers, people coming to marvel at Fitz Roy and the beautiful nature - and a considerable number of climbers, too. I have made sure to savour the delights of civilized living in the village between bouts of activity in the mountains, although perhaps, at the end of the day, I would have preferred it the old-fashioned way, expedition style, fording rivers and porting with horses to a basecamp in the lenga trees, at the sides of the glacial lakes... Those times are gone, however, and the flux of international travellers sometimes makes it feel like another tourist resort somewhere in Europe. Meeting the very friendly and motivated community of local climbers has made it feel special, and leaving it after 2 months was like leaving a dear place!
The life in Chalten, when not climbing, can be immensely entertaining, as long as the weather is at least marginally ok, which turns out to be most of the time (in stark contrast with the mountain range only 10k away). Meeting and hanging out with your fav climbing celebs, bouldering on world-class problems within a short walk's distance, Domo Blanco ice creams along with plenty other good eating options, a bouldering gym that will surprise you in many ways... I stayed at El Mochilero campsite which is definitely recommended if you want to economise, meet Argentinian climbers, improve your Spanish and eat lots of asados. It definitely looked like the most hippie campground (least aimed at gringos) - I'd stayed at Relincho as well and didn't like it as much, even if it had an important asset, which was a good Wifi.
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| two amazing things about Chalten: a really good gym (in the black building) and world-class bouldering next to it! |
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| some good limestone sport climbing in La Platea to keep forearms fit |
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| never miss a chance for a mate! |
I had been reassured by Chalten regulars that arriving alone, it shouldn't be too difficult to find people willing to climb with me. I had planned a longer trip and my friend David could only join me for a month, so I would be without a partner at the beginning and the end of the trip. Finding a partner was no fuss and in addition I had a stroke of luck, too, since all the rope teams we formed worked really well. After quite some solo climbing trips and sometimes finding less than perfect matches, once again psyche was stoked by making new friends with very similar climbing appetites and preferences for fun. A great thank you is due at this point to all of those for sharing the rope! The most obvious advantage of my one-year Erasmus in Grenoble finally showed and it has to be speaking french, for I ended up climbing a bunch with the French, and once again, what a privilege it was to climb these big mountains with strong, experienced and well focused people.
Injuries
Sometime during the second or third outing, while hiking back to town, I started feeling pain in my right knee, located on the outer side. The long approaches with heavy backpacks started accumulating the fatigue and wear. I soon concluded I was having a classic presentation of iliotibial band syndrome, or the so-called "runner's knee" (one of the two types, the other being inflammation of the patellar ligament). Every hike-out (involving lots of downhill) made it come back with intense pain, so the next day I could hardly walk, but after 2-3 days, it subsided and I could move well enough. Clearly, rest is the only real treatment here (well, there's physio and surgery too, but at least in the short term), but that was a hard proposition. It was looking slightly tragic and slightly lame to be on a climbing trip with an inflammed knee. My fears got worse after Colin Haley stated that, despite having had broken bones and other injuries, the ITBS inflammation has been the most persistent and most pesky little injury of his career. I resolved to resting as much as possible between trips to mountains, doing some good stretches, keeping Ibuprofen handy in the pocket and gritting the teeth a little bit every time coming back to town.
Miraculously though... after a month, I noticed I was having less pain, and during the last trip to Torres del Paine, I'd even forgot I had any pain before (and yet we walked a LOT). So that was without really making any particualr effort to heal it... I'm a lucky guy. It was the first time I had this happen, and it's hard to say why it appeared and why it went away. For the duration of it, it was really annoying and depressing - walking was painful and running was out of question. Maybe though, it was a matter of adapting to the much increased amount of difficult hiking. I tried to prepare at home with some uphill training with weight in my backpack, but in hindsight, my training was nowhere near the effort in Chalten!
So my story with the pesky ITBS is rather optimistic... it may not be the case for everyone though. Apparently, it's super common as well. Ibuprofen definitely helped me in short term, and some good stretching too. There's a lot of conflicting evidence on what helps, and I am by no means an expert. Best advice is probably: try to learn about it yourself, try different things to see what helps, give rest an absolute priority and consult a physio for professional advice. Good luck!
The climbing
Even if lots of fun was of the second type, it was one of the most fun climbing trips ever, but... I will now stress that in the technical terms the climbing in Chalten has not raised the bar (ok well, hard to beat Yosemite or Squamish or Marmolada or...). In fact, I think it was about 5 pitches in total that required chalking up, and an equal number that weren't icy, dripping wet or it wasn't windy. Anyway, rock climbing highlights were a couple of pitches on Voie des Benitiers and some of the climbing on the W traverse in Paine, which also happened during a very warm brecha, which made it that more enjoyable. Saying this probably underlines the fact I've always been a rock climber and will most likely remain one, more so than an alpinist. That said, this trip was an incredible experience and I would love to come back to Chalten one day.
Here the list of ascents and attempts:
16th December: climbing Aguja Guillamet via Amy-Vidailhet in a single push mission, a great intro, the first taste of Patagonian summits, with Fernando and Wernix. Making use of short windows.
19th December: an overly eager attempt directed at Poincenot which had to be aborted even before reaching Paso Superior, after wading through waist-deep snow
20th - 29th December: sport climbing, chilling, killing time, even a tourist trip to Perito Moreno glacier west of El Calafate.
31st December: summiting Fitz Roy via Supercanaleta, an experience bordering onto surreal with a lot of things aligning (super strong partners, good route choice, starting as 1st party in the colouir, persevering through the rimed-up upper pitches) for a dream-like last light of the old year, and a dreamy 8 hour rappeling session to reach our bivi next morning.
6th Jan: hiking into Niponino with Ross but ending up "only" drinking mate in a drizzle at the foot of El Mocho
11th-13th Jan: first climbs with David, doing Aguja de l'S via Austriaca approaching from west side and Voie des Benitiers on El Mocho (high quality climbing on the crux pitch which I sadly didn't manage to red-point)
18th Jan: an attempt on Whisky time in the east face of Poincenot, which, after much hacking off ice and wet rock was aborted only 3 pitches up. Still a LOT of ice visible in the offwidths above... lots of effort and some frustration, while in hindsight it was an obvious poor route choice.
21st Jan: getting success on 3rd time attempting Poincenot, this time with David on the classic Cochrane-Whillans route, an incredible route up a majestic spire. Descending in rappel across the epic verticality of the east face (via Patagonicos desesperados). A micro-window well timed, except for some strong winds on the summit, we avoided the big rain that came in afterwards.
26th Jan: hiking into Niponino with a double rack and big cams for an attempt at Grey yellow arrow on El Mocho. I bailed in the (wet) crux offwidth 3 pitches up... this is the little tough one that deserves somebody with courage and skill to free it! It felt similar to the Monster offwidth on El Cap, it's about the same size. Wider than #6 cams would be needed if you wanted to bounce the cam all the way up.
31st Jan: climbing Hypermermoz on Mermoz within some meters of the point where it joins the Argentina route. Besides the delicate 6a-6b slabs below (which are cool), the 6c crux pitch on this route is a gem. Once again with plenty of ice in cracks, but at least I could use my axe in an offwidth!
Then, strong winds inspired palpable fear and a quick bail was carried out, reaching the foot of the wall before dark.
4th-11th February was the arrival of the mother of all brechas, a veritable brechon... lots of activity went down with myself and David climbing Titanic on the east face of Torre Egger over two days (7th-8th Feb). It has been a wish of mine to try climbing in the Torre group before leaving, and with David leaving in a couple of days, this badass route was perfect choice for the last route in Chalten.
20th-22nd Feb: after making the move to Puerto Natales with my friend Chris, we took time to organize a mini-expedition to Torres del Paine: obtain the permit, some information on routes and access, buying food, sorting out gear etc. We got lucky with the 3rd major window of the season, in which we managed an enchainement of sorts between the three Torres of Paine, the Norte, Central and Sur (the "W traverse": Via Monzino on Torre Norte, Bonnington-Whillan on Central and Via Aste on Torre Sur). It was a lot of vertical ground covered, the best way for sightseeing in Torres del Paine, great use of the 3-day brecha. Comfy bivouacs, warm temps, enough food and lots of fun with a great partner.
-no more mountain climbing until the return home into coronavirus misery on the 3rd of March, with a honorable mention of El Comision, a great single-pitch trad/sport crag just out of El Calafate (Don't miss it if you have a day to spare in Calafate).
In the end, it was a lot of trying and dabbling at a bunch of different routes. I left without a particular objective (apart from a quiet wish of doing either Fitz or Torre, if everything goes well, maybe...) and we tried to make use of any little spell of good weather. Judging the ever-changing, tricky conditions for routes in Chalten is the intellectual crux... thus our diverse list of attempts and many failed ones.
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| in the cuoloir of Amy-Vidailhet |
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| after climbing Guillamet with Fernando and Wernix |
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| David on the last pitch of Aguja de l'S north ridge (Austriaca route) |
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| morning approach to Poincenot east face |
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| On the first pitch of Whisky time on Poincenot east face. After 4 pitches of flakes and face climbing, it goes into a straight crack leading to the summit. It has been freed almost in its entirety by Sean Villanueva and Siebe Vanhee in 2018. We found much ice in cracks and had to bail early on, but, apart from somewhat mediocre rock in the start, it's a really cool line that must be really good for free climbing! |
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| third time the charm, finally on top of Poincenot, this time via Whillans - Cochrane, a super scenic, classic route! |
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| epic rappels on Poincenot east face (on Patagonicos desesperados). Chalten is a real excercise in rappeling, since there's no tower with a walk-off... we tallied many stuck ropes but only one core-shot (even if other ropes ended up in poor condition, too) |
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| The El Mocho offwidth, Grey yellow arrow. First climbed by the legendary slovenian team with the italian Roberto Pe. What an epic line! |
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| Mermoz northwest face on a day with stellar weather but strong winds which eventually forced us to a hasty bail |
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| yum climbing moments while getting bashed in the wind on Mermoz |
La Supercanaleta
I carried out the ascent with Damien and Benoit, two french climbers from the Pyrenees I met at the crag in Chalten who soon became friends. The weather window had been eagerly awaited since there hasn't really been one up to that point. With lots of precipitation precluding it and relatively cold temps, the route choice was ideal (indeed, some friends going for east face of Fitz Roy found ice in cracks and water streaming down the face!).
We planned a 3-day round trip from Chalten, approaching through Piedra Negra and Paso del Cuadrado. We used the first day of the 3-day brecha for the hike-in. Setting up camp at the base of the wall, the diplomatic crux appeared: 5 other teams with the same plans as us. Crowds on Supercanaleta can definitely be a deal-breaker since most people consider climbing in an ice couloir with other people above too dangerous. My friends resolved to the diplomatic argument of power and decided to simply start super early and hope for the best. Thus, we set the alarm clock for midnight.
The start went well, there was a team in front of us, but with the ice being in good condition we were advancing unroped with a fast pace and finished the couloir in 2 hours, arriving to Bloque Empotrado at first light. Cruisy, entertaining pitches of ice and mixed followed, allowing us to make good progress, arriving to the little shoulder on the south ridge at around 1 PM. We chilled out for a bit, not realising the rimed-up pitches on the ridge (which were well visible) will slow us down considerably. In the last 5 pitches on the ridge, the angle steepens and the route weaves through a system of ledges, interrupted with vertical walls. Here, we encountered rime-plastered rock which, alongside with winds, made climbing in rock shoes impossible. Damien put on a fine display of climbing in crampons (on some grade 5+, I was happy not to lead it), while I battled through a sort of dihedral/chimney blown full of rime to get us to the summit ridge. We were buzzing with excitement to have the summit so close at this point, and the efforts of the last pitches made that sensation even stronger. So we climbed the final slopes (slabs of hard blue ice and some snow-covered rock) and stood on the summit at 9 PM, alone on Fitz Roy on the last evening of the year. The views were amazing... the massive shadow cast by Fitz, the pampas and lakes in the east, the Patagonian Ice Cap in the west, the Torres, everything else... looking small from high above!
However, we were concerned about getting off, since the wind was pretty strong and that could make rappelling the couloir difficult. Rappelling Franco-Argentina, the normal descent route, seemed out of question since nobody of us had been on it. We got ourselves off the summit quickly and were relieved to find the wind easing off a slight bit. We commenced the rappells into the 1200 metre couloir... With the rappel stations in place and reinforced by some team in November, rappels went fast, but their number was soul-destroying. Some 30 rappels later, I stopped counting, we stopped talking and started falling asleep on rappel stations. Finally, some 8 hours later we pulled the last rope, coiled it and stumbled back to our bivy, falling asleep with dawn.
After a few hours nap, we hiked out, wrecked but elated, and hitched a ride to Chalten. The episode finished with a couple of beers, some good food and a deep sense of satisfaction.
One thing I remember from the rappels was how much of the ice of the previous day has melted. It has not been a very warm day, but the couloir does get some hours of sun. Anyway, it would have been much trickier already that second day. We got lucky, and that is in several ways! It was a great time on an epic mountain, and I really enjoyed climbing this route. To think that the first ascent was done in 1965 in two days is simply mindblowing. That must have been an adventure!
Thanks for reading! In the second part, on climbing Torre Egger and the Traverse of the Torres del Paine.
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| keeping the shape after Fresco/asado sessions in the Chalten roadside crag |
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| at the base of Fitz Roy southwest face, looking at our line of ascent |
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| fun mixed pitches on middle section of Supercanaleta |
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| Benoit fighting through the gnarly rimed-up rock on the summit ridge pitches |
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| the allure of the summit |
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| after 20 hrs of climbing, the summit! |
