It's been almost a full two weeks since we arrived in El Chalten, so it seemed about time to knock one of these out...
Thus far we've been able to climb a fair amount by Patagonia standards... already 200% more successful than my previous trip! After ~ 24 hours of travel from Bozeman we pulled into town around 10:30pm on Tuesday January 10th where we were greeted by none other than the guidebook author himself, Rolo Garibotti, who was waiting for us at the bus stop. I had been put in touch with Rolo via our mutual friend Kiff and had agreed to do a duffle shuffle of BD gear from the States to Chalten to help the local, all volunteer search and rescue group. Luckily for us, Rolo graciously drove us and our convoy of 7 bags (all between 50 and 70 lbs) the mile and a half to our hostel, the Hem Herhu, at the northern end of town. Thanks again Rolo!
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| Owen entering Argentina with style! |
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| Ben catching up on his beauty sleep at the Calafate Aeropuerto |
The impetus for bringing the amount of stuff that we did was to enable us to have gear caches (i.e. double racks of cams, ropes, tents, stoves etc.) at Niponino (the main basecamp in the Torre Valley) and Piedra Negra (an access point at the northern end of the Fitzroy Massif) thus saving our knees the stress of hiking everything to and from town each weather window; brief periods of high pressure between storm cycles which allow climbers to attempt to climb up and down these colossal peaks. The weather for most of December had been rather typical for the area (i.e. “shitting in the mountains”) but we arrived on the tail end of one of the first major windows of the season. While we debated trying to squeak out a smaller objective such as De l’S or Guillaumet, we ultimately settled on just establishing our gear cache at Niponino and headed out into the range the morning of the 11th.
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| Filling up at the first spot past the Tyrolean |
The hike to Laguna Torre actually felt easier than previous bouts, boosting my confidence slightly, however the approach around the south side of lake was properly sufferfesty which more than made up for the former. After leaving the trail for fear of inadvertently heading up Cerro Solo (my B), we needlessly down climbed and traversed 5th class erosion until we made it back to the trail. Once at the toe of the glacier, it was relatively straightforward walking to Niponino but it still took some concentration to pick the smoothest path up the broken glacier. In total, a journey of 19 km’s, with only the first 9 being on an established trail for trekkers… and the last 10km generally being on horribly loose moraine.
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| Glacier Grande with Cerro Torre on the right |
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Our first views from the Torre Glacier looking at the west faces of the Fitzroy group
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After getting to camp, reticence took over as we soaked in the views and wolfed down our dehydrated meals, hitting the hay promptly thereafter. Since the weather was supposed to get much worse by Thursday afternoon, we got up at 6 that morning and hiked to town, getting back to our bohemian hostel by mid-afternoon.
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| Early light on the Torres. Left -> Right and Bottom -> Top: El Mochito, El Mocho, Cerro Torre, Egger, Punta Herron, Standhardt, and Aguja Bifida. |
First Climbing Foray into the Mountains: The Luna-Luna Linkup
Having been here briefly during the 2018 season, I did not expect to head back into the mountains anytime soon, but lo and behold, an even longer four-day window was projected to arrive the 17th through the 20th. After a couple days respite in town consisting of drinking copious amounts of mate, sampling the sport climbing/bouldering around town, and talking shit with the fellow climbers at the ‘Hu, it was finally time to start prepping for our next mission into the mountains. We all had several objectives we were keen to get on, but ultimately it was pretty easy to get a group consensus on climbing a warmup route on one of the smaller peaks in the Torre Massif (El Mocho or Media Luna) and considering how that went, hopefully trying to climb a rock route up the west faces of either Poincenot, Rafael Juarez, or St. Exupery the following days.
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| The Hem Herhu hiking team before departing for the window. |
The second time hiking into the Torre Valley the morning of the 16th was orders of magnitudes better since we knew the beta on exactly where to go, had lighter packs due to our cache, and got to share the trail with friends Ethan + Elias and Caleb + Christian which made things more social.
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| Ethan Berkeland and I cheesing on the hike to Niponino |
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| Round two... |
We got to camp before most of the other climbers and were able to snag some of the best tent pads as a result. That evening we narrowed down our choice of route to Rubio y Azul, a 10 pitch/350m 6c up the east face of Aguja de la Medialuna. With a solid approach to the base of the route, we went to bed early although admittedly I was too excited to sleep very well.
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| View west from our camp @ Niponino. L -> R: Fitz, Poincenot, Rafael-Juarez, and Saint-Exupery |
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| Jack on the approach to Medialuna |
The climbing up to the first pillar was enjoyable enough but nothing too memorable, with crumbly exfoliating granite to remind us of where we were. Once traversing up and left to reach the main headwall however, the quality bumped up to 5 stars and the climbing consisted of splitter cracks which can only be described as cosmic.
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| Ben blasting off on pitch 3 of Rubio y Azul |
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| Views just getting better and better |
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| Also Ben on the first 6b pitch; some powerful liebacking on less than perfect rock |
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| Cosmic splitters on Pitch 7 (I got to lead this one hehe) |
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| Ben on the very steep 6c crux: baggy 3s and 4s... deceptively difficult pitch. |
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Ben getting into the stem box and able to finally milk a rest.
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| Cumbre of Medialuna! Incredible views of the Torres behind. The ultimate linkup would be to continue the main ridge in the photo and up the SE ridge of Cerro Torre but we are not Slovenian and decided to head down here :) |
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| View of N face of El Mocho from summit of Medialuna. Might not be able to see on this low resolution iphone photo but we could see Ethan and Elias topping out on their route Frader Pisafe and were hooting and hollering at each other from across the way... |
As Jack and Ben each took turns tagging the Cumbre, I began setting up the rappels which follow the route for the first few raps but then cut climbers left down the steep face. As can almost be expected on routes down here, we got our rope stuck after the second rap which serendipitously also happened to be the crux 6c double crack. The last thing any of us wanted to do was re-lead (read re-aid) the crux, but after 10 minutes of deliberation on what to do… the rope was no less unstuck, so Jack stepped up to the plate and started climbing up the pitch. Fortunately, not long after Jack left the belay, a trio of rather jovial Austrian mountain guides who had been following us up the route rapped down the pitch and freed our rope from above. Disaster averted!!
The subsequent rappels went smoothly enough although I think it gave Jack and Ben a healthy appreciation for the seriousness and dubious quality of anchors on the descents around here. One 20+ year old 2cm, single, spirit bolt anchor on a clean, blank slab of granite with no cracks or seems around to put in any pitons for backup was particularly memorable and only made my skin crawl slightly.
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| Same photo as before but this time with the shadow of the Torres dominating the foreground. |
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| Jack and Ben beneath the N face of El Mocho on the way back to camp. |
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| Aguja Medialuna. The route we climbed starts up the red streak just right of center before traversing left at the top of the first pillar up the headwall and into the curvy chimney to the top! |
While on the summit of Medialuna we spotted our buddies Ethan and Elias on the top of El Mocho after having climbed the route Frader Pisafe up the north face of the wall. They stumbled back into camp 20 or 30 minutes after we did telling tales of loose blocks and multiple stuck ropes on the descent… oh joy! Given our collective fatigue from the outing (and the hike in the day before), we all elect to treat Wednesday as a rest day and indulgently sleep in until the intensity of the sun’s heat forces us out of our tents/bivy sacks for the day. We cold water immerse ourselves in one of the many water holes close to camp and chat with Ethan and Elias, ultimately deciding to approach to the base of Chiaro di Luna that evening, and party climb the 750m, 6b+ route up the west face of Aguja Saint-Exupery the next day.
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| Polacos camp: due to frequent episodes of rockfall we elected not to camp here although there are plenty of large boulders to hide behind... |
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| Chiaro di Luna starts 30 meters up the black dike which cuts diagonally left to right across the west face of Saint Exupery (center right in photo). |
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| Ben enjoying dinner |
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| With quite the view... |
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| Owen and Jack stoked! |
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| Pano from my bivy with Elias and Ethan visible also settling in for the night. |
The morning of the 19th we got up from our bivy at 4:00am and after a cup of instant coffee and some Stroop waffles, started the remaining approach to the route. We were not the first party to get to the base of the wall however the way the other party is going does not seem right. Trusting our gut, we go up a different way and end up on the correct route and in front of the forming congo-line for the remainder of the day.
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| Sunrise over the Torres. I don't think this will ever get old tbh |
Since Ethan and Elias were obviously only a party of two, they take the lead dealing with all the route-finding difficulties, which Jack, Ben, and I were all extremely grateful for! 20 pitches later and after some of the best crack pitches I have climbed anywhere, I pull through the final chimney pitch and am treated to two condors dive bombing and playing with each other in the updrafts created amongst Aguja Poincenot, Rafael-Juarez, and Saint-Exupery… an incredible sight to experience and the cherry on top culminating a fantastic climb!
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| Jack styling the crux of Chiaro di Luna, 6b+ |
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| Getting higher... pic of the boys while they follow pitch 7 or something like that |
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| Simul-climbing terrain on pitches 9-10, which takes the climber from the west to the northwest face of Saint-Exupery |
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| Looking north toward Rafael-Juarez and the massive south face of Poincenot. |
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| Ben blasting off on pitch 12 |
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| Owen belaying at the phallic chockstone near the top of the chimney pitches (2 pitches from the Cumbre) |
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| Cumbre! |
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| Jack riding the hog |
After tagging the Cumbre, everyone becomes a discernable amount tenser. The summit is, after all only half-way and the true crux of the day remains ahead: the descent! We keep our schedule of block leading for the rappels, being very intentional in our decision of either doing 30- or 60-meter rappels down the face. Incredibly, we don’t get any ropes stuck and don’t have to leave any gear along the way… one advantage of choosing such a popular route... When we touch down into the gulley between Rafael-Juarez and Saint-Exupery, I breathe a sigh of relief and am thrilled that there is still an hour or so of usable light. But the journey is still far from over as we carefully make our way down a horrifically loose gully. Eventually it truly is all over and by the time we get back to our bivy, it is completely dark and sleep comes quite easily. We don’t wake up with any haste the next morning but eventually we know we have to hike across the choss gulley between Rafael-Juarez and Poincenot on our way back to Niponino, and eventually then all the way back to Chalten.
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| Looking back up after descending from our bivy to Polacos |
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| Angles, angles, angles... Ben finding the one angle while hiking out on the Torre Glacier where Exupery looks almost as tall as Fitz Roy and Poincenot |
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| The Laguna Torre Tyrolean. At this moment we ceased to be climbers and were transformed into very smelly, very haggard trekkers :) |
When we finally get back, we are greeted by Hugo, the hostel owner who is firing up the grill. Unbeknownst to us we had stumbled back right before an asado! We gorge ourselves sufficiently while swapping lies with the other climbers before fully crashing. Despite our summit ecstasy, it is humbling to hear of an accident involving three Basque climbers who were swept in a point-release avalanche while descending the Brecha de los Italianos on Fitzroy. One of them miraculously survived but the other two unfortunately are deceased; another sobering reminder of the highest of highs and lowest of lows that the mountains can provide.
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| Maxitranqi vibes at the 'Hu |
Over the past week, it has been quite stormy and snowy in the mountains but it looks like there may be a brief window to try something early next week! Currently, we have been laying low in town catching up on sleep, calories, wifi, with the occasional bouldering session and some debaucherous, all nighter, climber bacchanals thrown in for good measure! Regardless, the stoke is very high and life is good down here at the tip of the world 😛
