Patagonia climbing peaks in January, but locals and some regular visitors have already notched some noteworthy early-season climbs.
At a first glance, conditions this year are quite snowy, which increases the difficulty of some classic routes, with more mixed sections and bigger snow mushrooms. On the other hand, approaches are easier and safer.
“The snowpack on the glaciers is thicker than this date last year, which was already better than the previous years,” Colin Haley reported this week. “Yay for more snow and less horrendous talus!”
The American has been in Patagonia for three weeks with Thomas Bukowski and Anthony Walsh. So far, he had enough good weather to attempt Aguja Poincenot and to climb Aguja Guillaumet by the Amy route.
New route on the White Throne
Local climbers live close enough to the peaks to seize the smallest weather window. Seva Pelleti and Hernando Salas had just a single afternoon of calm weather between storms and put up a new 700m route on the south face of the White Throne (Trono Blanco) in the so-called French Valley of Torres del Paine.
The climbers called the route Ultima Ronda and graded it AI3 M4. The window was so small that the strong wind picked up again while they were on the summit. They quickly rappelled down.
More ascents
The Odel brothers, Pedro and Tomas, also made the best of the late Patagonian spring with Anda pa alla, the difficult route opened last year by Sean Villanueva O’Driscoll, Leo Gheza, and Matteo della Bordella on Aguja Guillaumet. Then, the brothers went for the impressive Los Tiempos Perdidos on Cerro Torre, with Guillermo Navarros.
Pataclimb, the website about Patagonian climbing edited by Rolando Garibotti, also reported two recent ascents on Aguja Standhardt’s Exocet by Tom Seccombe and Etienne Potof, and by Dane Steadman and Allie Oaks.
The site also highlighted:
- a repetition of Via dei Ragni on Cerro Torre by Ethan Berkeland, Ballin Miller, and Chris Labosky
- an ascent of the Supercanaleta on Cerro Chalten by Saul Marcos and Jorge Larraz of Spain
There has also been interesting action in the Torres del Paine group. More on this later.
