Matteo Della Bordella is in Patagonia to attempt an unfinished big-wall route from 1995 — the northwest face of 2,719m Cerro Piergiorgio.
“It is impossible not to be amazed by this wall of rock that looks like a 900m-high natural dam, a smooth mirror, devoid of any logical line that clearly indicates a climb,” said Della Bordella.
Unfinished task for 30 years
Maurizio Giordani and Luca Maspes first attempted Gringos locos exactly 30 years ago, but didn’t quite finish it. For 21 pitches, the Italians opened a beautiful line up the middle of the face. But in the end, they left a few rope lengths undone. Despite several subsequent tries, no other team has completed the route.
Luca Maspes recently described the route as an unfinished work of art and “a hymn to climbing imagination” on “an ocean of difficult but wonderful granite.” He wished Della Bordella and his team all the best in their attempt.
Experts and young stars
Della Bordella is the leader of the Eagle Team Project, a climbing program supported by the Italian Alpine Club (CAI). Its teams combine highly experienced climbers like Della Bordella with younger, promising stars like Dario Eynard.
Eynard and Mirco Grasso, 32, from Venice, have joined him on Piergiorgio. Grasso, an expert in exploratory climbing, happened to be in Patagonia and put aside his own projects to join the Piergiorgio team. Six years ago, Grasso himself had designs on the Italian route, but bad weather prevented him and his team from even setting foot on the face.
Previously, Della Bordella and Grasso paired up with Alessandro Bau for a new route on Aguja Val Biois in the Fitz Roy massif.
Halfway so far
So far, the team has climbed half the face during a three-day weather window. They had to wait almost a month for even that brief patch of climbing weather.
“Given the limited time available and the difficult/slow climb, we decided to climb as high as possible and fix ropes to the highest point to have a good chance if another window comes,” Grasso explained.
The ‘Heart,’ halfway up the face. Photo: Matteo della Bordella
“We managed to reach a niche on the wall known as the ‘Heart,’ slightly above the halfway point,” Dario Eynard wrote on social media. He describes the climb as hard and slow, alternating free and aid sections.
“Cerro Piergiorgio is frighteningly large and isolated, but I feel that there was harmony in the team, and we all rowed towards the same goal. I still have a lot to learn about logistics in contexts like these…[It is] completely different from the Alps,” said the young climber.
The team has now returned to El Chalten to wait and hope for one more window before the season ends.
The face of Cerro Piergiorgio. Photo: Matteo della Bordella
Every last drop
“Patagonia is giving us the classic roller-coaster of emotions between successes, retreats, rescues, injuries, dreams, and hopes,” Della Bordella wrote yesterday on social media. “It is still early to say how high we will reach, but…we want to squeeze every last drop from this great experience.”
Cerro Piergiorgio. Photo: Matteo della Bordella
