Jenny Abegg of the U.S. is an unlikely athlete to set FKTs in the mountains. Sometimes, she pauses for half an hour on the summit to soak in the view or stops at a tarn along the way to take a swim. She also picked a poor day to speed up Cerro Solo in Patagonia’s Fitz Roy massif since fresh snow covered the route. Yet she bagged the fastest time ever registered on this popular peak.
“Part of her values are the achievement-driven aspect of FKTs, while another part questions them, leaving her feeling torn between the two,” Patagonia Vertical wrote about her.
Mountaineer first
Raised on the flanks of the North Cascades and a regular in the mountain ranges of both Americas, Abegg is more a climber than a sky runner. However, when she set off toward Cerro Solo some days ago, she focused on reaching the top as quickly as possible.
She completed the 28km El Chalten-Summit-El Chalten route in 6 hrs, 22 min, 15 sec. It included 2,196m of vertical gain. Read more on the route from town to the summit of Cerro Solo here.
The route
Abegg started from El Chalten, ran along the Laguna Torre trail, did a Tyrolean traverse across the Fitz Roy River,and then went up scree slopes to the glacier, which was covered in fresh snow that slowed her pace.
On the glacier, she switched from sneakers to light boots and crampons for the technical sections. While Cerro Solo is a straightforward peak, it includes some 30º to 50º slopes, and the glacier is crevassed in spots.
On the way down, she lost a crampon, “leaving her wishing she had brought an ice axe,” as Patagonia Vertical wrote.
Cerro Solo
Cerro Solo (2,121m) is normally climbed in a day from Laguna Grande, about 2.5 hours from El Chalten. The well-visited summit provides amazing views of Fitz Roy, Cerro Torre, and their surrounding icefields.
File image of Jenny Abegg. Photo: Jenny Abegg
Jenny Abegg has climbed and wandered in the mountains since she was a child, but started setting FKTs in 2019. (Check for her records on the FKT website). Many of these took place in the U.S.
In Patagonia, Abegg made two impressive FKTs in 2022. First, she completed the so-called Vuelta al Hielo (the Southern Continental Ice Tour), in 15 hrs 29 min. It usually takes a week. She followed this up by doing the 64km Huemul Circuit in 11 hrs, 48 min, 52 sec. The trek typically takes four days from El Chalten.
