Luka Lindic and Luka Krajnc have opened a 500m route on the face of Aguja Poincenot, part of the FitzRoy range in Argentina. The Slovenian duo called it The Path.
‘The Path’, red line, on Aguja Poincenot. Photo: Luka Lindic
The two climbers had tried the route twice before. The first time, rockfall forced them to retreat. Then in 2023, bad weather stopped them.
This time, everything went smoothly. They made three bivouacs on the wall during the 30-hour climb. The two climbers ranked The Path as 750m, 6c, A3.
Luka Krajnc and Luka Lindic. Photo: Luka Lindic
The biggest challenge of the route was finding a passage up the middle section. From lower down, it featured seemingly impossible terrain.
The Sword
Seba Pelletti and Hernan Rodriguez opened a new line on the east wall of La Espada (The Sword) This granite wall soars more than 2,100m in Chile’s Torres del Paine National Park. The pair completed the 800m, A1/5.11+ climb in two days and called it Arma de Doble Filo (“Double Edged Blade”).
“I hiked through the Bader Valley in November last year, but how to solve the golden red headwall remained a mystery,” recalled Pelletti. A South African team made the first ascent of The Sword in 1971.
‘Arma De Doble Filo’ on the east face of The Sword. Photo: Seba Pelletti
El Mocho
Matteo Della Bordella and Giacomo Mauri have repeated Bizcochuelo (450m, up to 7b+) on 1,953m El Mocho. The beautiful 15-pitch line was first opened by Gian Carlo Grassi, Roberto Pe, and Mauro Rossi.
Della Bordella and Mauri originally had an even more ambitious plan, but the weather window was too short and conditions in the mountain were tricky. So they decided to play it safe.
“It’s not always easy to decide when to commit and when to stay in your comfort zone,” admitted Della Bordella.
Because of the mountain’s stockiness, Pataclimb picturesquely calls El Mocho “Cerro Torre’s Sancho Panza.”
Giacomo Mauri contemplates Cerro Torre from the summit of El Mocho. Photo: Matteo Della Bordella
