Patagonia - tierra del viento

Saatiin teltta pystyyn juuri ennen kuin ennustetut tuulet yltyivät. Yö tarjosikin sitten rajumman tutustumisen Patagonian olosuhteisiin. Kaaret iskivät otsalohkoon puuskissa ja golfpallon kokoiset kivet lensivät ilmassa tehden reikiä telttaan. Tavallisen höyryjunan huminan lisäksi kuului myös teräviä, räjähtäviä ääniä, kun tuuli löi Fitz Royta valtavalla ruoskallaan. “Pitäskö nukkua kypärä päässä?” Sami heitti meikän nojatessa teltan seinään koko painolla. / Glaciar Fitz Roy Norte, 19.11

The most hyped alpine climbing in recent years is Patagonia. From the stories in the international climbing media, right up to the discussion on Finnish rocks and icefalls, Central Asia or, say, Alaska, are certainly not the first to come to mind. But everyone seems to want the golden granite cones of El Chalten. But why?

I had somewhat conflicting feelings about the place and a strong assumption, which turned out to be true in many places, but at the same time completely surprised me.

Last winter I was already going to the place for the whole season, but a few twists and turns came in the end and luckily the investment went to the trip to Alaska, when the climbing ponies were struggling in El Chalten at the mercy of worse than miserable weather.

A new opportunity arose when Sami Modenius suggested a hiking trip in the fall. The date had to be pushed to the beginning of the local season (November-December) as other duties called in January. Five weeks is a short time anywhere, but especially in El Chalten. Of course, we started the trip with a very open mind, because plans for really big routes change very quickly to bouldering and sport climbing.

Actually, a trip to El Chalten can be called an alpine climbing vacation. The logistics to the destination are effortless, which is somewhat numbed by the long flight. The village of Elely is like Chamonix, even to a certain extent even more tourist oriented even though there are no ski lifts. Already in November, busloads of groups of retirees and trekkers from all over the world swarmed the village. What's going on during the season? Recovering from climbing is easy when there are enough new restaurants to try for every day of the month. Boulders and sport kalts are mainly ridiculously close, so it's easy to climb even on rest days. The internet sometimes plays faster than in Central Europe. You can drink water from the tap, and you don't have to worry about taking medicine for the expedition.

As for mountain work, the topos are even more detailed than in the Alps and the weather forecasts are mostly adequate. The famous long approaches are true in a way, but they don't take any longer in time than, for example, when the lifts close in autumn in the Alps. To GJ, you can walk from the village longer than, for example, under Fitz Roy's Supercanaleta.

So everything is made quite easy, and the experience is more like the Alps than anything else. The mountains also seem smaller in a way, because they don't have the added feeling of the height of the big hills. With a three-ton one, you can sprint as far as your condition allows without worrying about agility.

But but...the mountains are technically more difficult and the weather is mostly bad. I have never seen such a dynamic movement of conditions anywhere before. A route can only be climbable for a few hours a day and the next moment turn into a death trap.

During the five weeks we had three good weather days. It would certainly have been possible to climb more small routes, but there was no point for big walls. Must be satisfied with the first trip to the area. Of course, Sam had a very successful trip a couple of years earlier.

Now a travelogue of two successful ascents!

 

Exocet (WI5+, 5+), Aguja Standhardt

After two decks, we wanted to play it safe when the next window appeared. The forecast promised good weather from Thursday afternoon to Sunday afternoon and after that tolerable, but windy weather until Tuesday. Now in hindsight, we should have gone big and tried e.g. Cerro Torre, but clearly both wanted less than one successful climb before longer routes.

Aguja Standhardt is the easiest of the three Torres. Exocet, the mountain's first climb route, was chosen as the route, which is also the most accessible (easiest). Easy in this case does not mean walking, but several rope lengths of WI5+ ice and 5+ rock climbing. Jim Bridwell, Greg and Jay Smith opened the line in 1988. Since then, the chimney, which is one of the cleanest ice climbing routes in the world, has become one of the most sought after routes in the Chalten massif. And I don't wonder why!

We went to Niponino (the so-called base camp for climbing from the Torre valley) from Thursday morning in light rain. A hike of about five hours is a long and annoying half-marathon-long hike. At the beginning, a super good trail to Laguna Torre, from where the all-time moraine trail leads to a dry glacier. Fortunately, all the climbing equipment was already in Niponino from the previous attempt.

The rest of the day at the camp was spent watching the activities of the boulderers and the canuck team. The duo started on the SE ridge of Torre, but found it too snowy and changed their gear on the fly to ones suitable for the Los Tiempos Perdidos ice route.

We set off in the middle of the night, because the approach to Col Standhardt, where the route starts, is a very long climb with its 1200 meter vertical. We were even able to follow the prepared tracks up to the pass, which made the going faster than expected, with the supermoon's brilliance making navigation even easier. On the lower glacier, I was the first to see the flash of a headlamp in the pass above, but when the light was not visible again, I concluded that it was a star that remained hidden behind the slope.

It was windy in the pass this time too, but now I felt more confident. It was Sam's turn to climb the first pitches on either side of the famous block wedged above the pass. Smooth mix with rather good backups. With the second kp, Sami made a pendulum of a couple of meters into the crack next to it, which led to the poikkari. The stone was so frictional that even the irons stayed on the slabs easily. On the tight top rope, it was even possible to climb the pendulum freely, which in the lead would hardly have even dared to try.

The morning was breathtakingly beautiful. The blood-red supermoon descended into the Pacific Ocean behind the endless ice fields of Patagonia. The granite peaks glowed orange in every nuance and the skyline of the Fitz Roy massif created an atmosphere in the east. The sun rose from behind Pampa near Lago Viedma.

After the difficulties at the beginning, we continued the easy cross-snow runs at a brisk pace. As the sun hit the east wall, chunks of ice began to crackle from above, which fortunately remained small. The bigger shock was that a three-man Argentinian team climbed ahead of us, which we caught under the first ice. After a short wait, I went after the second ones, taking ice and snow on my neck with a thump. The inside of the sunglasses was full of snow when we got to the stand.

For the next couple of hours, we followed the play: "How not to climb alpine routes". The leader took good flights to the ice screw, after which he rested in each screw, which could be sunk into the ice by his tumbling movements. The guarantors said that they had climbed the pass for 8 hours and strongly assured that they would continue to the top. The going looked so slow and dangerous that we thought about packing. You wouldn't be able to get past in a shoulder-wide róry. Would the whole climbing in perfect weather lead to the fact that three guys in front are shining an absolutely epic set? Was this what we had come to Patagonia for?

Fortunately, the trio managed to pack up - probably under a little pressure from us. It's good that the group is trying in the mountains, but there are better places to learn ice climbing than Exocet.

It had been almost three hours of waiting, during which the rod started to melt in the hands as the sun warmed it. As fast as I could, I glued the first kp of the pipe to about WI4+ ice. Climbing was easy on the sorbet ice, but there was concern that the entire line would melt too much. The next length of rope looked steep, but relatively short. The truth was 60m of vertical ice, steeled with overturning bulges. In the beginning, you could lean the pipe against the wall, but this quickly became impossible, when you couldn't make full strokes with the pick while taking hold of the rock. The pipe also poured water into the model to the extent that even the boxers barely stayed dry. The surprisingly technical section was perhaps the finest length of rope that has been climbed in the mountains.

The ice screws were just enough. Fortunately, the anchor had a couple of anchors from the trail of the ropeway that climbed the route a month earlier. They and a ten centimeter screw were allowed to act as an anchor.

The so-called kruksikp was still ahead and it looked like an ice climber's nightmare: completely flat ice. I climbed slowly, because my arms were pumping absolutely impossible. It was necessary to shake after each punch and the screws had to be drilled too much. The previous kp had taken the best strength. You have to remember that it was the opening of both ice ages. Thanks to the rock climbing in the summer, you can hang on as long as you need to, but there was no going fast. I had also changed thick winter climbing gloves to wet thin ones: mistake. The feel of the chops was weak and the compression was therefore too hard.

Sami continued the last bit to the pass, where fortunately the sun quickly dried the badly wet clothes. A short bit of rock climbing and a snow walk led us under the famous snow mushroom. Without any major problems, Sami grabbed the top and secured us from the buried ice pick. The mixture of snow and ice was fun to climb. You can only imagine how difficult it is to fill Cerro Torre at the first of the season, because the excavation will certainly take a long time, if not more.

Descending roughly the same route back to the glacier is one of the easiest in Patagonia. Sometimes we had to climb down sections, one abacus had to be made by ourselves and a few anchors had to be improved, but it was a fairly easy rappelling job this time. The walk back to Niponino could be done in the light - if the headlamps had been turned on for the last hundred meters.

Overall, Exocet was the most fun alpine climbing route so far. I was able to climb properly, versatile going from rock to ice, not too long and the environment unreal. The only downside was the long wait behind the Argentines, during which the rudder started to drip water. The day would have been too perfect otherwise.

 

Cara Este (M6 R/X), Cerro Piergiorgio, repeat ascent of Mt

I sat alone in a tent in Niponino with my clothes soaking wet. The single-layer tent intended for the upper mountains could no longer withstand the heavy rain. You could get water out of the footboard with a bucket. The wind had thrown Sam's glasses into Laguna Torre, which automatically meant packs for him. Snow blindness would come too easily. Canuck friend Quentin Robertsshould have already been at the camp to get things, but the guy was nowhere to be seen. Once again it seemed that soloing was the only option to climb. In the valley of Torre, there is a little bad choice for easy solos, without more detailed planning. Aiguille de I'S was actually the only option, because I remembered the route description and the 6a crux, you could definitely climb it with crampons. Snow was promised for the night.

Fortunately, Quentin appeared in Niponino as if rising from a swimming pool. In Patagonia, it's best to have fresh-from-the-oven shell clothes if you can survive dry. It was agreed that we would abandon the solo plans, wake up at 4 and start climbing the east face of Cerro Piergiorgio, if the weather looks good. Credit to the weather was not very high.

The sky cleared already at midnight, and the promised snowfall did not come. We set off leisurely a little before five as the morning dawned. The approach under the wall is long! At the beginning, moraine and dry glacier for the Boquete del Piergiorgio icefall, which offered a Disneyland experience for adults. We soloed over vertical seracs, stemmed in grooves and did all kinds of tricks to get past the icefall quickly. Fun, although a little hot.

Glaciar Fitz Roy Norte was like asphalt after the evening rain, when the frost had hardened the surface. We rucked on the edge groove and simul-soloed (solo, but with a friend) the snow ramps and icy slabs to the beginning of the difficulties of the route. Both found climbing without ropes to be the fastest and safest option. It is a hundred times safer to climb without ropes if there are no belays or if the pace slows down otherwise. Last summer I climbed the Diablo ridge in the Alps with Till in the same way, except for the proper climbing sections between Corne du Diable and Pointe L´Isolee. How much faster we were!

 

The east wall of Piergiorgio is split by a big pipe, which is climbed in three lengths of rope. I climbed the first long section from about M5 under teknokp. Chamonix-style mixed climbing with good tricks.

We had both thought, based on the pictures, that the middle techno part of the route, the A1 climbing, could be done freely, either on the same line or through the chimney from the left. It was Quentin's turn to lead, so he got to choose which one we would try. For the next hour, Kallivuorten pushed the pythons against the wall with familiar grips, in the wildest positions. The hardest part was turning from a sitting position to squatting on the opposite wall.

Quentin got to climb the difficult rope length that Sim-Griffith had released as M7 in 2010. Now it was at most M5+, but the amount of ice is of great importance in these efforts. The enthusiasm at Röröri's top was strong, because we had just succeeded in moving the line to modern times. There was still easy ice and a few kp mixtas ahead.

Although Cerro Piergiorgio is one of the main peaks of the Chalten massif, it only got its name in 2014 when Colin Haley and Rolando Garibotti managed to find a route to the highest point of the mountain. Now we knew the beta, which we followed too blindly, because below the peak we did a 5-meter rappel like Colin and Rolo. We could have just as well climbed along the ice chute of our own variation under the top chimney and at the same time make the first free ascent of the mountain. Of course, I had a good argument with Rolo about this, because he (as well as many others) thinks log climbing is techno (mobile-aid). Draikka is the future of alpinism anyway due to climate change, so the opinion of the old paths is not as strong nowadays. In any case, for me, log climbing will always be free climbing as long as you hang onto them with your own strength. Point.

The last chimney turned out to be the most challenging and special topping ever. Quentin must have felt confident as the second, when I secured in a short time with the hakkku lumessa system, which has become a Patagonia tradition.

It was a funny feeling knowing you were standing on top of a mountain like other people in the world. And especially the mountain, which looks particularly cool. The free climbing stage for generations to come, the west face of the mountain dropped 800 meters vertically underfoot, Fitz Roy's Supercanaleta loomed behind with the Torres guarding the landscape on the side. The landscapes were so beautiful that I hope Patagonia's invitation will be answered again next year!