Fitz Roy - Southwest face


22. Tonta Suerte

1300m (600m new) 6c A1

Nathan Martin and Tim O’Neill (USA), 2002.

Description. Their line climbs the lower portion of the Slovak route, to reach the top of the prominent dihedral, and where the Slovak branches off to the right it continues straight up. It follows a series of very impressive steep dihedrals and off-width cracks to gain the west ridge and eventually join the Supercanaleta for its last seven pitches. In all, the route climbs 17 new pitches.

History. Climbing alpine style, and after a couple of unsuccessful attempts, Martin and O’Neill climbed a much sought after line. Their ascent was completed in 57.5 hours round trip, with one semi-bivi (no bivi gear) at the west ridge. They descended the Supercanaleta, which proved to be a serious undertaking, because of very wet conditions. This line had been previously attempted unsuccessfully by many strong teams, including Jack Tackle and Joe Josephson, Mark Synnot and Kevin Thaw and Alan Mullin and Thaw again. The name of the route refers to several episodes where luck played a role before, during and after the climb, a stop to smoke a cigarette saved them from a nasty rock avalanche, Timmy wrote, “As we sat commiserating between exasperated exhales, a tremendous rock avalanche ripped down 100 meters to our left. It destroyed our line of descent and would have minced us and our words if we had not been busy courting cancer. Who says smoking is bad for your health? Has the surgeon general ever been alpine climbing?” During the descent they were the first to come across the body of Chalten resident of Frank Van Herreghewe, a Chalten resident of Belgian and Andorran descent who had disappeared a couple of weeks before while attempting to solo the Californian route.

Approach. Starting at Hombre Sentado: Eléctrico valley to Paso Cuadrado to North Fitz Roy glacier. Starting at Torre valley: climb the obvious snow ramp on the Hombre Sentado and take the first snow ramp to the right to a small shoulder, from here easy mixed ground straight up.

Pro. Two each camalots to #5, 1 camalot #6, nuts.

Descent. The Franco-Argentine route is the best option.

Photos (click to enlarge)

Fitz Roy southwest face

Fitz Roy southwest face

Fitz Roy southwest face

Fitz Roy west face

Fitz Roy west face