15/05/2013Cerro San Lorenzo .

In a public event in Buenos Aires on May 15th, Doug Tompkins donated 15,000 hectares to the Argentine government to expand the Perito Moreno National Park. This land includes the approach to Cerro San Lorenzo's massive east and southeast face, the latter being the biggest untapped face in Patagonia, one that is likely to see a lot of cutting edge alpine climbing activity in the coming years.
Doug Tompkins is a climber and conservationist that first visited Patagonia in 1968, when together with Yvon Chouinard, Dick Dorworth, Chris Jones and Lito Tejada Flores they completed a 20,000 kilometer journey from California to carry out the third ascent of Cerro Fitz Roy and the first ascent of the Californiana or Fun Hog Route [look out for a beautiful and inspiring upcoming book about this trip and climb]. Since then Tompkins has spent much of his time in the southern part of the Americas, doing some incredible work. He moved to Patagonia permanently in 1990 and has been living there with his wife Kris, who is as involved and as responsible for the conservation work as he is. Detailed descriptions of their most significant projects, which include the creation of three national parks, can be found here.
Amazingly enough Doug's journey to become the most important conservation philanthropist in the southern tip of the Americans started with a 6-month long free spirited climbing, surfing and skiing trip in a Ford Econoline van.
Special thanks to Lucas Chiappe from Proyecto Lemu for the heads up

27/03/2013Colin Haley traverses the Adelas

A couple of weeks ago Colin Haley traversed the entire Cordón Adela, from Adela Norte to Cerro Grande. He followed in the footsteps of Walter Bonatti and Carlo Mauri who in 1958 sped across that ridge faster than anyone else to date. More here.

22/03/2013Cerro Torre & Piolets d'Or.

The Piolets d'Or, the "Oscar's of alpinism", an event organized by the legendary Groupe de Haute Montagne has awarded a special mention to two ascents of Cerro Torre's southeast ridge that happened in 2012, unequivocally supporting the de-bolting of the Compressor Route and the recovery of the mountain's natural challenge. Read the press-release here. Last year the Piolets d'Or had already expressed support in an article written by Claude Gardien in their website, here.

14/03/2013Aguja Guillaumet, east face.

A new route recently reported by Hansjörg Auer and Mario Walder on the east face of Aguja Guillaument turned out to be a series of variations to the Beger-Jennings linking to Andy Parkin's variation to that route, Terre des Hommes.

13/03/2013Samba do Leao .

We finally sorted out the upper portion of Samba do Leao in relation to the Rocamora-Tarditti variation to the Afanassieff. They are both distinctively different lines. Here: Samba do Leao and Rocamora-Tarditti

06/03/2013Hanssens and Villanueva, again!.

Stéphane Hanssens and Seán Villanueva O'Driscoll climbed a massive free route in the north face of Fitz Roy in a wild 46-hour round-trip push, a race against time to catch their plane back home. They climbed 1800 meters, 900 of them new, finding difficulties to 7b+/c, onsighting every pitch but one. They named their line "Persiguiendo el Avión". The vanguard is alive and healthy! More info here.

22/03/20132012-2013 Season Overview

New routes, variations and significant ascents.

El Mocho
- Dulce de Leche, new route

Cerro Torre
- The Via dei Ragni finally gets its place as the normal route up Torre.
- Directa Huarpe, an impressive new line
- "Fair Means" Corkscrew

Torre Egger
- Notti Magiche, new route

Aguja Bifida
- A direct start to the Lüthi-Bresba, the Gunnison Direct.

Agujas CAT, Cuatro Dedos, Atchachila and Pachamama
- Travesía Manos y Mas Manos, seven summits in a row...

Gran Gendarme del Pollone
- No Entiendo, new route

Aguja Pollone and Cumbre Este
- Sit-Start & Traverse
- La Granja, variation

Aguja Guillaument
- Dirigo, new route
- The Gambler variation, Tierra de Traucas

Aguja Mermoz
- Hypermermoz, two new variations
- Vol de Nuit to the summit

Cerro Fitz Roy
- Un Mar de Sueños, the new route of the season in this massif.
- El Corazon, second ascent.
- The Real Kekec, new route on Pilar Goretta
- Mate, Porro y Todo los Demás, the girls pull down!
- Guasos on the Rock, a long variation on Pilar Goretta
- Samba do Leao, new route
- Persiguiendo el Avion, new route
- Afanassieff, previously unreported variations and more girls pulling down.

Aguja de la Silla
- Carril Rapido, new route

Aguja Kakito "group"
- Punta Kavarovsk

Aguja Poincenot
- Judgement Day, free ascent

Aguja Rafael Juárez
- Los Sanjuaniños, variation

Aguja de l'S
- Carne y Papas, new route
- Besos to Pesos, new route

Mojón Rojo
- El Zorro, major new route

Surely we missed a few things and are forgetting others. Any help filling in info or correcting mistakes is appreciated. Email us.

23/02/2013Iceaxe wings.

As mentioned in an earlier post Black Diamond was kind enough to make a few more pairs of "prototype" ice-axe wings which come in very handy to climb rime. BD first made them in 2006 (the "inventors" of the ice axe wings were Ermanno Salvaterra and Stefano Azzali -from Climb Bubu- and simultaneously Bruno Sourzac, all in 2005). The BD wings fit Cobra tools and other BD models.

The three pairs of BD wings we have are available for rent at the shop Viento Oeste (on Facebook here) in El Chaltén (north end of town, on the left, near the Madsen boulders). The rent fee is minimal and is only intended to cover processing. We have also left at Viento Oeste six 60cm size MSR snow pickets, which are also available to rent for an equally minimal fee, also only intended to cover processing. Note that you will be charged a replacement fee in case you loose either. Both wings and pickets will also be available next season, also from Viento Oeste (may be next season the mountains will recover their rime and climbers will actually need them...).

28/01/2013So long Nick.

Nick Gillespie, age 30, of Jackson Hole, Wyoming, was caught in an avalanche in the northern Teton Range on Sunday and died as a result of injuries suffered in the slide. Gillespie was an employee of Grand Teton National Park who worked on the park’s trail crew. Between 2008 and 2009 he spent three months doing volunteer trail restoration work in the trails sorrounding El Chaltén, in Los Glaciares National Park. He was an avid skier, climber and singer song-writer. He had a permanent smile in his face. He will be sorely missed. Our thoughts are with his family. So long Nick.

05/04/2012Support for the removal of the Compressor route bolts.

At a March 21st meeting of the British Mountaineering Council International Committee the following statement was agreed upon: The BMC International Committee supports Traditional Ethics in mountaineering and supports the removal of the Maestri bolts from Cerro Torre. See the full letter here.

01/03/2012Cerro Torre - "An Impossible Mountain."
Petition in support of the removal of the Compressor route bolts here.

Cerro Torre - "Una Montaña Imposible."
Peticion en apoyo al retiro de los clavos de la vía del Compresor aqui.

16/02/2012A Word...
Yvon Chouinard's thoughts on the Compressor route bolt removal, another must read, here.

06/02/2012Kelly Cordes' contribution.
Kelly, a senior editor for the American Alpine Journal, a consumated alpinist and "margarita" specialist discusses spiritual materialism and Cerro Torre. Another must read, here.

04/02/2012Colin Haley unleashed.
Colin just posted a very thorough analysis of the Compressor route bolts affaire in his blog. A must read, here.

31/01/2012Lectura obligada.
Sugiero leer la carta de Sebastian de la Cruz a La Cachaña. Para aquellos demasiado jovenes para conocerlo, Seba, junto con Jose Luis Fonrouge, fue el escalador Argentino mas grande de todos los tiempos. Sugiero tambien leer la misiva de Carlos Comesaña, otra persona que no deberia necesitar ningun tipo de presentacion. Dos de los pilares mas importantes del andinismo argentino expresando apoyo claro e inequivoco para la restauracion de nuestro legado natural.

30/01/2012Patagonia Tragica.
There were a number of serious accidents in the last good weather window. Carlyle Norman lost her life on Exupery, while several people had rockfall related accidents on Innominata and Noruegos. The fact that this has been one of the driest seasons in history has not helped, but some of the accidents should make us pause and rethink our approach and our respect for these peaks. In an area where wall rescues are not available climbing in parties of three to ensure better chances of self rescue should be strongly considered. Let Bernardo and Carlyle's tragic deaths, dying alone while waiting for a rescue that never comes, be a reminder of just how very serious this area is.