Patagonia Climbing: diciembre 2011

El Caracol-Cerro Standhardt

Very surreal to be back in El Chalten! After missing the last climbing season, I arrived here stoked to climb just about anything. I got off the bus and met up with Colin Haley who was motivated to go out to the Torre valley. The next day, we set out to climb the O’Neil- Martin route on Torre Egger. It was great to be on the Torre massif again, it’s such an amazing place; The rock is just as nice as on the Fitz Roy massif but there is ice and glaciers everywhere, uncertain weather and its very exposed.

We spent the night at the Noruegos bivi and we started up the O’Neil- Martin route early the next morning. We realized after a day of crawling up brittle ice that we wouldn’t be able to climb the route in two days like we had planned. We retreated and went back to rest in Niponinos (Ni POlacos, Ni NOruegos).

The next day, we decided to climb the Festerville route on Cerro Standhardt since the good weather was holding. As we were making our way up to the Col Standhart the wind started to pick up and Festerville didn’t seem so inviting anymore. I didn’t feel like putting my delicate hands in the freezing cold cracks of the North ridge. Colin saved me by suggesting to abandon the idea of climbing Festerville and to attempt to complete the route that the British Brian Hall and John Whittle had tried to open on the South face of Standhardt. The British had made multiple attempts to reach the summit by the South face in 1977; their most successful attempt had left them just below the summit mushroom. Since then, many parties had tried to complete the route but without success.

We were both excited to give this route a try, so we immediately set out. From the Col Standhart, we climbed a few pitches of mixed climbing to reach a snowy ramp. After traversing up the ramp, we climbed another pitch of mixed climbing to get to the dihedral system characteristic of the South face. We eventually reached a chimney that allowed us to get to the summit mushroom. This was probably the crux of the route and we manage to pass through it with a bit of aid climbing. We got to the summit after some arm waving on the summit mushroom. By then we were soaked to the bone since the clouds had rolled in on us and the wind on the summit made us retreat back to the protected East face for our long rappel down Exocet. I must say that the thought of rappelling in Exocet instead of the terrifying Toboggan route definitely motivated us to get to the summit.

We made it back down to Noruegos 25 hours after setting out. Once back on the ground we started the long walk to town and arrived in time for the asado! This climb was a great welcome gift to Chalten and it was great to have shared it with such a solid friend.