Gearing up for Round 3

It looks like the next weather window is upon us. The hostel (and El Chaltén in general) is buzzing with teams preparing gear and food, getting last details on routes, and getting stoked!

After many days refining our taste for Malbec, we were starting to feel a bit uncertain about climbing rock after so long. So, today, we tested out some of the local sport climbing. Tim picked out a couple routes, and was pretty disheartened after getting tired and hanging out on what he judged to be two hard 5.10s. Maybe it was the 20 knot winds? When we found out later that he climbed two 5.12s, confidence was restored. We still feel ready to crank out our climb!

It looks like our best opportunity will be Thursday if it stops raining soon. Friday also holds a lot of potential but also more uncertainty. Ultimately we will decide tomorrow with an updated weather forecast and depending on what we see once we get to Piedra Negra in the afternoon. This is looking like our last attempt of the trip -- wish us luck!!

Paso Guillaumet in the snow storm (UPDATED)

We got a few photos from our last attempt. They were taken by a couple from Seattle that shared our optimism for the weather window that never openened. You can see the great view and ideal rock climbing conditions (sarcasm):

Amazingly, Austrian Markus  Pucher climbed Cerro Torre in the same storm, by himself and without a rope.

Edited to add: We just had the good fortune if running into Markus at a local hostel. He was very generous and shared hours of videos and stories from his climb. It was truly impressive to see him looking down 800 m as he climbed steep rime ice on the Cerro Torre headwall. He also shared his attitude about alpine climbing: the summit is not that important as it is just a fleeting moment. It is the adventure of actually doing the climbing that is where all the fun is. For his whole climb, he said that he would continuly check in with himself and ask "is this ok?" If the answer was yes, he continued. In this case, he eventually found himself at the summit of Cerro Torre, alone and in a snow storm! Thanks for the stories Markus!

We are sitting tight today, and heading up again tomorrow for round 3.

Our climbing routine

We wake up at aroud 6 am in El Chaltén. Our bags are packed except for a few morning necessities. After a quick but hearty breakfast, we don our packs and head north towards the mountains.

The road out of town

Our first waypoint is the bridge over Rio Electrico, about 16 km north of El Chaltén. To get there, we walk to the north end of town, drop our bags, and raise our thumbs. We usually get a ride within 15 minutes, and reach the bridge within an hour. We've gotten rides from two men in a pick-up in their way to work, tour operators (actually operating a tour and explaining the sights and stopping for passengers to get out and take photos), and a wealthy Brazilian family on a road trip with their two kids in a Land Rover.

Our next stop is Piedra Fraile, a cute bungalow/restaurant about 8 km up the Rio Electrico valley. The hike there is almost entirely flat, gaining only 100 m. The trail takes us through what feels like ancient forest filled with gnarled beech trees, across turquoise glacial streams, along huge rock walls that would be a climbing attraction anywhere else, and finally to the meadow of Piedra Fraile. The meadow in front of the lime green main building is filled with violets and lupines. We stop in to greet the land owners -- a young couple with a 1 yr 9 month year old boy -- and sit down for tea or a snack before the climb ahead.

The beech tree groves on the way to Piedra Fraile

Leaving Piedra Fraile for Piedra Negra, everything changes. For the next 2-3 hours, we ascend 1000 m up steep vegetated trail with bright red and yellow flowering bushes, then over steep rocky scree, and onto the snow that marks the terminus of the glacier. We can spot Piedra Negra from 250 m below -- giant black boulders on the rock field above. Once we finally arrive, we go and fetch our stashed gear, set up camp, and rest.

Aguja Guillaumet from our tent at Piedra Negra

The next few hours we start preparing for climbing. We evaluate conditions relative to our last attempt. We make a plan, repack our bags with ropes and our rack, arrange food, make dinner, and try to get to bed early. It is still light out -- it is almost always light out this time of year.

Preparing climbing gear in camp

At 3:30 am our alarm wakes us from whatever sleep we could get. After a hot breakfast and final preparations such as putting on crampons and fixing our headlamps to our helmets, we start to climb the next 600 m to Paso Guillaumet. As we ascend, the sun rises in the northeast, the temperature drops, and the slope steepens. 

One hundred meters below the pass, we enter the final couloir. In the couloir, the walls close in around us and we are forced to climb with crampons and ice axes due to the steeper snow. In some sections, the walls close all the way in and we climb up the rock using a technique known as "dry tooling." Higher up, we pass under a truck-sized chockstone. Here, the snow is nearly vertical and we kick steps to climb. Falling here is a bad idea, but the climbing is secure so we don´t use a rope. Above the chockstone, there is a hanging snowfield that is the last crux to the pass. Around to the right, the angle of the snow diminishes, and we finally emerge at the pass, about 2 hours after leaving camp.

Sheila high up on one of our attempts

At the pass, we can look down onto a steep glacier rolling down the east side and up onto our climb. We haven't had good rock climbing conditions yet but, even when covered in snow, the granite cracks and features look amazing. The climb starts with three easy to moderate pitches that we could simulclimb. Then there is a head wall with four parallel cracks ranging from 5.10c to 5.11a. From there, there are four more pitches ranging from moderate to 5.10. Then the route joins Comensaña-Fonrogue, angling up and right for four more pitches. The rock climbing ends on a 150 m long 30 degree hanging snow field just below the summit. A final scramble should take us to the proper summit needle or "aguja."

At this point we will have climbed almost 2100 m (~7000 ft) up from El Chaltén. This is a bit more than the climb up Mt. Whitney, which ascends ~6000 ft from the trailhead. Ideally, we will reverse the entire climb in the same day, celebrating back in town with a cheap bottle of Malbec.

$6.50 Malbec

Round 2

Well, it's not for lack of trying!

We went up again hoping to take advantage of a small opening in the weather that we had been watching for a few days. The plan was to hike up and establish base camp in a wind storm, wait for the weather to clear during the night, and then climb until the wind started to pick up again the next day. Our last weather forecast before leaving town however had a nasty surprise: lots of snow. But these forecasts are never reliable, right?

On the way up, we caught a glimpse of Fitz through the clouds and it was coated in ice. What little we could see of Guillaumet, however, looked remarkably good compared to last time we were up.

We made it up to Piedra Negra at about 1 pm, and set up our tent in abusive winds. It took both of us to hold the tent down during the gusts. Once we got it all tied down, we crawled in and fell asleep immediately. We awoke at about 2:30 with the winds still blowing.

When we awoke, we decided to try something. The wind might break in the afternoon and before the snow started. If we could reach the base of the Brenner route at the moment the wind broke, we had a chance to climb. If not, we would at least establish a boot track up to the start. So, we geared up and started climbing. (That is, after Tim convinced Sheila that the wind sounded worse inside the tent than outside the tent. This is actually was true but the pull of the sleeping bag and tent is a strong one.)

Climbing in the Patagonian wind is something special. Down by high camp, it was not too bad and we made good progress. As we climbed, however, the wind intensity grew. By 300 m above high camp, we started getting pinned down by gusts every couple minutes. By 500 m up, the wind was constantly crushing. We were getting rag-dolled around, fighting our way up. With each gust, we held tight to our ice axes ducked low to keep from getting blown over.After battling wind for over an hour and a half, we decided that the wind would not break, and we scurried back to camp. What we did see on this failed attempt, however, was beautiful clean snow-free cracks of the Brenner route. The route was in great shape!

Back in camp, we quickly fixed dinner and settled in to sleep. The wind blew through the night, and the snow started as well. When the alarm sounded at 3:30am, however, the world outside was silent. Shit: we would have to climb again.

As we started up again, the fog was dense and falling snow flashed in the light of our headlamps. Visibility sucked, so we couldn´t see any of Guillaumet. We caught our first sight of rock at the 300 m mark. Everything was coated in snow and ice -- conditions had turned terrible overnight. At least we could climb to the pass where the route started and scope things out.

The route to the pass follows a steep and often narrow colouir for 100 m. Climbing it was a blast.

Tim starting up the colouir to Passo Guillaumet

Between steep snow, dry tooling up sections where the walls closed in on us, a section of nearly vertical snow underneath a truck-sized chockstone (see image above), tunneling out from the mountain´s bowels, climbing a hanging snow wall above, and the final steep ramp to the pass made for an incredible adventure. We got to rely on a huge variety of skills, all with the comfort of great snow conditions and no wind. Not bad for an approach! (The digicam ran out of battery at this point, so no photos past this point.)

Atop all of this, we finally reached the base of our route. To the left, we could see the glacier and bergschrund at the start of the Amy colouir. Above, the Brenner route was a disaster of snow and ice making rock climbing a non-starter. In the distance beyond in every direction -- with about 100 m of visibility -- there was only white. While we would not get to climb, we were excited to finally see the route first hand. It looks great with a wide variety of steep cracks and corners snaking up the North face of Guillaumet. If we can there while it is in good conditions, we are confident we can climb it.

We turned to make our descent, dropping a vertical mile all the way back down to El Chaltén whereour steak dinner just hit the fry pan.

In summary: this was a bullshit weather window. Or, at least, someone forgot to open it.

Our spirits are still soaring after these latest attempts, and we are feeling strong after climbing up and down so many times. We are are eyeing up another break in the weather next week.

10:30 pm and it's still light out

But we're heading to bed because we're going for another attempt. Hiking to Piedra Negra and camping at there tomorrow. Attempting the Brenner-Moschioni route on the 27th during a nice little weather window. And planning to return the 28th.

We spent Christmas resting, feasting, and preparing so we're feeling really good. Tim watched two movies and never even left the hostel. He did manage to make bechemel sauce for hand-made pasta Sheila found in town and to fix the stove with our "in town toothbrush" (who needs more than 1 toothbrush any way?). Sheila watched one movie and managed a 20 min walk around town without getting blown away by 30 kt wind gusts. She also braised a chicken for Christmas dinner. Perfect resting regimen.

Feliz Navidad!

Happy Holidays from El Chaltén!

The winds have been blowing hard the past few days, and we have been passing the time hiking around and taking photos, painting/drawing, and preparing for our next attempt.

On the 23rd, we took a light hike out to Mirador Fitz Roy where we were treated to amazing views of the Fitz Roy range. Sheila started a painting and I set up a photo. Then I waited for 3 hrs for the clouds to clear. Nothing here happens quickly.

Yesterday we spent the morning collecting up food and a couple snow pickets. Steaks, cheeses, chocolate, and butter were top priorities for their fuel to weight ratio. On our first attempt Tim, with terrible Spanish language skills, made the mistake of buying butter when he thought he had bought cheeses and now we're thinking we should always travel with half a kilo of the stuff. After visiting six or seven stores - from panaderias to supermercados to mini mercados--we basically got everything on our list.

With trip prep work done for the day, we took off for the afternoon on a ~20 km out to Lago Torre and back. The lake was like nothing we had seen before. Lago Torre is the terminus of Glacier Grande and Glacier Torre, so you have the glacier falling into the lake. Meanwhile, the winds were absolutely nuking. If we jumped, we landed about 6 inches away. These winds were making 1-2 ft waves, which is amazing because the lake is not big at all. On the side of the lake where we were, huge blocks of blue ice floated at the surface. The wind generated waves would crash into these blocks and create spray that the wind would grab and take horizontally, sometimes all the way to shore. It was incredibly violent, completely inhospitable, yet gorgeous and awe-generating. After grabbing some drawings and photos, and after having been exfoliated by the wind, we made our way back for Argentinian Christmas eve dinner.

Argentinian Xmas eve dinner was so big that it deserves a post to itself -- and it will get one next.

It looks like we have a one-day weather window on the 27th, meaning we will slog up to Piedra Negra again tomorrow. At least this time we don't have to carry very much gear because we stashed almost all of it up there after our first attempt. We will likely attempt the Brenner-Moschioni route which avoids the nasty snow we had to deal with on the approach to Comeseña-Fonrouge. The route also plays to our strengths on rock as opposed to snow and ice. We will make the final call tomorrow once we are up there and can assess conditions.

Here are a couple photos from climbing the past few days. The first is the beginning of the hike into Piedra del Fraile. The Rio Electrico is in the background:

 

And here is Tim rapping down the route after we decided to bail:

 

For the next few days we are off hiking and exploring the local area. Looks like good weather again on the 27th. We are currently thinking that, given the snow conditions that we found, our best option may be to climb the Brenner-Mosciano route on the north ridge, and then potentially rap the same way leaving gear if necessary to avoid the steep snow. We will have to see what the next few days brings as far as weather, and then will make our decision once we actually see the condition of the route.

Round 1

We are back in El Chaltén after our first attempt to climb Aguja Guillaumet. We had to bail but had a ton of fun, got gorgeous views of fitz, and learned a lot to prepare us for round 2. Here are some highlights from our journal entry just after we got back to high camp:

"Guillaumet is full of snow and ice...not exactly ideal rock climbing conditions"

"We went for it though...spirits were high, and the snow was good"

"We reached the first fixed anchor quickly"

"The next 3 hours were the most strenuous 300 ft of climbing that I've ever encountered...I was chest to shoulder deep in light powder. I struggled into it but the snow was so light I went nowhere. I switched to an approach of compacting down the snow in front of me so that I could make a step. This allowed for very slow and very strenuous progress, 1 ft at a time"

"As I got higher, I made it to a rock outcrop. I dug out some cam placements but found the rock above coated in thin ice. Not good."

"The snow got lighter and harder to compact. The hard ice underneath allowed me to cut steps occasionally. But I was quickly looking at a nasty fall, with no ability to self-arrest in the light, steep powder. I was also running out of rope and to make the notch sheila would have to simulclimb the shitty steep snow with only a pair of cams in a snowy crack to protect us. The scales had tipped from difficult but secure to hard, insecure, and unsafe....I downclimbed."

"We rapped the steep snow and headed back to camp"

"In the end we were happy, energized, and knew that we made the right call"

We have several options for our next attemp. We can start 300 m lower and bypass the snow altogether. We can wait for the snow to consolidate some, and also rent snow pickets in town so that we have protection. Or we can take an alternate route on the east face. We will evaluate these options over the next few days while the winds howl.

Looks like our next break in the wind may be dec 26. May be a huge weather window. Stay tuned.

We made it to El Chaltén

it took us 32 hours of travel and we finally arrived in el Chaltén last night! We celebrated with a bottle of "house" Malbec (delicioso) and a massive steak.

 Looking up at Fitz Roy, we can't see shit. It's totally in a cloud of nasty!! Let's go climbing!!!!

Conditions look good for tomorrow though, so today we are collecting food and fuel and establishing base camp for an attempt on Abuja guillaumet tomorrow. Wish us luck! Back in town on the 22nd or 23rd probably.

...and we're off!

We're finally off. Some drama with plan tickets has us flying delta, but otherwise we are fully set.

Our primary objective -- modest by Patagonia standards -- is to climb Aguja Guillaumet via the Comeseña-Fonrouge route. We have lots of secondary objectives, but lets not get ahead of ourselves. One successful climb would make the trip.

Last check of the weather looks like there are some opportunities. I've included an annotated short term forecast below so y'all can see what we are looking at. Looks like a potential window right when we arrive, and another small window on christmas day.

And, here is a less-annotated long-range forecast. From what I hear, looking at the long range forecast  in Patagonia is not a particularly useful endeavor, but its fun to dream. In this case, however, the long-range forecast looks ridiculously good with no windows over 20 kts. For reference, we've been seeing 70 knt wind-forecasts regularly. If anything, it could be too warm leading up to new years.

Ok, we're off. Next update will be from El Chaltén. At the earliest we would probably update on Dec 22 or 23 after that first weather window, but we can't know for sure until we get there and get climbing. Blog silence just means we are off having fun and unable to trek back into town for an internet hookup.

Final trip preparations

Hi everyone,

We leave for Patagonia for a bit over three weeks on December 18. Our plan is to head as directly as possible to El Chaltén (via Miami, Buenos Aires, Ushuaia, and El Calafate). We will try to post trip updates here if we can.

Huge thanks for the American Alpine Club Live Your Dream grants for helping to make this trip possible.

As of now, our bags our packed:

And we are watching the weather forecast. You can get an idea of the weather here:

https://ready.arl.noaa.gov/READYcmet.php

The latitude and longitude to use for us is -49.3 and -71.3 degrees respectively. From there, you can look at the short-term (0 - 192 hr) or long-term (192 - 384 hr) forecast. It is the wind forecast we are watching most closely. Looks like there is a potential for some good weather right when we arrive (Dec 19-21), and again just after Christmas (Dec 26-28). We'll be keeping a close eye over the next few days to see if those weather windows actually appear.