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.