Close but no cigar...
Another window in the weather appeared on the forecast, and we headed up to Piedra Negra to try to be there when the weather cleared. On the hike up, our spirits were weighed down by the incessant rain, snow, and fog. We encountered snow lower on the approach then ever before, and our gear stash was buried under inches of new snow. The new snow was triggering spontaneous avalanches -- heard but unseen on account of the dense fog -- going off every few minutes all around us. Conditions did not bode well.
Within two hours of establishing camp, the storm cleared revealing the bluest skies we saw all trip. Temperatures continued to rise, and cautious optimism filled camp as the avalanches cleared unstable snow from the steep slopes. Our weather window had indeed appeared.
Attempt #1: The Brenner-Moschioni Route
Per usual, our alarm woke us at 3:30 am, and for the first time we saw stars above. We quickly reached Paso Guillaumet, our approach made easier by the new dense snow. The morning sun shown brightly on the Brenner route. At long last, we were going to rock climb in Patagonia, and a mere 13 pitches -- all well within our abilities -- stood between us and the summit. We quickly racked up, and Tim headed up a brief snow field to the start of the first pitch.
Tim reached the opening right facing flake, swung his head around to place his first piece of protection, and suddenly everything changed: the crack was plastered with thick ice. There was no place for gear. No way to climb safely. Undeterred, Tim swung around to the right to investigate a potential alternate route that might be possible. For the next hour, Tim fought his way slowly up a maze of ice and snow filled cracks. Climbing with hands jammed between rock and ice, and wearing one rock shoe and one boot -- the rock shoe was good for small foot holds on the rock face, while the boot was good for jamming in cracks -- he eventually reached the first belay. Meanwhile, a German party attempting to find creative ways up the first pitched bailed and opted for the Amy route, a snow couloir around to east. Sheila followed the pitch, retrieving Tim´s boots left part way up, and together we decided that this was absolutely not fun. And the next pitch appeared worse. We had climbed our first rock pitch in Patagonia, the exposure and rock quality were spectacular. But it was time to turn back, and we bailed.
Back at camp were were disappointed, figuring that we were shut down for our trip. An Argentinian party that was behind us on the Brenner route returned to camp shortly later and reported that, after aid climbing the first
two pitches, they could not even find the third pitch behind the sheets of ice. A team from Salt Lake attempting the Comenseña-Fonrouge provided a similar report from their attempt. In contrast, several parties successfully climbed via the Amy Couloir, reporting deep and secure snow the entire way up. We had not considered this route before because of our inexperience with steep snow and ice and because were did not have the right equipment to attempt the route. However, the German team completed the route with the same equipment and felt that the climb would be well within our abilities. After fighting snow and ice for two weeks, we decided it was time to climb it.
Attempt #2: The Amy-Vidailhet Route
At 3:30 am our alarm went off again. We emerged from our tent, again with stars above, and suspiciously warm temperatures. Much snow had melted the night before, and our climb to the pass was slowed by unstable scree fields and icy conditions. At the pass, we roped up for glacier travel, and made our way to the start of the Amy route.
Our first obstacle was the Bergshrund -- the crevasse that marks the top of the glacier. Parties from the day before reported a trivial crossing, which was good because we had never crossed one before. Unfortunately, yesterday´s snow bridge had broken, and what remained of it was rapidly falling apart with the warm temperatures. But, we thought it was still going to be possible. We buried a deadman in the snow for a belay, and went for it. It wasn´t pretty, but Tim made it safely across and rapidly climbed to the first belay. Sheila followed behind on the little intact snow left. With a drop knee and an icy hand jam (nonstandard snow climbing technique to be sure), team North Carolina had successfully crossed our first schrund, and we were on our way. Pitch two went quickly and easily. Conditions were a bit leaner than reported, but were were having fun. As we climbed, however, it was impossible to ignore that the mountain was falling apart around us. Ice and snow routinely fell from the walls above, and balls of ice occasionally came shooting down the gully as we climbed.
Pitch three started well enough. For the first 25 m, Tim found places for protection on the walls of the couloir. He clipped the rope into an intermediate belay station, and continued to climb up. This was fun.
Then, things got exciting. After the intermediate anchor, the angle steepened and the snow became harder and icy. At the same time, opportunities to place protection in the rock walls, now 5 ft apart, disappeared. As he climbed higher and higher above the intermediate anchor, his aluminum crampons (intended for glacier travel and certainly not for ice climbing) began to buckle under the strain. The fact that he was climbing with a single ice tool (typically, two are used for this terrain) also did not help matters. About 75 ft above his last protection and now facing a giant 150 ft fall down the couloir, Tim worked hard to keep it together. Falling was simply not an option. Kicking and stabbing the snow, careful step by careful step, he reached to the right, clipped the three piton anchor, and let out a giant sigh of relief. "Off Belay."
Shedding layers of clothing because of the impressive warmth, Tim evaluated the next pitch and saw nothing to prevent our way to the summit. We were one pitch away from the easy rock climbing to the summit, where we would be back squarely within our comfort zone. Admiring the walls of the couloir while belaying Shiela up, Tim noticed high above a giant chandelier of icicles hanging ominously overhead. The entire structure was the size of a small car, and each icicle a meter long. Then, the tip of one broke off and fell. With the heat of the past two days, the ice above was rapidly coming off and, if the chandelier hanging above blew off, it would not be pretty. "Sheila, can you climb back to the belay?" Such a nonstandard request could only mean trouble and, out of visual contact, Sheila ran through the possibilities as she began her retreat. Either Tim was hurt, or there was something really dangerous above. Either way, there was no time for discussion.
Once Sheila was secure again, Tim tied the ropes together, set up to rappel, and got the f*ck out of there!!
In the end, the temperatures rose far too high for us to climb safe from objective hazards. We were moving slow due to inexperience and limited equipment and, while we felt that we had those two factors in control, when combined with rising temperatures, the danger level had gotten too high. It was a trivial decision to bail. The mountains will still be there for a very long time, and we have ample time to build up our skills for a future rendezvous. On this attempt alone we had crossed our first scrhund and climbed our steepest snow pitches. We were more than satisfied by our attempt and all that we learned from it.
* * *
"¡Otra botella de vino, por favor!¨" We raised our glasses in a toast with Team Germany and Team Seattle. Team Germany had summitted Guillaumet the day before, and Team Seattle summitted Aguja de l´S via the Austriaca route. The wine fueled the raucous recounting of our most recent adventures and tall tales of Austrain climbers scaling ice walls using fists for ice tools and Patagonian winds strong enough to send a rappelling climber up instead of down. Eventually, conversation turned to plans for visits to climb on each others home turf. And, of course, for our return to Patagonia...
(We will add photos to this post later once we get a better internet connection)
