Patagonia, Part 8: More Local Climbing and Hiking

The view from atop Cerro Rosado

Photos - Sport Climbing

Strava - Sport Climbing
Photos - Cerro Rosado

Strava - Cerro Rosado

Thursday:

I was expecting and hoping for bad weather today, as I wanted to rest from the long day on Wednesday. I did just that for the entire morning, but then was contacted by Adrian to go sport climbing with him and Sonia in the afternoon. I said yes mainly because I was flattered he asked, but also because I wanted to hear about his adventure in the Cerro Torre group.

Adrian went into to Nipponino the day before we went into Piedra Negra, to climb something in the weather window. He just said he wanted to climbing something on the Cerro Torre side of that valley. After he told me they had attempted Aguja Standhardt, I combed through the guidebook to find a route I thought he might do. I figure it must have been Festerville (6c — 5.11a), as it was primarily a rock route. Indeed that was his first choice, but the ridge was plastered with ice and he had to switch to the route that was in condition. They thought this to be Exocet, an amazing, continuous, WI5+ route. I didn’t know Adrian was such a good ice climber as well. This is a handy skill in this massif. In fact, being a good mixed climber and a good ice climber is almost a requirement. I say “almost” because I am neither, but that is what I intend to practice if I am to return here, which I hope to do.

Sonia belays while Adrian ascends the 11c/d "warm-up" route

Anyway, Adrian and his two partners climbed mixed, iced-up, sparely protected 5.9 pitches in boots and crampons to access the start of the classic 4-pitch ice chimney. Just getting to the start of the route involves a half-day of glacier, snow, and ice climbing. They started at 11 p.m. in order to get to the chimney when it was still frozen, but took too long on the mixed pitches and now the chimney was raining debris. They had to chop out a ledge off to the side and spent seven hours waiting for the bombardment to stop so that they could descend safely. Adrian was so blasé recounting this terrifying tale. He calmly said, “We knew it would stop eventually.” I might have been too impatient and made a run for it before it was safe. Good thing I’m not a good enough climber to go near such a route.

Adrian picked me up in his rickety van. Derek decided he was just going to rest and that turned out to be a good call. We went to a very steep crag a few miles up the dirt road leading to Rio Electrico. The “warm-up” route was 11c/d. Adrian and Sonia crush and got this route clean without much trouble, though it did take Sonia two tries. I toproped it twice and both times had to pull on two draws to get through it. I tried one harder route, also on TR, while there and other than that I belayed, watched them climb and hung out with the crowd that was there.

The cliff we climbed at is the tiny one near the center of this photo. This was taken from where we parked.

This is supposedly a good place because it is always out of the wind. I’d have been happier getting blown off an easy route than hanging out at an outdoor gym with climbs too hard for me. Even if the climbs were easy, I just don’t like the outdoor gym scene. I can’t really explain this, as I do enjoy the scene at Movement. At least in the morning when the crowd is mostly my peeps and I can get on any route I want. It’s always nice hanging out with Adrian and Sonia and they were super nice about giving me a power belay and then saying that they didn’t help me at all (they did), but I wish I hadn’t gone and spent the afternoon with Sheri and Derek.

Friday:

It rained all morning, but in the afternoon I showed Sheri and Derek my descent route off Cerro Rosado. This route was much shorter and much shorter and easier than my cross-country ascent in the woods to the south. We hiked out the Fitz Roy Trail about 1.5 kilometers and then found and followed a faint path straight up the steep slope to the summit.

Hiking up the "trail" (not really) up Cerro Rosado

The views up there were just ridiculous. Just as it was on my first time up there. It’s surprising that there is not an official trail up this peak. Shocking, really. As the views up there are so much better than anything short of hiking to Laguna Torre or Laguna de los Tres and it is so much closer to town. The mileage and vertical is similar to Sanitas in Boulder, but with a truly world-class view. If I lived here, this would be a something I’d hike multiple times per week.

We didn’t hang out that long on top, maybe ten minutes, because Sheri had a massage appointment (one of the “Top Ten” things to do in El Chaltèn). The hike down went easier than Sheri had feared and the trip was deemed a huge success.

Sick scenery. These mountains are absolute beasts.