Patagonia Trip, Part 3: Waiting on the Weather and Christmas

At Laguna de Torre. Cerro Torre is out there in the mist somewhere.

Photos
Strava - Loop Recon
Strava - Conodores Loop
Strava - Park HQ Lollipop
Strava - Conodores Climbing with Adrian

Tuesday:

Rolo, Dylan, Adrian all checked the weather sites and confirmed the first window we’d have to venture up high was Sunday and Monday and maybe even Tuesday. We had to bide our time until then. There is plenty of hiking around here and various sport climbing and even bouldering to keep us busy. I wanted to get up to Laguna de Torre - one of the most photographed spots in the world - and then continue around a loop that would take us north to the approach we’d take for Passo Superior to climb the Californiana Route on Fitz Roy or the Austrian Route on De l’S. We started a little after noon.

While only a half-inch taller than me, Derek legs are 10 inches longer. His waist is just under his shoulders. Hiking behind him, it seems like my waist is about the same height of his knee. At least it feels that way when I’m trying to match his stride on the trail. Most of the time he lets me lead, as that keeps us closer together. We chatted all the way up to the lake, taking a bit under two hours. Our hiking map estimated the time at three hours. We might have fancied ourselves fit except that Rolo’s guidebook said it took 1h40m to get there. Seems like his approach times are similar to other very fit guidebook authors like Beckey and Roper.

We found the Tyrolean Traverse across the Rio Fitz Roy, just up from Campamento D’Agostino, and marveled at the huge iceberg in the lake, but it was cold, windy, and the views were nonexistent. After fifteen minutes or so, we moved on, back down the trail we had come and then north, climbing steadily up to a plateau against the mountains to our west. We hiked by a couple of lakes and then descended a bit to the trail junction that led up to Campamento Poincenot. We took a short break to admire the incredible spires to our west, Poincenot being the most impressive because the monstrous Fitz Roy is shy and shrouded in clouds. It is so often covered in clouds that the mountain was original called Cerro Chaltèn, which means smoking mountain. It was thought to be a volcano that was continuously spewing steam.

We completed the loop back to town, logging over 18 miles and 3000 vertical feet. Our first significant outing. It was a good to get our for an extended hike and get learn more about the lay of the land. All the terrain higher up looks so intimidating, with steep, loose moraines leading to steep, heavily crevassed glaciers, leading to yawning bergshrunds, leading to vertical walls thousands of feet high. We’ve set our sights on Guillamet for the first window, a common first summit in the massif. We need something to build our confidence and to get familiar with such imposing terrain.


Wednesday:

Christmas morning I was up around 7 a.m. which is very late for me, but I’ve settled into this rhythm easily, as I never go to sleep before midnight. It doesn’t really get dark here until well past 10 p.m. so that day seems to just shift later on the time scale. I hung out eating some breakfast and drinking coffee. Today I wanted to get out and discover some moderate loops for Sheri to do while down here. I’m very excited that she’ll be joining us for two weeks on this trip and want to make sure it is a fun trip for her.

I headed off at 8:45 to explore a loop around the climbing cliff (Condores) where Derek and I had climbed a couple of days before. I went up the gully we had descended, looping a very steep, but very well defined dirt trail. This trail would be a bit slippery to descend, but it was fine going up. Sheri will not like the steep angle so much, but it makes a nice loop. On top, I was surprised to fid a lake up there. And glaciated mountains off to the east! Or maybe I was looking more northeast. Either way, I didn’t think there were such mountains that direction. They can’t be seen from town because of the cliff.

On top was a microwave or cell repeater on the summit, powered by solar panels. I found the descent trail to the south and followed it down to the trail that runs along the base of the cliff to the west and back to the bridge. The loop was around 5km and had more than a thousand feet of climbing. Perfect.

After some more reading and eating, I ventured out to find another loop. Derek was relaxing in his room, content to rest from our hike the day before and not as interested in these little hikes. I made plan to climb with Adrian at 1:30 p.m. and left Derek a note about it, along with a Christmas present, but he didn’t seem them. My bad. I should have told him the plan directly. Silly. I won’t make that mistake again.

My second hike was across the bridge south of town, the way we drove into El Chaltèn. Here lies the park headquarters and some hiking trails. I did a nice little lollipop to the summit of a couple of rocky hills with good views and made it back to the apartment just as Adrian arrived for climbing. Since I hadn’t prepped Derek about the climbing, he didn’t want to rush to get ready, so we headed out just the two of us. We hiked to the far end of Condores, where this is a number of one pitch climbs. I was surprised to see so many climbers here. There were three groups of 2-3 climbers each and all of them native English speakers: Canadian, Australian, and American. We added to that make-up.

We started on the far left, as they were the only routes open, on a 6c (11a). That’s not my warm-up grade of choice, but it is for Adrian. He cruised up the 30-meter route easily, barely pausing at the two crux sections. I elected to toprope it since that grade normally gives m some trouble. A bit conservative to be sure, as the route was protected with well-placed bolts, but I’m in a conservative mindset here. I fell off the first crux numerous times. It was a confusing sequence of bad holds and bad feet. I sort of did it before moving on. The upper crux was a very thin traverse to the left. I shuffled my feet across a tiny edge and had nearly nothing to grab with my fingers, but I made it across. I worked the crux a bit on the way down. I now have a project in Patagonia!

Next we did a route of similar grade to the right. Adrian took more time on this one, as it was a bit heady at the crux. I followed on TR again and found the climbing a bit easier (I didn’t fall off), but I also had the security of a toprope.

Adrian then tried a 7c (12d, I think). He made it up with just two hangs, placing the draws. I TRed that as well, climbing the 5.10 below the crux clean and then utter flailing (as expected) on the crux section, before lowering off. One of the holds Adrian uses is so sharp, it felt like deadpointing to a knife blade. I don’t have skin tough enough to use that hold. Or muscles strong enough to hold it anyway. Adrian took one fall on his second go. He’s sent it before, but not today. I decided that was enough for me. It was Christmas and I hadn’t spend any time with Derek. Adrian was cool with me cutting the outing short and we headed back.

Derek and I hung out for a couple of hours and then made the windy walk to the north end of town for a Christmas dinner of an omelette (for me) and a pizza for him. I did have a delicious Dolce de Leche milkshake and I’ll be back for another one of those. I told Derek all about the book I was reading on Greg LeMond. That guy should had an interesting career…