One year ago we Dave Brown and myself were introduced to an unbelievable area near the Northern Patagonian Icecap in Chile.
Jim Donini was our Guide and what he introduced us to was beyond our wildest dreams.
We spent a week of amazing weather exploring a paradise of 7 separate towers of granite, from tall slender ridges, to steep huge monoliths all surrounded by beautiful mountains and lush temperate rainforest.
It was an absolute pleasure to climb a nice new route with such a legend as Jim. The most obvious challenge lay opposite the Tuff Arete, however.
We had the pleasure of making a fun 1st ascent with Jim on what became known as the Tuff.
The huge granite wall opposite was the most obvious challenge and impossible to ignore. It was ginormous, but if it held the same quality granite we’d touched it may just go alpine style!
It was not the same quality granite. It was slick and smooth, the closest thing to El Cap I’d ever laid my hands on! We spent 6 hours on the wall and were shut down in three different places. The grooves were also steeper than they appeared, with roofs lined by small finger cracks, often containing some lichen. It truly is an awe inspiring piece of rock. It will go, but not like this. We abseiled off from just 90m up the wall. It appears to be 1000m high at this point.
Hours were spent lounging about at the base of the wall, staring up at the monster above.
We woke tired the next morning, but our British roots left us struggling to waste yet another fine day. We reached the glacier, snaking over it to find the base of the longest most obvious feature we could find, a beautiful slither of granite shooting skyward. It provided a total of around 800m of exquisite climbing to reach it’s tiny summit, incorporating a knife edge ridge traverse, as well as many exposed cracks and grooves on high quality granite. “The Crown Jewels” (800m E3) stands proud with the best alpine rock routes I’ve done.
We couldn’t stay away from this wall for long and so now we are returning, with a strong team of four: Dave Brown, Will Harris, Andy Reeve and myself, well equipped for whatever the wall may throw at us.
Plans are moving fast to secure a boat across Lago General Carrera to access a longer approach of around 35km up the Avellano valley, using local farmers and mules.
Time to head to the airport – Merry Christmas everyone!!