The Patagonia Experience

El Chaltén - Argentina

Dan Commander

I have heard stories about this place, amazing climbing, but people staying in town for weeks because of bad weather. Me and Dan Commander had some time off and were keen to see this place with our own eyes. We both went there with a humble attitude. Let's explore the place to see what we can do and if we get to tie into a rope we are happy.

It was still wintry in middle of November so we went to the Niponino bivouac on Glacier Torre to climb an ice line as our first mission.

Laguna Torre

Todo o Nada

We had a look at the line and thought it looked thin, but wanted to try anyway. Started climbing steep and thin ice with awful spindrift in the dark. The will was strong on our first route in Patagonia, but about half way up it got too thin to climb. So we decided to go back down. On the way down, we experienced the Patagonia weather changes.

Bail-selfie!

Back to town for some rest and resupply. After a couple of days the weather looked good again so the next plan was to climb a rock route on Aguja Guillaumet.

Piedra Negra bivoouac

The dragon tail ridge and summit of Guillaumet

We climbed the NW spur to Guillamet and made it longer starting with the ridge in front of it. A nice route to one of the summits on the Fitz Roy sky line.

It was nice to stand on top of something and see the range in good weather. On the last pitches the wind picked up as usual. Descended down the Amy-couloir on the back and walked back to the tent. The mashed potato tasted a little better that night.

Hitch-hiking back to town

Food, sleep, wine, steak, coffee and chocholateria. Next! Now we went to the Paso Superior bivouac to climb a big classic. Whillans ramp to Aguja Poincenot.

Laguna de los Tres and the glacier up to the bivy

Super nice route, fun snow and ice on the ramp, a few pitches of mix in the middle and blocky rock climbing to the summit. We did not even have the crazy winds on the descent, it was a good day!

Dan on the top with Fitz Roy in the back!

Three great weeks we had, but then we ran out of luck. Weather crapped out and we went in several times to the mountains and spent days sitting in the tent hoping for the next day to clear. Many days in town, killing time in paradise.

Today we wanted o go rock climbing...

Strong winds makes some tasks difficult...

Just another day of bad weather

We had a great time down here, learned a lot about the area and the mountains here. This was a good time to go because it is before the big climbing peak season. We saw almost no other climbers in the mountains which added a lot to the experience. Nice town and very nice people living in it.

The exposure and brutality of the weather. Success rate is so bad it's charming. The people living there have a good  attitude to life.
Two big thumbs up for Patagonia!