Guillomet-Mermoz link-up

Tim following the Fonrouge ridge on Aguja Guillomet.

Where do we go from the Cumbre of Guillomet? Not up, down and across.

Jim saddles up on the summit of Guillomet with the West Face of Mermoz and the upper ramparts of the North side of Fitz Roy in the background.

A quick change of leaders. Cerro Pollone, the Gran Gendarme, and the Ice Cap in the background.

Jim and Joel (left to right) on the summit of Mermoz ca. 8pm.

Jim contemplates life.

Looking back on the West Face of Guillomet and the complex ridge terrain between the North (far left) and South (right) summits.

Nearly full moon with Guillomet below.

Two days of rest between missions is just enough time to eat, drink, and sleep as much as possible. On the third day, with the barometric pressure remaining higher than nearly the entire month of January, Neil and I hiked to a viewpoint with the binoculars and scoped the East face of Mermoz. There was a decent amount of ice on ledges and in cracks high on the Red Pillar (reportedly some of the best rock in the range). With memories of our recent 27 hour push on the Crouch-Donini, Neil confided that he was still consado (tired).

In the trailer park, our living accomadations for the month of Feb., Jim and Tim were busy packing and purchasing food for a noon departure. The mission, the first two summits of the Care Bear Traverse, or what we have begun calling, The My Little Pony Traverse. Over the next three days we managed to hike into Piedra Negra bivy, sleep for a few hours, climb the Fonrouge ridge on Guillomet in 3 hours, traverse to the Argentine route on Mermoz (approx 4 hours) and climb to the summit of Mermoz (4 more hours). We descended while a nearly full moon lit our way. Increasingly frequent clouds and gusts turned a moonlit slab of granite to a dark and cold world. We were back at Piedra Negra at 3am and asleep by 4 after consuming lots of pasta and pumpkin soup.

Today is day two of rest. It looks like there will be three days next week to put in one more effort. We are all in great shape and our motivation is tangible. My fingertips are still sensitive to heat and the cuts on my hands are healing from nearly 50 hours of contact with large, often exfoliating, granite crystals. This is the stuff dreams are made of. Pain is temporary, glory lasts forever!

Joel

Return to the Torre Valley

I'm a happy cowboy on the Torre Glacier

Really fun rock climbing in the sun!!

Joel sends an awkward offwidth with the south face of Poincenot behind

The summit of Rafael with 400m of climbing to go!

Joel leads high on the ridge

Great rock climbing just before the snow and ice!

Joel with Desmochada, La Silla, and Poincenot behind.

You never know what you¨re gonna get!

Back in Nipo Nino high camp after 27 hours on the move!
Aguja Rafael is the small (relatively) peak with the west ridge in profile

After nearly two months of unclimbable weather, February has become the season saver! Joel and I just returned to El Chalten after a 3 day mission into the Torre Valley to climb the complete West Ridge of Aguja Rafael Juarez (5.10 A2 1000m.) This thing is huge, with climbing over mellow ridge terrain, steep cracks, and challenging route finding the whole way. After psyching up in town with Jon Gleason and Ben Ditto, we all went for the same objective, climbing rock in Patagonia with our friends! It was a great experience climbing in two groups on this route, always keeping it as light as possible, even when we encountered mossy choss, wet cracks, and snow negotiated with various western techniques. As the light began to fade high on the ridge, we all began discussing the bail. Luckily for us our friends Tim Dittman and Jim Toman had climbed most of the same route a week earlier and we found their rappel anchors just when we needed them! It took us quite a while to get ourselves off the mountain, rappelling and descending snow, ice, and rock back to Nipo Nino as the sun rose once again! We were worked! After a few hours rest, we consumed all the remaining calories and hoofed it back to town feeling pretty depleted. Today is rest day number two, and we are all talking about going back up. When the weather splits in Patagonia there is no rest for the weary!

Never Stop Relaxing

Excellent view into the Torre Valley

Packing session in SLC, thanks Amber!

Waking up for the Supercanaleta

Emaciated after the Supercanaleta
(notice splitter weather)

Never stop relaxing!

Here´s some photos I just pulled off the camera, hope ya like em!

Viento, Mucho Viento!

Clouds rake the Fitz Massif, while condors float effortlessly on the gusts.
Guillamet is the icy peak on the right.

Climbers headed toward the Amy Couiour, the Brenner Ridge is the right buttress.

Joel sinks his tools into an amazing runnel of ice.

Psyched!!

Hitchiking back from Aguja Guillamet

Joel finds Patagonian splitter cracks, with ice.

High on the Brenner Ridge

Super tranquilo!

The highs are the 1020 circles, just need them to move down a bit!
(courtesy metvuw.com)

So far the weather this season in Patagonia has been challenging for climbing larger objectives, with the exception 0f the 12 day window in early December. Since then, there has been 5 or 6 one-day climbable windows. Geographically situated at -49 degrees south latitude, the Fitz Roy Range is sandwiched between the high pressure systems typical of the northern Chile coast and the low pressure storm systems which blast Tierra del Fuego and Antartica. The opposite rotations of these global weather systems is what makes Patagonia the windiest place on Earth. I believe the large windows of perfect weather occur when high pressure systems from the north settle over the southern tip of the continent, thus diverting all low pressure to the south.

Although one of the smallest Agujas in the Fitz Roy group, Guillamet is packed with ice and mixed climbs all over its east face. If one is motivated, there are endless ascents of this neat mountain to be realized; likewise, it is often the best option for short cold and snowy weather windows.

A few weeks ago, while I stayed in town with some serious stomach funk, Joel and Tim rallied to base camp at Piedra Negra and climbed a beautiful ice runnel on Guillamet's east face, basically a variation to the Guillot Couliour.
A week later, another short window appeared during which Joel and Tim climbed the Brenner Ridge to the junction with the Amy couliour.

Now that my immune system is recovered, we have been sport climbing around El Chalten and keeping it tranquilo. Joel has left town to guide Aconcagua, we have plans to meet in Bariloche in a few weeks and climb in the sun for the remainder of our trip. While some become more impatient as the weather churns, I have settled into the reality of life in El Chalten. Patience is tested; one can dissolve mental obscurity formed by a society of immediate satisfaction, the clouds swirl and the view is incredible. For me, this is Patagonia´s finest lesson, and the power never wavers. These golden towers of rime and rock stand vigilant sentinels to the saga of time; we are left pondering our all too brief passage.

Aguja Guillamet

Weathering the storm

Tentbound

Approaching below Guillamet

Looking up the Amy couliour

Me starting the Amy

Olov crossing the bergschrund

Me in the Amy

Anna climbs the snow pitch

Climbing over a gendarme on the ridge

Joel leading the crux icy corner

Joel crushing a challenging pitch

Looking down on the last pitch of the ridge

Mermoz and Fitz Roy

Hiking the summit snow slope

Cumbre!

Los Hermanos ¨summitting¨ Aguja Guillamet
The summit block is pretty sketchy!

Looking down the summit snowfield


Back at Piedra Negra

Camilo Lopez video of the climb

Feliz AÑo neuvo amigos!

After psyching up in town for about 3 weeks, we could no longer sit still and returned to the mountains with our friends Camilo Lopez, Anna Pfaff, and Olov from Sweden. Everyone was excited to get outta El Chalten and attempt Aguja Guillamet. The forecast showed a short colder window starting last Tuesday morning, just as the snow stopped falling.

We had been tent-bound the day before (monday) by snow and wind, so we were totally amped to move when the calm winds and lightly cloudy sky greeted us in the morn. Camilo and Anna took off and started breaking knee-deep trail up to Paso Guillamet. No wind at the col and sunny! We were all planning on climbing the Amy couliour, a snow and ice climb in a gully then joining the rock ridge to the summit, about 350meters in total. Steep snow started the couliour, then pinched down to shoulder width ice, super fun! Camilo had a great lead gaining the ridge as he tunneled and cleared deep snow above us. Though we had moved onto rock terrain, we wore our boots and crampons due to snow and colder temps. (I wanna go rock climbing!) Suddenly an easy handcrack becomes a lesson in crampon and glove jamming, with the occasional ice axe hook move thrown in for fun!

As we gained the summit snowfield, the clouds swirled around us revealing and obscuring the incredible views of granite spires everywhere! We enjoyed the summit for a while and had an awesome view of Mermoz, and the rock route we have been waiting to climb for a month! We are still amped to climb splitter Patagonian style cracks, and we might just get the chance!
The descent went smooth and quickly and we devoured the rest of our food at camp then slept soundly. The next day we had a nice hike back to El Chalten and a rewarding victory asado with all our friends, Patagonia at its finest!!