Camilo Lopez and Anna Pfaff have success in Aguja Gillomet! Read their exciting report. The great Fitz Roy is up next.
After almost two weeks of waiting out bad weather a short window appeared so we decided to go for Aguja Guillomet.
We left Chalten in the late afternoon after the rain had stopped and arrived at the base of the glacier at around 8 pm. At midnight we started our way up the glacier towards Paso Superior the snow was firm so we progresed quickly.
We reached Paso at 2:30 am, We brewed up some strong coffee and organized our gear that we had cached there on our previous trip. At 4:20 am we started hiking towards the base of Aguja Guillomet planing on climbing the Brenner Ridge, a line that follows the North East ridge and joins the Fonroudge route for the last 3 pitches before the summit. We started climbing at around 6.30 am. The weather was definitely questionable but we decided to keep moving as far as possible.
The first few pitches were covered in verglass and snow. making the pitches more interesting even with rock shoes. As we approached the head wall we decided to keep traversing left past the normal route to gain a steller crack system that eventually merged back into the normal route on the top of the ridge.
The traverse into the first pitch of the head wall was quite sketchy, smearing on verglass around a bulge and then pulling up into the cracks above. We then climbed into a pitch of offwidth and then into some blocks before reaching a perfect over hanging crack system.
At this high point we could see the last pitch of the normal route so we decided to follow it to the top. We reached the summit at 7:30 pm. We climbed all day through a the thick fog and watched the huge dark clouds forming far east.
We rappelled 4 times down the Amy Culoir over coming the bergschrund with no problems.
We then retrieved our gear from the base and headed back to Paso Superior. We reached our bivy at 11:30 pm . We had been climbing for over 24 hours and were spent.
We returned to Chalten the next day at 9 pm after giving first aid and helping to carry out a women hiker who fractured her ankle on the way up to Laguna de los Tres at the base of Fitz Roy.
We are very happy and motivated after our success in Aguja Gillomet!!
We named the new line The Lopez - Pfaff Variation, 6c+
The weather graphic is marking for 3 days of good weather at the end of this week.
We have decided to return to Paso Superior and attempt to climb Fitz Roy.
Wish us luck!
Camilo Lopez & Anna Pfaff
After almost two weeks of waiting out bad weather a short window appeared so we decided to go for Aguja Guillomet.
We left Chalten in the late afternoon after the rain had stopped and arrived at the base of the glacier at around 8 pm. At midnight we started our way up the glacier towards Paso Superior the snow was firm so we progresed quickly.
We reached Paso at 2:30 am, We brewed up some strong coffee and organized our gear that we had cached there on our previous trip. At 4:20 am we started hiking towards the base of Aguja Guillomet planing on climbing the Brenner Ridge, a line that follows the North East ridge and joins the Fonroudge route for the last 3 pitches before the summit. We started climbing at around 6.30 am. The weather was definitely questionable but we decided to keep moving as far as possible.
The first few pitches were covered in verglass and snow. making the pitches more interesting even with rock shoes. As we approached the head wall we decided to keep traversing left past the normal route to gain a steller crack system that eventually merged back into the normal route on the top of the ridge.
The traverse into the first pitch of the head wall was quite sketchy, smearing on verglass around a bulge and then pulling up into the cracks above. We then climbed into a pitch of offwidth and then into some blocks before reaching a perfect over hanging crack system.
At this high point we could see the last pitch of the normal route so we decided to follow it to the top. We reached the summit at 7:30 pm. We climbed all day through a the thick fog and watched the huge dark clouds forming far east.
We rappelled 4 times down the Amy Culoir over coming the bergschrund with no problems.
We then retrieved our gear from the base and headed back to Paso Superior. We reached our bivy at 11:30 pm . We had been climbing for over 24 hours and were spent.
We returned to Chalten the next day at 9 pm after giving first aid and helping to carry out a women hiker who fractured her ankle on the way up to Laguna de los Tres at the base of Fitz Roy.
We are very happy and motivated after our success in Aguja Gillomet!!
We named the new line The Lopez - Pfaff Variation, 6c+
The weather graphic is marking for 3 days of good weather at the end of this week.
We have decided to return to Paso Superior and attempt to climb Fitz Roy.
Wish us luck!
Camilo Lopez & Anna Pfaff
1 comment:
Love hearing both of your unique quests. Keep us posted on the Fitzroy ascent! Good luck and have fun!
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