A true Patagonian Epic

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Ben and I shouldered our packs as the boys drove out of town under a beautiful patagonian sky. Our destination was Vivac de Polacos in the Torre valley at the base of St. Exupery the spire we planned to climb. The trail to Laguna Torre is well traveled and we saw many people on our way in all intrigued by our packs and where we were headed. Once you get to the lake the trail turns into a climbers access only trail immediately. A tyrolean traverse across the Rio Fitzroy is the only way to access the far side of the lake where we needed to be, eventually the trail dumps you out on a lateral moraine of the Torre Glacier the stretches up valley as far as you can see, the majestic Cerro Torre towering over it. The Moraine presents the first of many problems as the rock is very poor quality and when its not scree its coagulated mud that has very little friction and grip. One miss step and you find your self careening down a steep slope headed for the frigid waters of Laguna Torre. I was quick to find this out as my foot dislodged a rock and i was sent sliding down the hillside like a baseball player into home, I quickly began to pick up speed but was able to stop myselft by latching onto a large rock that i hoped was solid. The slide tore my thumb up and left a large strawberry on my left leg but besides spooking me a little bit i was no worse for the wear. We finished crossing the moraine and headed down to the glacier where i was able to wash my wounds in the clearest water i´ve ever seen running across the glacier. The rest of the trip to Vivac Polacos was pretty uneventful just a long slog across lateral moraine and firn glacier. We arrived at camp much later than anticipated and after cooking dinner and racking our gear for the next day we went to bed hoping to get as much sleep as possible before our climb. As we went to bed we saw a couple headlamps flickering on the rocks above, people finishing their descents in the dark. "I hope thats not us tomorrow" i laugh to Ben as we curl up in our sleeping bags. The alarm wakes us up at 1.30 and we quickly make breakfast and mate, stormproof our campsite hoist our bags and begin the long approach to St. Exupery. We spend most of the morning scrambling up to the base and take it from me, pulling 5.7 moves free under headlamp is not fun, we ended up in the wrong approach gully and spent another couple hours traversing rock to the base of our route. We eventually opted for a "easier" route the Kearny -Harrington because of our timing and because we thought it would be faster. The climb started out amazing, swapping leads on good quality rock Ben and i were making good time. The Kearney Harrington is a very derived route that works its way in a spiral around the east face of St. Exupery following the path of least resistance. At about pitch 14 i hit a wall and from there on things started going south. Ben took over leading and had to aid the crux pitch which slowed us down, but we kept pushing hoping to reach the summit before it got too late in the day. At 8 o´clock abot 70m below the summit we decided to call it and head down, we were allready pushing sunset and we knew we´d need every minute of it to make it down. The wind had also started to pick up which would make rappelling much more difficult. We finished the last 2 rappels in the dark and by the time touched down on the ground it was allready 10.30. We started our descent both of us out of water and short on food, I quickly found a stream running down the snowfield and we filled our water bottles after drinking as much of the cold water as i could handle. We descended the snow slope which we had come up in the morning but were quickly stopped by a rock slab. We looked at each other in confusion, were we hallucinating? "that wasnt there this morning right?" i say to ben. It must have melted out during the day, we could hear the water running over it and knew that in our exhausted states and under headlamp it would be very difficult to navigate. We opted to try an open air bivy on a flat slope to the north, we curled up in all the layers we had, i used the rope as a blanket while Ben fit as much of his body as he could in his backpack. We "slept" for about an hour and when we both woke up shivering we knew it was time to start moving, we found a rock horn that we could set a rappell on and were able to get down the slab without any problems. We eventually found an area we remembered and we began the long slog back to camp. The entire morning was spent wandering drunkenly around the slopes following the cairns that marked the trail and whenever we found an area sheltered from the wind we would stop and rest for as long as we stayed warm then we´d get up and do it all over. "Killing time till sunrise" is what we called it. We were very thankful to see the sunrise casting a pink on Cerro Torre only fit for royalty. From the bivy until the sun rose that morning i swear we were travelling with a third person maybe its because thats how its been for 2 months or maybe it was my lack of sleep, dehydration, and hallucinations. We finally got to camp and made a huge meal and then passed out in our sleeping bags for a few hours before we started the long trek back to Chalten. Only 7 hrs of sleep in 3 days is a good way to get yourself in trouble, but this time we were lucky enough to get out of it. We returned to Chalten bruised, battered, and beaten but with an experience that i will carry with me for the rest of my life. My first Patagonian epic. I will spend the next couple days resting my body, sleeping, and eating to regain my strength then travel to Bariloche and Puerto Montt to meet up with the boys for more grand adventures.

Chau for now,

Morgan

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Comments

[Bruce bennett]

WOW
I wish I were there. Ethan, Ryan and I climbed Mt Washington in New Hampshire. Nothing like your climb but it was a good 10 hr day of trekking. Be careful out there. Bruce ans Debby