Greetings from Patagonia -- Freddie Wilkinson's Trip Report (Hardwear Sessions)

Hey my fellow "Nutheads"!

There are many good reasons why not to go on a climbing trip to Patagonia: the plane ticket's expensive, getting time off from work is hard, the weather is terrible, the weather is abysmal, the weather, the weather...

Well, the last few weeks have been a blur of non-stop action as a rare spell of high pressure parked itself directly over the Patagonian icecap. This is my forth consecutive season visiting the Fitzroy massif and there have been more blue-bird days this year then in the previous three seasons combined. Janet Bergman, Kirsten Kremer, Dana "Mad Dog" Drummond and I trashed ourselves raw on the coarse granite of the range- I have to say this is the first time that my body and psyche has given out before the weather.

Below you can read the blow by blow account of Maddog's and my activities. We are currently resting up in town and it seems that the weather pattern has returned to the typical cycle of wind and rain. But everywhere in the bars, hostels, and campgrounds, I see smiling, sunburned faces and gobied hands. Let the 2008 season be a lesson to us all: you never know when the alpine weather gods will smile down you. So buy that ticket and go!

Freddie Wilkinson

*****

Dana "Mad Dog" Drummond and I hit the soon-to-be-paved streets of Chalten on January 16th. With a promising forecast, we quickly repacked and hiked in the next day to the Piedras Negras bivy on the north side of the Fitzroy massif. Following a tip from Colin Haley, we decided to try a new line on the west face of Guillamet that Colin had attempted the week before. After a false start, we finally got going on the right line at 11 AM. The climb went in eleven pitches, with a touch of 5.11 and a few aid moves around iced up cracks. The highlight of the ascent was undoubtedly the final two pitches, where Dana navigated us up the Fissure Mad Dog, a burly offwidth and squeeze chimney system that topped out only fifteen meters south of Guillamet's true summit. On the pitch above Colin's high point, we found a single European-style piton with some sun bleached bail tat tied to it. On the same pitch I noticed a German candy bar rapper, expiration date 1993, wedged into a crack. Perhaps we had joined with Padrijo, the only established route on the face (which was indeed established in 1993) -- Although the topo and photo on climbinginpatagonia.freeservers.com clearly shows Padrijo taking a crack system right of our line. A more likely scenario, given Padrijo's traversing nature is that the team rappelled down our corner system. The last possibility, though the resident experts in Chalten have no record of it, is that this line had received an undocumented ascent or attempt. Anyhow, we've named the line The Lost Men (5.11a, A0, 550 meters) in honor of these unknown soldiers. Perhaps someone out there will read this report and can shed light on the murky historical record.

The weather kept getting better - so Maddog and I packed for the main attraction: Fitzroy, the North Face of course. Our vague plan was to investigate new terrain on near Tehuelche. We left our high camp at 3AM, hoofed it over Paso Quadrado, and dropped down to the base of the face. In the predawn light, we failed to see any compelling lines on the lower face, and ended up following the starting pitches of Theleuche to the Grand Hotel ledge. From here, we followed a chimney system up the prominent headwall right of Tehuelche. This portion of the climb was dripping wet and offered 5.10 adventure climbing at its finest -- with a surprise M5 chockstone pitch at the top. We established about ten new pitches, before joining with the Affanasief Ridge a little before dark. We brewed up, broke out our single sleeping bag and spooned until dawn, then scrambled the final few hundred meters to the summit of Fitzroy, arriving on top at 9:30 AM. Our climb, The Hoser Chimney (5.10 A1 M5), should be considered a minor variation rather than any sort of major new route. Still, we found it remarkable that such a long and complex face could be climbed at such a modest grade. After rappelling Tehuelche in the blistering afternoon sun, we made it back to Piedras Negras at dark. Several days later, Max Hasson and Crystal Davis established another line in the same neighborhood. With an independent start and harder, better climbing, I think their effort produced the finer line.

A week later Mad Dog and I managed an onsight free ascent of the Red Pillar route on Mermoz. A few of the pitches were wet, but the coarse granite still provided enough friction. We found the route lived up to its reputation in terms of quality, though its technical grade is probably closer to Yosemite 5.11+. Potential suitors of this classic should note that we carried a single 70 meter rope, which worked perfectly for descending the anchor bolt equipped line.

Having climbed Guillamet, Mermoz, and Fitzroy, we began to consider linking the three formations in a single skyline traverse. Down in Chalten, we pored over photos on my computer of the gendarmed ridge that connects the summit of Guillamet over Mermoz to the start of the North Pillar of Fitzroy, identifying ledge systems, key rappels, and potential bivy spots. We reckoned we'd need three days to pull of the enchainment - but the weather looked unsettled, with the forecast calling for two short 30 hour spells of high pressure separated by a short wind storm with colder temps. Realizing that our only chance at the link-up was to sit out the unsettled weather somewhere in the middle of the traverse, we decided to go a little heavy on the bivy gear, borrowing a lightweight tent from our buddy Mark Postle. We made up for this extra weight by carrying no pins or bolts, and just one axe and a single pair of aluminum crampons.

The first day we began climbing from Paso Guillamet at 8 AM and linked Guillamet's Brenner Ridge to the West Face of Mermoz. This enchainment is a fun objective in its own right and had been done at least once before. The ridge connecting these two classic trade routes involved many 30 meter rappels and ledge traverses with a few moderate "mountaineering pitches" mixed in. We reached the summit of Mermoz at around 6:30 PM and rather then press on, decided to take extra time to build a protected bivy. As the wind increased that night and an endless line of vaporous freight trains rolled by outside, we were thankful for this decision. The next day we waited until noon for the winds to abate before continuing. Our goal was to reach the base of the North (Casoratto) Pillar in reasonable time to rest and psyche up for climbing Fitzroy the next day. This section of ridge hadn't been traversed before and in many ways seemed like it would be the crux of the link-up. We found lots of committing rappelling, ledge-shuffling, and moderate climbing, but amazingly there were no stopper gendarmes or dead-end slabs. Whenever the route seemed to blank out, an appealing option waited on the other side of the ridge. We reached a talus slope sixty meters above the bloc importado at the start of the North Pillar by 6 PM and excavated another bivy ledge.

Mad Dog and I had divided the leading duties according to our relative strengths: with more alpine routefinding experience, I had lead the ridge traverse from the summit of Guillamet to the start of the North Pillar. The next morning, I unleashed the Dog, who's spent the last two years living in Yosemite, on the splitter cracks of Fitzroy. From my perspective, the next ten hours passed in a blur of wind-sprint jugging, belaying, and fast action gear exchanges. It felt like I was the member of some bizarre alpine pit crew as Maddog short fixed the entire route and delivered us onto the summit of Fitzroy by 5.30 PM. In a word, it was badass.

We had left the our bivy gear at the base of the pillar and were thus committed to rappelling the route. The weather threatened, then our ropes gut stuck and I had to perform a mandatory "mystery jug" to free them. Why do descents always have to be so fucking dramatic in Patagonia? But just when it looked like we were on the verge of a full-blown epic, we reached the bloc and dropped to the lee side of the ridge.

Throughout the day we had watched my girlfriend Janet Bergman and Zack Shlosar successfully climb the Red Pillar. Now, we watched their headlamps as we simultaneously rappelled through the darkness. We touched down on the glacier at the same time, and shared a middle-of-the-night reunion before slogging back through Paso Guillamet and down to Piedras Negras in the spitting rain. Mad Dog and I largely attribute our success to our willingness to carry a comfortable bivy set up. Traditional bivies aren't very stylish these days, but the extra comfort and rest it afforded us on route allowed us to chill out, and then attack.

Summary of Activity:

Aguji Guillamet, The Lost Men (5.11a, A0, 550 meters), new route. Dana Drummond and Freddie Wilkinson, January 18, 2008.

Fitzroy, The Hoser Chimney (5.10 A1 M5 1300 meters), new variation to Tehuelche. Dana Drummond and Freddie Wilkinson, January 21-22nd, 2008.

Aguji Mermoz, The Red Pillar (5.11+, 650 meters), onsight ascent. Dana Drummond and Freddie Wilkinson, January 28th, 2008.

Aguji Guillamet, Aguji Mermoz, and Fitzroy, The Care Bear Traverse (5.11 A0, Grade VI). Dana Drummond and Freddie Wilkinson, February 5-7, 2008.