Patagonia 2015: a ridge traverse to Cerro Torre

Patagonia always reserves some sort of surprise – good or bad, often both – for those who choose to travel there. Luka Lindic was no exception to this rule during his first trip to this extraordinary granite-filled and glaciated destination so coveted by climbers worldwide. Teaming up with fellow countrymen Luka Krajnc and Tadej Krišelj, the initial goal was to establish a new route on Cerro Torre. The weather had other plans in mind. Forced to deviate from their original objective, the trio ended up climbing other spectacular routes and exploring the range, making Luka’s first trip to the area a memorable experience.

Keeping an open mind

Being in Patagonia for the first time I realized that if there's any spot on the planet where you can't really make climbing plans, it's here. Nevertheless, Patagonia is actually the perfect place to learn how to make the most out of short windows of good weather. Since my partner unfortunately could not make the trip due to a paragliding accident, I was more than happy to join Slovenian duo Luka Krajnc and Tadej Krišelj. Their goal of climbing a new route on Cerro Torre was highly motivating, and I was more than ready to "jump on board".

Bad weather 1, alpine style 0

Since style is extremely important to all three of us, there was no real need to discuss how we would climb: no fixed ropes, no ascenders or other similar means that make the climbing easier. A minimalist ascent in alpine style was the only way we could ever imagine climbing a new route, and while we knew that this meant a greater chance of failure, it also meant a more enhanced experience. When I arrived in El Chalten, Luka and Tadej had already made an attempt on the new route, but had to bail due to heavy rains on the first day. They then climbed a great route on the rarely visited Mojon Rojo. In less than a week the three of us were back making an attempt on Cerro Torre. Since the forecasted window of good weather was much shorter than the time we needed to do "our" route, we decided to climb even lighter and to ascend the first part of the route at night. We made great progress but soon realized that our strategy would not work out with the short time window and conditions we faced. Somewhat disappointed, we rappelled from our high point and hiked back out to El Chalten the next day.

Optimism on the Exocet route

Since the temperatures seemed too low to rock climb, we decided to try the classic Excocet on Aguja Standhardt. When we reached Col Standhardt at first light, it was much warmer than expected, but we hoped that the crux ice chimney wouold still be climbable. Beneath the pitches of ice, we met an American team that had just started rappelling due to the dangerously warm conditions. We were a bit more optimistic and climbed another three pitches up the chimney when we finally came to the conclusion that it would be too dangerous to continue due the increasingly steady stream of falling rock and ice. Totally wet we made yet another retreat. It seemed as if nothing was going right for us so far on this trip, but we remained optimistic and open-minded to other options.

A fantastic traverse

One idea came to us towards the end of our trip, when staying at Niponino camp. Due to unstable weather we decided to make the long traverse of the Adelas peaks, and then finish via the Ragni route on Cerro Torre. We estimated that this itinerary would allow us to progress even in poor weather, and we were right. In the afternoon we started from Niponino camp and scrambled to the plateau beneath Col Trento. Late that evening we broke trail through deep snow, which turned out to be a bit scary due to the wind slabs that had formed here and here. We found a good bivy spot underneath a small serac just below the col. After only four hours of rest we continued to Adela Sur. We then traversed in great conditions along the ridge over Adela Central and Adela Norte. The crux of this part was, as expected, the descent from Adela Sur, where we had to navigate around giant snow mushrooms to the Col de la Esperanza. From the pass we climbed to El Elmo, which provided us with a perfect spot on the Ragni route to dig a snow cave and to bivy. We crossed paths with Carolina and Christina, who subsequently made the first female ascent of the Ragni route.

The snow cave turned out to be a great idea since we had no tent and five centimeters of new snow fell during the night. The next day we were able to continue our ascent, with great ice all the way to the summit of Cerro Torre. We rappelled down southeast ridge where we met Mark, who was also descending after making an impressive solo ascent of the Corkscrew link-up. We spent the night together in the crevasse at Col de la Paciencia, and the next day descended all the way back to El Chalten. We finished our trip with a totally different climb than originally planned. The views from the Adela ridge were breathtaking, and climbing the crazy ice formations on the Ragni route simply a fantastic experience. In the end, we can´t really complain.