A Summer in South America

Published in NZ Climber Issue 44 Winter 2003

After a childhood of far too many British expedition books, the idea of heading off by ocean liner to climb in exotic, foreign locales has always had a misty eyed, romantic appeal. Images of Bonnington and Whillans flouncing around the on-board stateroom in drag, on the way to the ends of the earth, to climb fantastic routes with a stiff upper lip and a fag hanging from the corner of the mouth seem to belong to a recent, but already bygone era. While over-boiled cabbage and a greasy chops didn't quite fit with my idyllic notions, cruising south through the Chilean fiords on the good ship Magellan did turn out to be a fantastic way to start a South American climbing trip, particularly as first on the hit list was the Bonnington/Whillans route on the Central Tower of Paine.

The many tales of Patagonian hardship hadn't quite prepared us for a sun-dappled basecamp in beautiful open beech forest with its own babbling brook, the Rio Ascensio. Neither had they prepared us for bagging the North Tower almost as soon as we arrived but at least the wind was beginning to live up to it's ferocious reputation, or at least we thought so at the time. From the pool table sized summit, the route on the Central Tower looked superb and we were feeling cocky! A week later we found ourselves in a cold bivy between the two Towers having used the all too rare good weather to get there. A largely incoherent, 4am conversation regarding the virtues of ignoring blatant weather warning signs, saw the barometer heading down as we headed up, on cold but sensational rock. A fantastic combination of aid and free climbing led us to the top of the famous dihedrals two thirds of the way up the route. Most of the hard climbing was behind us when the meteorological chickens came home to roost. This was the wind of the legends. A somewhat epic descent in a bona fide Patagonian storm led us back to basecamp with frost nip and a broken toe. The weather didn't clear again until we were heading back north to Santiago, giving us a crystal clear view as we flew over the Towers on a picture postcard day.

Next it was off to the beautiful Argentine city of Mendoza for a dose of café culture. With plenty of wine and enormous steaks under our belts we headed off to the main event of the trip, the South Face of Cerro Aconcagua (6962m). This is a colossal wall on the abandoned side of the ridiculously popular peak. With 2800m of unbelievably bad rock, icecliffs, stonefall and avalanches the face has an air of general nastiness. You can't escape the fun at basecamp either. Plaza Francia, is a bleak, dusty place to hang out, but with a bit of kiwi ingenuity, a liberal dose of general laziness, a sense of humour in the face of the clouds of red dust, and a bottle of Glennfiddich, we managed to bide our time. It took three weeks of acclimatizing at basecamp, going up high on the normal route and waiting for weather before we got to have a crack at the wall. The safest route on the face was straight up the middle starting up the Slovenian variation, linking onto the French route before finishing up the Messner variation. It proved to be a very long, committing and scary undertaking and with fresh snow low down slowing us up a little, we summitted on the night of the fifth day somewhat shell-shocked and keen to go home. At least the descent was little more than a stumble down the scree. Jo ended up flying out from Plaza de Mulas, the normal route basecamp, with a frostbitten toe while I staggered down the valley dreaming of greenery, fine wine and good food. Its great to have been on one of the bigger mountain walls in the world but it's not a route we would recommend for those looking for a relaxing climbing holiday!