The New Zealand South American Climbing Expedition 2002

In November 2002, we headed to South America with the dual objective of climbing the Central Tower of Paine in windy old Patagonia and the notorious south face of Aconcagua (6962m).

PatagoniaTowers	South Face of Aconcagua

After cruising down the fiords of the west coast of Chile to the infamous Patagonia we headed into the gob-smacking Torres del Paine National Park. This place has a well deserved reputation for 'pit bashing'- the art of spending days in your sleeping bag because the weather too grim to do much else. We spent 3.5 weeks there and managed to nab two days climbing, one on the North Tower of Paine and one climbing two-thirds of the Central Tower before getting walloped by a good old Patagonian storm. For all the poor weather it was still a magical place to be.

Aconcagua had its own beauty as well, in a harsh, windy, dusty kind of way. We spent four weeks there and climbed the South Face via the French/Messner route. With five days worth of rotten rock, crumbling ice-cliffs and the dreaded penitentes the final analysis was that it was big and mean and ugly!!

A Summer in South America - follows our trip to Patagonia..

Climbing in Torres Del Paine - information to help you plan your trip..

Patagonia-The Kingdom of the Wind - .......

The Forgotten Side of the Zoo - .....

Getting High-South American Style - ......