The Beginning

How would you like to climb in an unexplored area of Patagonia? This was the question posed to me in the summer of 1999 by Gary Perless, a Spanish and science teacher from Seattle. Images of snow-capped spires, such as Cerro Torre, appeared before my eyes. But it turned out that Gary had something a little different in mind. On one of his many previous visits to Chile, he was backpacking in Hornopieren National Park, just a short distance from Puerto Montt in central Patagonia. From a peak climbed on this backpack, Gary observed an area of snow- covered glaciated peaks in the distance. When he returned home, he studied maps and climbing literature and could find no record of these peaks having ever been climbed. So the idea of an exploratory climbing trip was born.

Patagonia

Most people think of Patagonia as a wet, windy place somewhere near the tip of South America. But it is much more than that. Patagonia is a vast area, which includes the southern part of both Chile and Argentina and extends more than 1000 miles from north to south. The Andes, which run through most of South America, end at the Patagonia Icecap - the world's 3rd largest mass of ice after Antarctica and Greenland. In the far south are found some of the most spectacular mountains in the world. Cerro Torre, a 5000-ft rock spire capped by an awesome snow mushroom, used to be considered the most difficult mountain in the world to climb. Nearby is Fitz Roy, even higher than Cerro Torre, flanked by magnificent vertical rock towers. Still further south, Torres del Paine is one of the most popular trekking destinations in the world. The Chilean portion of Patagonia is narrow, never wider than 100 miles, and is very sparsely populated. Below Puerto Montt, only a single gravel road winds south, and after following it for 400 miles to its end, another 600 miles remain to reach the Chilean tip. To continue south, one must fly, go by boat, or cut east into Argentina where roads do exist in the more desert like climate east of the Andes.

Our destination was in central Patagonia just a short distance away from Puerto Montt, a city of 100,000 which marks the end of the Pan American Highway. Settlers of European descent involved in fishing, farming, and livestock have occupied the valleys near our climbing objective for 70 years. We would be going through their "backyards" as we approached the mountains.

Planning

Our team of 5 met in Puerto Montt on 12 Jan 2000. Gary, an Outward Bound instructor when he is not teaching school, had gathered together a collection of friends with whom he had climbed with over the years. I met Gary many years ago in the Sierra and we since have climbed in the Alps together. Randy Earlywine and Daniel Collins are climbing friends from Seattle while Susan Detweiler is a NOLS instructor who had climbed with Gary in the Rockies. .

We brought equipment for snow camping and glacier travel and a small amount of rock gear. A huge shopping trip to a world class supermarket in Puerto Montt supplemented our food from home. Although we did not plan an alpine style trip, we were careful about weight since everything hed to be carried.

The Expedition would consist of 3 parts. The first stage was the approach from Puerto Montt: up the Rio Puelo and Rio Traidor valleys to a basecamp directly below the peaks. The second part was to find a route through the brush and cliffs of the Rio Traidor Valley to the glaciers above, and to haul up the appropriate gear. The third and final stage would be to climb as many peaks as we could, including the high point of the area.

The Approach

We hired a truck to transport ourselves and gear to Puelo, a small village on the Rio Puelo. From Puelo, we used a smell ferry to cross the river, a truck to reach Lake Tagua Tagua and a boat to travel across this lake and upstream along the Rio Puelo to the confluence with the Rio Traidor. Negotiation for these services was done in Spanish by Gary on the spot; we had not made any advance arrangements. Two days later, with the help of Rudy and his horses from a nearby farm, we arrived at our basecamp called "River Camp" at an elevation of 1050 feet, directly below and north of our objective.

Reconnaissance and Bushwack

We anticipated the crux of the climb to be finding a route up the steep brush and bamboo cliffs separating us from the glaciers more than 3000 feet above. Leaving our gear in camp, we set out early the next day and followed a cow path from a nearby farmhouse up a ridge. We soon ran into cliffs and thick brush and separated into 2 groups keeping contact with our small radios. Randy and I slowly worked our way up a convoluted route to a gully leading to a saddle overlooking a beautiful lake. This was on our map and had been a potential campspot in our planning meetings. Amazingly, although this lake was only about 1 mile from the farmhouse, the local people had never seen it. The lake was below us and although we could have descended to it, further progress past the lake was not possible due to cliff bands on both sides dropping directly into the water. Randy and I continued south above the western side of the lake. 15 minutes later we came upon a ledge, which gave the appearance of being carved out of the mountain. Named "Mining Road Camp", this would be an ideal campsite when we brought our loads up the mountain. Another 30 minutes of following this "road" around the corner led to our first view of the glaciers and high peaks beyond. It was getting late so after enjoying the view, we headed back to join our friends. They had reached the saddle above the lake by a different route and we decided to follow their route back. After awhile, we branched off and explored new territory on our descent to camp working our way around cliff bands and through standing forests of burned trees. Finally, after more than 13 hours, we arrived back at camp. Though we had managed to fight through the brush, we had not found a route suitable for carrying big packs.

The following day was a rest day but we were still quite active. Randy volunteered to do some more route-finding exploration while the group organized gear and food for moving above basecamp. We had about 400 lbs. of gear to move up including food for 12 days, rock gear, glacier gear, cameras, a video camera and all our personal stuff. It would take us 2 carries. Randy came back smiling - he had connected with the upper mountain and had marked a trail!

2 days later we had all our gear at Mining Road Camp. Relieved that the extremely strenuous bushwack with packs was over, we awoke to ½ inch of fresh snow on the ground. It soon melted and we spent the remainder of the day doing another reconnaissance to find a route to the glacier. The following day we carried a load onto the glacier and after negotiating tricky crevasse fields, set up a camp called "Glacier Camp" on a relatively flat snowfield. Finally, we were in a good position to attempt several peaks.

The Climbs

The weather had been unsettled so far but had not slowed us down. We had experienced some rain and light snow. We made our 2nd carry to Glacier Camp in very bad visibility but then awoke to a beautiful day with not a cloud in the sky! After roping up, we headed west winding our way around big crevasses with our sights set on Peak 2186, (named after the elevation in meters), just above our camp. We climbed several rock bumps on the ridge as we cramponed up towards a rocky summit block. The final 200 feet involved steep 4th class climbing. There was no place for protection and using a rope was not advisable because of all the loose rock. But we found a reasonable route and soon were on our first summit.

The following day, we climbed 2 more peaks to the east, having an easier approach without crampons, but the summit blocks were harder still. The problem was the same - no protection on steep 4th class loose rock. From these summits, we could see the high point of the range (Peak 2342) far to the south which would necessitate moving camp to have a chance for the summit. We worked our way down the glacier, climbing through some seracs by-passing the harder parts of the glacier. We named our 4th camp "Turquoise Camp" after the striking color of the lake. The late afternoon was spent scouting a route through the cliff bands above camp. The following day, soft snow slowed us down near the top. A rock gully led to a long ridge where we easily climbed a subsidiary peak. But the high point was still not reachable. Susan and I descended south from the ridge, found a steep rock and ice gully on the backside, and 2 hours later reached the summit after doing the toughest climbing of the trip. There we were hit with unexpected strong winds, since the ice gully had been somewhat sheltered. We descended, regrouped and quickly headed down in deteriorating weather and whiteout conditions. Luckily our tracks were still visible, as were the wands we had placed on the way up. By the time we reached camp, it had started to rain. This was another 13-hour day.

We cooked in our tents as the weather got worse. The winds picked up causing us to reinforce the tents to keep them from blowing away. Wind gusts exceeded 50 mph as it rained and blew for 40 straight hours. Finally, the rain stopped allowing us to gather up our wet gear and work our way back to Glacier Camp. We packed up that camp, as well, and moved east onto a rocky ridge seeking a more sheltered spot. But not enough shelter as the storm returned in force and continued all night. The high winds and heavy rain made it impossible to stay dry. The following day we once again packed up and carried all our gear back to Mining Road Camp in better weather. Conditions were good enough that we climbed 2 more small peaks en route. But the good weather was short lived. After a rest day, we did a 6-hour descent with very heavy packs back to River Camp in continous rain.

Back to Civilization

The climbing portion of our trip was over. The horses were late at River Camp. Heavy rains had caused the river to rise sufficiently to isolate us from the valleys downstream. When the rain finally stopped Rudy and the horses arrived only 1 day late. After a long day's hike, we camped on Rudy's farm and negotiated for a welcomed home cooked dinner and breakfast. We retraced our steps to Puerto Montt via boat, truck and bus. The group separated here after having had a great adventure together. We all had different schedules and plans before returning home.

More Patagonia

I flew to Punta Arenas the following day where I met my wife Rena Tishman to start on the 2nd half of our trip. We would spend the next 5 weeks exploring other parts of Patagonia. Highlights included a 9-day self-contained trek in Torres del Paine. The good weather we had there made up for some of the discomfort on the climb. We had only a little drizzle in the 9 days and didn't even get our boots wet. Unheard of conditions for Patagonia! We also visited Argentinean Patagonia and camped near Cerro Torre and Fitz Roy. Here we experienced some of the most beautiful mountain scenery anywhere in the world. We also spent time in Puerto Williams, the most southerly city in the world. Further north, we visited the Patagonia Lake District centered around Baraloche, a winter and summer destination for travelers from all over the world. 5 days in Buenos Aires watching Tango dancing and a short hop to Colonia, an old Portuguese fort in Uruguay was a great ending to the trip.

Summary Thoughts

Our team was very pleased with our success. We were thrilled to find an area still undiscovered which for me was a new and exciting experience. We climbed several peaks including the high point of the area. Fourth class climbs on loose rock are not written up in Climbing Magazine but we found the entire process to be interesting and challenging. We received monetary support for the trip from two Organizations. We are greatful toThe Southern California Mountaineering Association (SCMA) who presented me with the SCMA Founders Award and Outward Bound, from whom Gary received some financial support. There are many more areas similar to this in central Patagonia which are ripe for exploration.