2011 Turbio-Piritas Expedition Prep

We have been in Bariloche for almost 10 days now, and after getting some great climbing in up at the Frey, we have turned all of our attention to the matter at hand, our upcoming expedition into the remote Turbio IV valley in Northern Patagonia. That and eating as much ice cream as humanly possible.

Home in Bariloche

Yesterday, we did all of the food shopping for the trip, which took all day, having to get things all across town. Luckily for us there are a couple good bulk food shops which were able to supply us with a lot of the items we are accustomed to taking into the backcountry with us. The rest of the day was spent weighing and packing it all, splitting it into 3 separate 8 day resupplys. Our block of cheese weighs more than 7 pounds, and is the perfect size for my alpine-pillow!


Josh weighs flour and watches Everybody Loves Raymond.

You don´t know what you´re missing. FrutiGran is the truth.

Should we take Rack A or Rack B? BOTH!

Ropes are heavy.

In 5 days, Josh and I travel south, to start the long process of getting to the Alpine Shangri-La. We have made contact with the gauchos at the end of the valley who will take us and our gear 50km up river, to where the Turbio IV drainage begins. We will say goodbye to them there, and start hiking loads up to the upper valley, where we hope to explore and climb some of the many mysterious walls that lurk in the hidden canyons for the next 25 days, before descending Rio Turbio in our lightweight packrafts filled to capacity with gear!


See ya´ll in a month!

Saludos Torres del Paine, Bienvenidos Bari-loco!

A lot of time has passed since the last installment of the Patagonia Sufferfest 2010-2011 Series, but not too much has happened. After a cold climb on Peineta, Josh and I waited out 5 more weeks of very windy and wet weather, mostly in the comfort of Erratic Rock´s warm living room. One attempt on Almirante Nieto, and one attempt on the Aste Route on the South Tower, but both days collapsed before much could be done.

So we left Puerto Natales, and just in the nick of time, as the whole region is now completely shut down by a gasoline strike. We arrived to Bariloche quickly and easily, except for getting hassled by The Man at every turn. Besides being extorted for more than $200 in excess baggage fees, almost all of our freeze-dried and dehydrated meals we brought down for the Turbio expedition were confiscated by Argentine Customs.

Once we got here, we did not hesitate to make use of the unbelievable weather, so we packed up our kit and headed into the hills for several days of alpine cragging at the Frey. We were so giddy to go climbing, however, that we forgot about half of the food that we should have brought. Josh had never been there, so we toured some of the classic routes, topping it all off with Descansa en Paz, an amazing arete climb on the Slovenian Tower.

Camponile Esloveno and its little brother

Back in town we have just been hanging out, eating ice cream twice a day, and getting stoked for the Turbio!

Blown Away on La Peineta

It isn´t usual to arrive in Puerto Natales and within a week have a small weather window with which to attempt one of Torres del Paine´s many elusive granite towers, but that is exactly what happened. After being in town for only about 5 days, Josh and I saw a brief opportunity to actually go climbing. Our friend (and Head Logistics Coordinator) from Outward Bound, Caitlin Brown, had decided to take a long weekend from her studies in Santiago to come down and hike in the park; little did she know she would be helping us carry in our tremendous load of gear! While the weather did not look stable enough to go for our main objective on the Central Tower, we took our full kit up to the Valle de Silencio so that we will be ready when it does come. Instead, we set our sights towards a route on La Peineta, a distinct tower accessed from the Silencio, called Durazno para Don Quijote (IV 5.10+ A1 or 5.11c).

Josh scopes the lines on the East Face of Central Tower

After getting a good sleep in our old home, the Italian Cave, we woke at 12.30am on November 27th...MY BIRTHDAY! That´s right, a spell of good weather on my birthday! Is that luck or what?! Anyway, starting from that far down the valley meant we had a very long approach in store for us. About 6 hours later, we were at the base of La Peineta, having just ascended the super-couloir. The wind was slack when we began the couloir ascent, but was begining to pick up as we donned our rock shoes.

Brr.

Beginning the "Red Ramp" pitch

No. 5 Camalot and gloves. Fun times!

The climbing was spectacular, up clean and featured white and red granite. Pitch after pitch of rope stretching splitter cracks led us further up the southwest buttress of Peineta, but the increasing force of the wind, together with the debilitating temperature drop, was beginning to take its toll. Below the 9th pitch, only 2 pitches from the summit, I was unable to warm my toes, which had become cold and wooden. Luckily for us, this is where the rappel line leaves the route and continues down the main corner system, so we hastily organized the rappels.

Having seen no more than a handful of ascents since its FA in 1997, the rap stations were pretty dire, but without too much donation of our own gear, we were able to re-equip the line and safely make it back to our boots which were waiting for us in the sunshine.

North Face of North Tower of Paine

A long descent and march back through the snow got us to the cave at just after 8pm. I can say with assurity that after having been on the move for 19 hours camp to camp, that this is the MOST of any of my birthdays which I have truly experienced!

Thanks to Mom and Dad for giving me this life that I am trying my hardest to live to its fullest.

With nothing but rain on the horizon, Josh and I sit and do what we do best. Wait.

It is hard to believe that I have already been in Argentina for a month, but I have been kept so busy that the time has flown by. Bariloche has treated me very kindly, as have the many friends I have made since first coming here in 2008. A couple of days ago I finished up the last of my spanish courses, and I have been going up to the Frey to climb every weekend. With a ton of snow still up at the Refugio, it has made good training for the 3,000ft couloir approach to the Central Tower which is never far from my mind. My friedn Lissie is traveling here in South America, and she was lucky enough to come up for a visit on the nicest weekend we have had here. We managed to climb 17 fun pitches, and feast on homemade chocolate every night. While climbing the Torre Principal, two magnificent condors came and kept us company, flying within 20 ft of us at times.
I bought an old bike here, and it has been great to pedal around town and along the many lakes.

Tomorrow I leave for the Paine, where I will meet Josh and after reuniting with the crew in Puerto Natales, we will begin preparation to go back into the Valle de Silencio.

Fin del Mundo

Gear is being sorted, bags are being filled and weighed, and carry-ons are being stuffed full of the heaviest items. This can only mean one thing: another season in Patagonia. I leave in a few short days for the Southern Hemisphere, my third trip in as many years. I would have thought that my lesson had been learned by now, but apparently not. There is something seductive and captivating about this land and the people who inhabit it.

So what is going down this year? I leave early to take some Spanish lessons and do some cragging with old friends in Bariloche, waiting for my partner Josh to finish up his relief work in Haiti and join me. Josh and I have some unfinished business with the Central Tower, which shut us down last season. After spending a month in Torres del Paine, hoping for a weather window during that time, we will travel back up north to the bustling little ski town of Bariloche, Argentina which will be our base-camp for the following months. Our plan is to ascend into the Rio Turbio drainage near the Chilean border, spend about one month attempting new routes in the Upper Turbio, and decend back down to civilization using lightweight pack rafts.

We may be spreading ourselves thin with such a varied itinerary, switching objectives so dramatically, but I think that by staying focused on the immediate, we will be rewarded with success. Either way, we can only do so much; we must still be granted passage by the God of Wind in Patagonia, Mwono.

Until the next one... Ryan


The objects of our obsession.

Zodiac Pictorial

Despite our best efforts not to document our early summer ascent of Zodiac (VI 5.8 A3) on El Capitan by not bringing cameras with functional batteries, Tom Evans stepped up and hooked me up with a bunch of really high-quality telephoto shots taken during the climb. Here are some of the best ones.


"Yo Josh! Did you bring your swimsuit?" Waterfall early on the route.

As I said before, and will continue to preach, this route is AMAZING. The line, the exposure, the quality (and cleanliness) of the pitches- it all adds up to make one of the best routes I have ever climbed.




The spectacular Nipple.





Josh tackles the Mark of Zorro pitch.

BEST top-out on El Cap.

Peace.

Evolution Traverse

The days are getting shorter and the nights are getting colder here in the Sierra Nevada, and the cool winds of fall are sending climbers flocking back into the Valley. It has been a great season here, as I just wrapped up another season of instructing for the Outward Bound School, finishing with a string of amazing courses for the OEF/OIF Veterans Program.
I was fortunate to get into the mountains a lot this summer, climbing routes on Temple Crag to the Incredible Hulk- from long ropeless solos to tenuous technical pitches, the Sierras never disappoint.
But it was the Evolution Traverse, the Big Daddy, that overshadowed my whole season. I attempted it first in late July of this year, with my good friend Andy Esparza. Andy had just returned from an incredible bicycle journey through Central America (Click here to Check it Out!), but no amount of cardio endurance could have prepared him for this thing!
The Evolution Traverse hits 9 summits over 13,000 ft, and the elevation chart looks something like an EKG reading with well over 10,000 ft of gain and loss over its 8.5 mile ridge. Long, exposed and demanding, it is not for the faint of heart.
Andy and I had a decent go at it, but heavy packs and route finding issues slowed us down before a nasty weather system forced us to retreat. After a cold bivy on Mount Mendel (13,710), only having completed a meager section of the Traverse, we bailed down one of Mendel's steep western gullys.


Our home for the night on Mendel


This failure gnawed at me for the next two months, and gnawed even more so at my friend Josh, who had been stormed off on his 2nd attempt just a week after ours. While instructing our last OB course together, Josh and I devised a new strategy, and made plans to hike in for one more shot (both of us having vowed never again!).
The hike in over Lamarck Col is brutal, at 10 miles with 3,600 ft of gain. Yet at 4am the next morning we awoke to a cold and starry sky to begin the route. Moving quickly and only using the rope (a 60m Sterling 7.7mm Ice Thong) for one pitch of climbing and 4 rappels, we climbed past Mount Mendel, Darwin, and Peak 13,332 to reach a good bivy site at a small lake near Haeckel col. Josh's prior knowledge of the route past Darwin proved invaluable, and it took us only 11 hours the first day to reach Haeckel Col.



Summit block on Mount Darwin (13,831 ft)

The best part of the Traverse! Flawless golden granite on the way to Mt. Haeckel.

The forecasted wind arrived that night, with gusts of icy wind up to 30mph. This wind dampered our resolve a bit the next morning as it continued, but we pressed on to climb the remainder of the route. With difficult route finding and exposed climbing on Mount Warlow and Huxley, the Traverse does not let up until the very end. Nine hours after leaving our bivy, we were signing the summit register of Mount Huxley, proud of our reconciliation with the route, yet fully aware that we still had a lot of miles to go before we slept!





The Evolution has left me fully depleted, as I am now in serious calorie replenishment mode, but also very excited at the possibilities of more long days in the mountains. For now though, I rack for another trip up El Cap before packing it in for the season in California. Josh and I will return to Patagonia this fall, for another attempt of the Central Tower of Paine, as well as an exciting expedition into the Turbio Valley in Northen Patagonia, where big wall ascents and big river decents await us. Stay tuned!