Fitz Roy, El Flaco con Domingo. On January 26,2008, I met Crystal Davis-Robbins; we were both without partners, and the weather continued to blow everyone’s mind. I felt like I needed more rest, but there was no time for that.

We ran into Freddie Wilkinson and Dana Drummond on the hike up; they had just climbed the face that we were interested in, via the bottom half of Tehuelche and a new path to the summit ridge. The crux involved a mixed chimney that we hoped to avoid. Preferably we could find dry rock that would yield some quality free-climbing.

After scoping from the base, we started from a horizontal snow bench below and maybe 800' right of Tehuelche’s landmark leaning spire. I led off the snow and found great cracks, followed by a bit of kitty litter and then a broad face with sporadic features. Our sixth pitch took a lot of my energy, as it traversed a ropelength to the left, toward Tehuelche. A few more pitches up a corner I found a good ledge for eating lunch and transferring the lead. Due to a surprisingly bulky backpack, the second jumared most of the climb. After three more pitches, while jugging I spotted a bolt to our left: we had found Tehuelche. Easier ground and simul-climbing on Tehuelche got us to the Gran Hotel, the ledge system that breaks the wall in half. We’d climbed about 15 long pitches. We slogged up dry talus to the apex of this ledge and found improved bivy spots and a wedge of icy snow for making water. The impressive Diedro di Marco (Tehuelche’s notorious off-width) shot directly above us; the sun’s rays transform this feature into a funnel for water and rock.

In the morning we climbed a right-facing crack system capped by an imposing roof. We later learned that Freddie and Dana had climbed a left-facing corner to the right (our corner and theirs basically form a big stem box, about 50' wide at its base). Our routes met at the roof, which turned out to be well-featured and relatively easy, and then shared maybe 20'-30' to the belay. Crystal led four spectacular pitches up to this point, and where the boys headed right toward their namesake chimney, Crystal went left around the corner and onto a small headwall. We switched leads one last time, and I climbed fun cracks with awesome exposure until they petered out, forcing me left onto easier ground. Ten pitches off the Gran Hotel I crested the ridge and found signs of the Afanasieff route. Since we planned to rappel Tehuelche, we ditched the pack and simuled to the summit for a memorable sunset.

Darkness was coming, and the wind was picking up, so we started a long night of rappels that got us back to the bivy just before daybreak. The lower half went much faster in the sunlight, and after a long slog back to camp we gorged on pasta and slept well into the next day.

El Flaco con Domingo (1,500m [1,000m new], VI 5.11).

Max Hasson, AAC