South America, Argentina and Chile, Southern Patagonia, Cerro Torre, Spiral Route

Publication Year: 2009.

Aguja Guillaumet, Rayo de Luz and Disfrute de la Vida. Michal Pitelka (Czech) and I climbed two new routes on the west face of Guillaumet. On December 31,2008, and January 1,2009, on the right side of the face we established Rayo de Luz (450m, 11 pitches, 6b A1 ). It follows an obvious straight-up crack system in the steepest part of the right side of the wall. The route starts 50m right of Padrijo. Then on January 11-12 we did Disfrute de la Vida (550m, 13 pitches plus snow, 6b A0), which starts on the left side of the face, just right of the huge roofs near the ground. We placed three bolts to link cracks. On both routes we left bolted rappel anchors and slings for an easy descent. The rock on both lines is solid and compact.

Carsten von Birckhahn, Switzerland