In late November 2008 Bernd Rathmayer and I traveled to Chile’s Torres del Brujo, north of Patagonia, to find virgin rock. After several days of travel with horses and mules, we installed base camp at the foot of these great granite walls for three weeks. Because of the excellent rock and consistent good weather, we opened four new routes, all in alpine style and, with one exception, without bolts [see topos at aaj.americanalpineclub.org]:

-Linea de los Suenos Sueltos (470m, 13 pitches, 6b A3), Torre Grande. A beautiful line, but with loose rock in the first seven pitches, it climbs the obvious first large, straight crack system right of the Gandalf route, with a dangerous start due to serac exposure. Descend by 60m rappels.

-Un Mantra para Machos (400m, 6 pitches + scrambling, 5.12b), on Torre 3. A beautiful line, on often perfect granite, and with an awesome fist crack in the middle. Upper pitches sometimes blocky, but good rock on the crux pitch. It’s the first good line right of the huge dihedral. Some serac danger on the glacier approach. Rappel descent, max 63m but 60m ropes will work.

-Deceleracion (430m [250m climbing], 7 pitches plus scrambling, 6c+), on Torre Universidad. Superb route, excellent rock, good intro to the area. Begins in rounded dihedrals just right of Un Rato Para Maltrato. Descend by scrambling north to below a col, then continue easily to 65m above the snowfield and rappel (60m) from jammed blocks.

-Ahab (320m [200m climbing], 6 pitches plus scrambling, 7b), on Torre Universidad. Begins 50m above Deceleration. Same descent as Deceleration.