Aguja Guillaumet (2,579m), west face, Patagonian Werewolfs. Back in Chalten, after all my compatriots from Poincenot had left, I befriended a Brazilian, Marcos Costa. Just before we were due to depart (I had a ticket to Calafate for March 10) there was a short weather window, so we went up and camped at Piedra Negra. Leaving at 3:30 a.m. on the 8th, we reached the west face of Guillaumet at 9:30 a.m. and began climbing an obvious crack system left of Disfrute la Vida (400m, 6b A0, Pitelka-von Birckhahn, 2009).

The rock was good, and our plan was to climb free. We reached two-thirds height, then checking the time, realized that, as we had to be down that day, we needed to accelerate. The remaining third we climbed in a manner best described as “Russian competition style,” using aid in places for speed. The route involved cracks of all sizes, from thin to off-width. When one crack system became impassable, we changed to another, often via a scary traverse on slabs. After 12 pitches we topped out at 7:30 p.m. on the north ridge, left of the summit, and were down to Piedra Negra by 11:30. We named the route Patagonian Werewolfs, because our ascent and descent took place under a full moon.

Sergey Dashkevitch, Russia, supplied by Anna Piunova, www.mountain.ru