In November 2012, Oriol Baró and I climbed two new routes, one on Cerro Moyano, the other on Cerro Norte. These two mountains lie between Lago Argentino, Lago Viedma, and the Upsala Glacier in Argentine Patagonia, Los Glaciares National Park. You need a week of stable weather to climb in this very little visited zone, which often has bad weather.

It took us two days from the Estancia Helsingfors to reach our base camp between the two mountains (ca 740m). The next day we climbed the Ruta del Espolón Este (1,900m, MD+) on the east buttress of Cerro Moyano (2,640m). It took us 20 hours round-trip, descending by the same route. After two days of unstable and windy weather, we explored the valley looking for new routes and climbed to the northeast summit of Cerro Norte (2,580m) by its east buttress (1,800m, MD) in 14 hours, descending by the same route. The next day we reached Estancia Helsingfors in one day.

We would like to thank Victor, the ranger in Puesto Moyano, who provided us with information to reach the mountains, gave a jacket to Oriol, and invited us to eat after our climbs.

Editor’s note: The most recent recorded activity on Cerro Moyano and Cerro Norte was in 2009, when German climbers Kautz, Koschitzki, Sass, and Wagner ascended both peaks via new routes [AAJ 2009, 2011]. On Cerro Moyano they climbed an independent route on the north face (D+ WI5) near the first ascent route, the Argentinian Route (Cuinas-Serrano-Vieiro, 1976). On Cerro Norte they climbed the first route on the north face, a long ice ramp (TD WI4+ M5). Other known routes on Cerro Norte include the first ascent route (Skvar-Skvar, 1970) and the icy east face (Ferrari, 1986), among one or two other routes rumored on the east and west aspects. It’s likely that both routes climbed by Baró and Corominas are new.