“You should come have dinner with my brother, John. He’s done some climbing,” Rick Evans said in a meeting one day. My brain didn’t make the connection between this guy who had “done some climbing” and the John Evans who was a hero of mine sinc...
Helmut Fritz Beckey, known as Helmy, was born in Seattle and died in Munich, Germany, at age 93. In his youth, he established first ascents and new routes throughout the Cascades and elsewhere. Helmy learned the basics of climbing as a member of ...
Hansjörg Auer was born February 18, 1984, and was raised on his family’s alpine farm in the Ötztal valley of Tirol, Austria. He grew up in an environment where climbing came naturally. Before he’d even reached the age of ten, he’d already su...
Max Didier (Chile), Austin Siadak, Ian Siadak (both USA), and I had met the year before in El Chaltén and talked about doing an expedition together. In February 2020, it happened: We got ambitious, formed a team of friends, and set out to explore ...
On January 18, 2020, Marine Israel (France), Jeffrey Buckley, August Uribe, and Oscar Uribe (USA), and I departed via the maritime vessel Alakush from Caleta María (Azopardo Bay) in Chile, headed for the eastern Cordillera Darwin. We sailed southw...
Sundance: Second Ascent and First Free Ascent Upon arrival in Cochamó in December 2019, I partnered up with local climber Diego Diazaguilera. Talking about potential climbs to free, he pointed out the route Sundance, which goes up the northwest f...
Dana Hawlish climbing the Cosmic Corner (5.12-) of La Pluma del Cóndor on Cerro Laguna. Brandon Hill In February, on a rainy day in Valle Trinidad, Billy Barghahn, Dana Hawlish, and I set out to look for a new line on this valley’s seldom-cli...
Cerro Picacho (1,883m, 44°54' 32.5"S, 72° 13' 11.8", labeled incorrectly as Cerro Puntiagudo on the IGM map) rises above dense forests along the Carretera Austral highway between Mañihuales and Villa Amengual. On January 31, 2019, Armando Montero ...
In the austral winter of 2016, I worked as a caretaker on a remote ranch in the Colonia Valley, outside of Cochrane. On bluebird days, I’d walk to the shores of Lago Colonia and look across at the Northern Patagonian Icefield. Cerro Arenales domin...
Our expedition to the Northern Patagonian Icefield in Chile’s Aysén region was comprised of a team of five: two French (Norbert Talazac and Pierrick Saint Martin) and three Argentines (Bruno Falco, Juan Falco, and Marcos Goldin). We put aside a mo...
During 2019, three different expeditions achieved new routes in the interesting climbing zone of Sosneado, located on the east flank of Cerro de los Pantanos, southeast of Cerro el Palomo (4,850m), along the Chile-Argentina border. Together, there...
Nico Favresse and I came to El Chaltén this past season without a plan. Other climbers, seemingly discontent with this explanation, would ask, “Are you keeping it a secret?” It seems to be in vogue to have a big project and focus all of your ene...
I left Italy at the end of January 2020 with two longtime partners, Matteo Bernasconi and Matteo Pasquetto, heading south for an annual visit to the mountains that, for me, are simply the most beautiful in the world. We had a clear goal in mind: a...
Luka Lindič (Slovenia) and I arrived in El Chaltén in the middle of January and planned for a six-week visit. Since we’d both visited Patagonia a few times, we knew there was no point in having fixed goals, as Mother Nature sets the rules anyways....
From October 21–27, Argentines Ezequiel Dassie and Glauco Muratti made the first ascent of an interesting 5,000m peak in the remote northern section of the Cordón del Potrero Escondido. They began the expedition in Penitentes, at 2,400m on the ro...
Cerro de la Ramada (6,384m) had just two routes (both from the north via the Rio Colorado) prior to my ascent over March 24–26, 2019. The mountain is located in a glacial cirque about 10km southeast of Cerro Mercedario (6,720m) and about 100km nor...
This was the fourth consecutive season with fairly poor weather and conditions. After several anomalously dry seasons in a row, when climbing success in this area was quite straightforward, it has come as a bit of a shock to go back to the Patagon...
Starting in late October, the French climbers Laurent Bibolet, Antoine Cayrol, Emmanuel Chance, Merhal Desay, Gaylord Dugué, Julien Ravanello, and David Vigouroux made a 26-day expedition to the Cordillera de Darwin. Using the sailboat Podorange a...
Cerro Puño (2,108m) is an attractive summit at the top of the Colonia Valley, on the eastern flank of the Northern Patagonian Icefield (Campo de Hielo Norte). Puño Este (ca 2,050m), the eastern summit of the Puño massif, has been climbed by previo...
A few years ago, I took a picture of the south face of Volcán Palpana (6,023m). It was a distant photo in which no details were distinguished other than its verticality. This is something unusual in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile, where the ...