In early 2016, JB Haab and I opened a new route on the Wall of Patience ground-up, calling it Iron Skirt. This wall is located on the left side of the Anfiteatro, downstream of the route Al Centro y Adentro (AAJ 2012) on Atardecer; I don’t think anyone had looked at it in years, but it was known to have at least one unfinished “open project,” according to a topo left at the refugio. We chose our route based on a prominent line of vertical forest, which in Cochamó indicates there are cracks. On the first ascent, the grade was 5.11 R A2+ J2+ (J for jungle).

JB needed to return to the USA after this; however, I stayed to clean our route and work on a free ascent. Two and a half weeks after JB and I first climbed the route, I was able to free the first six pitches, with difficulties to 5.12-. The seventh and eighth pitches involved complicated mixed free and aid climbing (A2). Above this is a 200m blank slab leading to the very top of the formation, which I may try to climb in the future.

– Cooper Varney, USA