Mateo Esposito (Canada) and I established a new route on the north face of Aguja Poincenot between January 17 and 20, 2023. [Editor’s Note: The 2023 route begins left of Old Smuggler, crossing it at a ledge system at mid-height (where that route jogs left and then up). It then climbs independently up a wide-crack system between Old Smuggler and 40° Grupo Ragni.] In the early hours of January 17, we left from Niponino Camp equipped with a free climbing rack, bivy kit, and three and half days of food. We made our way up the Poincenot couloir and then climbed 150m to our first bivouac via a direct line of impeccable hand cracks.

After a relaxed breakfast on day two, we climbed another 150m through steep chimneys and offwidths to our second bivy, where we went to bed early.

Day three was to be our biggest. We climbed 300m through beautiful cracks of all sizes. At one point, we had to complete a hard-to-protect face climbing pitch in order to transition into another crack system. Higher up, we did another traverse, this time through powerful underclings, to reach the final chimney. We arrived at the top of the wall around 8 p.m. and continued up the summit ridge until dark.

On our last day, we scrambled to the summit at sunrise and immediately started down toward the south face. We took a wrong turn while descending Judgement Day and ended up in Historia Interminable’s waterfall. As is tradition in these mountains, our ropes got stuck. In order to free them, Mateo heroically aided back up, soaked. After a quick change into dry clothes and a hot drink, we finished our descent at approximately 9 p.m. on January 20. We called our route The Power of Independent Trucking (600m, ED- 5.9+).

— Ripley Boulianne, Canada

FREE ASCENT OF OLD SMUGGLER

On the north face of Aguja Poincenot, Naoki Komine and Keisuke Ohkura from Japan free climbed Old Smuggler (600m, 6a+ C1, Crouch-Donini, 1996). The conditions were quite poor, with a lot of ice in the cracks, but they managed to onsight every pitch, finding difficulties to 5.11. They descended east via Patagónicos Desesperados. The southwest face of Poincenot continues to shed debris, causing rockfall that threatens the Polacos Camp and the approaches to the west faces of Rafael Juárez and Saint-Exupery. — Rolando Garibotti