Negotiating Ice and Thermals

No one had climbed the route this year so I didn’t know what kind of conditions to expect. Some years it’s perfect, some years not.

Unfortunately time went by and besides a few day trips, we didn’t get much climbing in the entire month. Nevertheless we had a lot of fun and Colin taught me a lot about the area. Spending 3 years of his life in this beautiful mountain range makes him a Patagonia expert. Just before I had to return to Europe, the forecast showed a good but cold weather window. The amount of precipitation predicted still put allow rock climbing out of question, so I decided I needed an alternative plan.

We weighed up our options and decided to climb the Ragni route of Cerro Torre and paraglide from the summit. The absolute king line of Torre, the rime formation (rime ice forms when supercooled water liquid droplets freeze onto surfaces) on this route is just unique. No one had climbed the route this year so I didn’t know what kind of conditions to expect. Some years it’s perfect, some years not. Nevertheless I wanted to take the chance and be part of the first team to reopen the route this year. To reopen a route is always something special, the feeling of being first in those spectacular, surreal places is very unique.

We went up to the summit mushroom before sunrise and enjoyed the breath taking view. To my surprise wind was already pretty gusty and from the wrong direction. Knowing my take-off spot just from pictures which Rolo Garibotti studied with me, I prepared myself.

The take-off was 5m below the summit and more sheltered from the wind. I focussed, intent on making the right decisions. There was a gap in the wind and I prepared to go when a sideways gust blasted. I stopped and adjusted my path. This shortened my acceleration phase but after another 3 steps the ground beneath me was so steep that I was already in the air.

Just off the ground above the 60° snow field before the glider came over the lip, the 1500 vertical meters between me and the ground. I knew the take-off was far from perfect, and my adrenaline was pumping.

So our team assembled. Christophe Ogier, JB Tapie, Mathieu Perrussel, Raphaela Haug, Laura Tiefenthaler and myself. We split into two groups and made sure to arrive a bit earlier than all the other teams at the base. Reopening the route means also a lot of rime cleaning. I was impressed by the amount of rime we had to clean, especially on the headwall – usually an ice pitch, there was about 20cm of rime so that meant a lot of effort cleaning it. We proceeded slow and steady as we took all our gear with us.

After a beautiful but exhausting ascent, as we passed the last summit mushroom it turned out to be too windy to fly off the same day. My focus was on the flight though so I decided to let the other team lead the last pitch and bivouac here instead. Getting up before sunrise next morning would give me the best chance of no thermal activity nor exchange winds.

1500 vertical meters between me and the ground. I knew the take-off was far from perfect, and my adrenaline was pumping.