You stay classy Patagonia!

 After feeling my neck and shoulders being torn apart from my rucksack shoulder straps, due to carrying yet another hefty load, I’m unsure whether I’m happy or sad that I won’t be walking into these hills again… We’ve been very un-fortunate with the weather in Patagonia this season, but nevertheless it’s been an amazing trip that I won’t forget. The scenery here is absolutely breath taking. It, sometimes, takes your mind away from the big walk ins and heavy bags. We didn’t get any of the big ticks we were hoping for, but I’m just so grateful that I got the chance to come and see these mountains that I’ve heard so much about.

Ben & Myself at the Paso Superior col.
Photo - Calum Muskett

East face of Aguja Mermoz & Aguja Guillaumet.
Photo - Calum Muskett 

Over the past two weeks we’ve been into the mountains twice and had to retreat from the same spot on both occasions. Which was quite hard to swallow. Last week we all headed up to Paso superior. We aimed to camp at the col itself, but when we arrived at the bottom of the large glacier slope you have to climb to reach the col. It was already way too hot to safely walk up it. So instead we camped down next to the lake. This meant an extra 1.5hrs walk up in the morning, which is something we later regretted due to it soaking up a lot of our energy. The morning we headed up was absolutely stunning. There was a full moon out that lighted the way ahead for of us, no wind and quite a cool air. At this point last week Dave and Calum were trying to decided whether to go free climbing on Poincenot or mixed climbing on Mermoz. When we reached the basin below the Fitz Roy massif, they had to make their choice. They went for Mermoz as things were a bit cold and snowy. We all headed over to the base of Mermoz. The plan was that Dave & Calum would go for a new line. Whilst Ben & myself would head up Jardines Japoneses. A route to the right of their line that climbs a gully and would exit just above their proposed line. Then Ben and I would abb in from above them to get some footage of they guys climbing.

Myself & Ben walking into Mermoz.
Photo - Calum Muskett

Ben seconding the 2nd (loose) pitch on Jardies Japoneses.
Photo - Ally Swinton

When we reached the base of our route it was around 8am, and already the sun was feeling pretty strong. The snow that had fallen the night before was already starting to feel quite soft and sticky. I lead over the bergshrund and did a small rock pitch diagonally up rightwards, and then I brought Ben up. I lead another pitch out right over this very loose terrain, that had some big blocks that weren’t attached by much. When I reached the next belay I was starting to get showered by snow & ice that was being melted from high up on the face above us. Once Ben came over to the belay, more snow & ice was fallen down on us. Straight away we knew this wasn’t a great place to be. We decided the safest thing to do was get out of there. So we traversed back out and made two raps back down. Once we were back down at the bottom, we had a look around to see if we could salvage the day, but the problem was that to access all the routes you have to climb up steep snow slopes. Which is not the most ideal thing to do in the heat of the day. We watched Dave & Cal on their route. It looked a lot harder now that I could see someone on the line to give a sense of scale. Unfortunately they didn’t manage to finish of their line due to a lack of gear to be able to climb the final pitch safely, so they chose to bail also and would aim to come back for it later. After watching them and get some footage of them from a far, we decided just to head back down to the lake. This was the first hard piece of bailing we had to chew on…

Room for the night.
Photo - Ben Winston

The next week we all decided to go for round two on the Mermoz. The weather was a lot colder and snowier. This gave us a lot more hope for getting up some mixed route safely. This also allowed for a safe hike up to Paso Superiour where we put our tent up for the night. The weather looked very gloomy over the mountains when we climbed into our tent. Then not long after zipping the door up and climbing into the sleeping bags the snow started to lie upon the skin of the tent. We woke the next morning to find it was still snowing. We roped up and headed across the basin to Mermoz. By this time we were breaking through 8 inches of fresh powder. All I could think of was skiing the stuff. Not many words were spoken whilst we geared up. We decided to go for the same tactics again. Dave & Cal were going to finish of their line, whilst Ben & myself climb around and above them. I tied onto the end of a rope and started breaking trail up the approach slope. I just crossed the bergshrund when I heard them 3 shouting up to me. They were concerned about the amount of snow that was now pouring down the faces we’d be climbing up. I was amazed at the timing in which they decided to bring this concern into discussion! So now I had to down climb back down over the bergshrund, which wasn’t helped by the heckles from them lot telling me just to jump the thing. That wasn’t happening unless I was on skis. I fucking hate bergshrunds! After joining them lot back at the bottom of the slope we decided that it’s probably not the wisest thing to do. We knew the sun was going to come out a bit later on, but that wouldn’t help matters at all. There would be all this fresh snow above us that would be getting warmed up in the sun and would eventually slide down onto us. Dave decided to head back to Paso whilst Ben, Calum and myself tried to salvage the day by doing some photo shoot stuff for Rab.

Think I might need to work on my technique!
Photo - Ben Winston

Walking away from Mermoz this time was an even bigger bit of  meat to chew and swallow. As we knew that this would be our last venture into these mountains on this trip. It was sad and hard to walk away but even when we got back to Paso Superiour there were a lot of people who had bailed from their objectives due to too much snow. Which does give some sort of comfort in a selfish kind of way. 

Climbing up the slopes to the base of Mermoz.
Photo - Ben Winston

I’d like to say a huge thank you to Rab, otherwise there was no way I would have been here. They have helped me out so much over the past 3 years that I've been with them. They've allowed me to visit some of the coolest places I’ve been to. I’d also like to say a big thank you to Zamberlan for helping Ben, Calum & myself out with footwear for this trip. Also a big thanks goes to Cliffbar & Extreme adventure foods for suppling the team with bars and dehydrated meals to keep us fuelled in the hills.

Extreme Adventure foods.

I would most definitely come back to Patagonia. Everyone is so lovely here and very welcoming, and there is just so much to do. If and when I do return I think I'd either come for a few months, to allow for many weather windows in case the weather was bad. Or I would keep an eye on the weather from back home and if the season looked like it was going well I'd book last minute flights. Which could be a bit more expensive, but could prove to be a more productive trip. 

Ben making sure he gets a sufficient protein intake.

I’ve learnt a lot from this trip, from the mountains, the people I’ve been here with and the folk I met along the way. We finished of the end of the trip with the un-finished business we had with the chocolateria, waffleria and the steak house.

Beautiful Alfajores from the legendary La Chocolateria