Cerro Torre, finally!!
So little had been missing and we would have been on Cerro Torre last year! But just, we were not on top. I knew exactly that it is just not the same as in the summer. Nevertheless, I really wanted to go up there in winter.
That's when the phone call from Stephan Siegrist came just in time. Thomas Huber and he would be flying to Patagonia for the winter in two weeks." Would I like to come along?". Of course I was motivated. But the time of July and August was not exactly ideal, because as a mountain guide in this time is peak season. I decided to go anyway.
There was already a window of good weather before our departure. And then it was not surprising that the day after our arrival we already started towards Cerro Torre. "After all, jet lag goes away faster when you're outside!". So off we went!
After two days we were at the foot of the west wall on the back side of the Torre. Until there, everything had gone smoothly. But then our luck turned. A non-functioning satellite phone annoyed Thomas so much that he had not fixed his helmet out of carelessness and it was already gone. The form of the helmet is not exactly so that it stops then immediately. He flew and rolled down to the glacier! Now we had to look for the first time that not everything went out of control.
Thomas went to look for his helmet. Steph and I made a material transport and Tibo set up our bivouac. About two hours later everyone was back in the bivouac. Thomas with helmet again!
We didn't sleep well anyway. But then we were definitely awakened by loud shouting and screaming. There were other climbers on the way. And this loudly! The Chileans had of course easy game, because in our track they could climb without effort. When they then climbed past us, we thought that they would now look for the way in front and make a trail. Wrongly hoped. Because as soon as our track was ready, they sat down and waited for us. We passed by and were also glad that there was no one in front of us to throw anything down. The big problem was that it didn't start getting light until 9 o'clock. Fortunately, not much had changed from last year, this made finding the route easier. The first difficult pitch on the "Helm" was quickly climbed. And then it was off to the headwall. It is always amazing how small we are in this environment. Hundreds of tons of ice next to and above us. We were making pretty good progress. When we were above the headwall, we thought we would soon have made it. Wrong! Because the last pitch to the summit mushroom was a huge overhanging pile of snow. I had never seen anything like it before. It took a lot of effort to climb this part. To make matters worse, there were two horizontal cracks running through the ice where I wanted to climb. Nevertheless, I got on and was very happy to have made this pitch. Another short climb and we were on the summit of Cerro Torre! Overjoyed, we stood at the top and enjoyed the last rays of sunshine. Because it was already 6 pm!
We set about abseiling. The sun disappeared and it immediately became pitch dark again. Where had the Chileans gone? Far below we saw headlamps. But there was little movement. When we were with them, the game of the morning was repeated again. They let us pass and followed us on the way back. They also asked us not to go further than 55 meters from belaystation to belaystation. Because they didn't have 60 meter ropes like we did. We also felt a bit responsible and complied with their request. But it made us wonder what such people with so little experience were doing on Cerro Torre. Then still in winter! Fortunately, everyone came down in one piece. After two more bivouacs and a total of 5 days in the mountains, we enjoyed the civilization of El Chalten to the fullest...