Aguja Desconocida, new climb in Patagonia by Siebe Vanhee and Sean Villanueva O'Driscoll

Despite exceptionally poor conditions in Patagonia this austral summer, Belgians Siebe Vanhee and Sean Villanueva O’Driscoll managed to squeeze into a small weather windowa and climb a new route up East face of Aguja Desconocida in the Torres del Paine area.

Vanhee told planetmountain.com "The route is called "El Matédor", was free climbed by both of us in 12 hours and graded 5.11c (6c+), 13 pitches, 500 meters. The whole line is classic with good granite climbing, and the headwall is outstanding because of pitch 11, the crux of the route and a real beauty. The line doesn't always follow up the most logical structures. This wasn't possible because of the bad conditions in which we climbed. The more obvious lines and structures were covered in snow and ice, we found our way through all the wet parts. Although we first thought the spire hadn't been climbed yet, or at least the East face, we found some pitons on the false summit. Later we also discovered that the East face of Aguja Desconocida was already climbed before.

Aguja Desconocida is a tower in between La Mascara and La Hoja. El Matédor climbs the East face of Aguja Desconocida and is approached from the Bader Valley. The Bader Valley is situated in between and parallel to the Ascencio Valley (valley from the Towers) and the French Valley (Vale Francés). The east faces of the spires in the Bader valley are often protected from the Patagonian wind coming from the west. This is the reason we were able to climb the Aguja on that particular day with pretty strong winds."

During the same trip, the Belgians attempted to climb a line on the Torres del Paine but were pushed back by difficult conditions, as can be seen below.



Links: FB Siebe Vanhee, www.siebevanhee.be, FB Sean Villanueva, www.petzl.com