Watch the 1963 first ascent of the Central Tower of Paine in Patagonia

In October 1962 an extremely strong British expedition sailed for four and a half weeks from Liverpool to Punta Arenas in Chile intent on making the first ascent of the formidable Central Tower of Paine in Patagonia. Led by Barrie Page, the team comprised of Chris Bonington, Vic Bray, Ian Clough, John Streetly, Derek Walker and Don Whillans enjoyed excellent conditions while slowly making its way up the mountain's North Ridge, however just when the climbers were in position to make a summit bid the weather broke. For the next five and a half weeks they were, in their own writing, "submitted to what must be some of the worst weather in the world." To make matters worse, by the end of December a strong Italian Alpine Club expedition comprised of Armando Aste, Josve Aiazzi, Carlo Casati, Nando Nusdeo and Vasco Taldo arrived with the the very same objective in mind.

During the spell of bad weather the British expedition erected a small wooden hut at Camp II and this proved instrumental to their success: when the weather suddenly improved overnight, the Brits had a decisive headstart over the Italians who had been forced to retreat to Basecamp.

Bonington, Whillans, Page and Streetly ascended the ropes fixed previously and entered virgin territory. Disaster almost struck when Whillans broke the rope that had become frayed by the fierce Patagonian winds; miraculously he didn't fall to his death and, after knotting the strands together, he continued the ascent. Shouts from his teammates below soon alerted them to the Italians hot on their heels... the race was on. Page and Streetly dropped out to let Bonington and Whillans proceed more quickly, and as Ian Clough wrote in his trip report, at "7:30 pm on January 16, 1963, Don Whillans and Chris Bonington became the first ever to reach the summit of one of the world’s most inaccessible peaks." The Italians spent an uncomfortable night on the wall and successfully summited at 5 pm the next day to claim the mountain's second ascent, while on 9 February 1963 they went on to make the first ascent of the higher South Tower of Paine.

The Paine massif today is obviously an entirely different world from what it was like when its towers were explored for the first time by these large-scale expeditions. This documentary is well worth watching to get a glimpse into what these lands were like 60 years ago.

Link: publications.americanalpineclub.org