Cruz del Sur, new climb by Mauro Bubu Bole and Silvo Karo on La Esfinge in Peru

This is the story of the 'Cruz del Sur'. "We gave it this name because we saw the star shining high in the sky every night " says Mauro 'Bubu' Bole, and adds "apart from three snowfalls, the weather was always fantastic…"

How many great walls are there on earth? Bob Dylan would answer "the answer my friend, is blowin' in the wind'. Perhaps it's because of this that mountaineers are always out there climbing some big wall, somewhere.

On 23 June 2000 three climbers left from Ljubljana airport: the Italian Mauro 'Bubu' Bole (32), the Slovenian Silvo Karo (40) and his compatriot Boris Strmsek, a journalist/freelance photographer. Their objective: to climb the enormous east face of La Esfinge (5325m), situated in Peru's Cordillera Blanca.

'Bubu', famous for his dry tooling ascents, extreme ski descents and hard new routes in the Dolomites, was about to get a taste of his first big wall experience abroad. His climbing partner, Silvo Karo, is well-known for his prolific new routing throughout the world, having taken part on 23 expeditions from the Himalayas to Patagonia. And Boris Strmsek planned to capture it all with his video camera: the mini-expedition was to be transmitted live on the internet via Ljubljana's Hit radio …

THE EXPEDITION
On the 4th of July things began in earnest on Esfinge: Silvo and Bubu alternated leads and every evening they abseiled down the fixed ropes to rest at Base camp, situated an hour from the face at 4600m.

The first pitch was relatively easy, but the next pitches turned out to be the hardest. Bubu initially used aid on the second pitch and subsequently freed it at 7c, while Silvo tackled the third pitch, a 7c+ freed by both later on.

After this blazing start, all the other pitches were climbed on-sight. The climbers used natural pro where possible and hand placed some bolts on the balancy thin slabs. A total of 32 bolts were used to protect the route and belays.

10 July. The seventh day on the wall and Silvo, Bubu and Boris ascended 500m of fixed ropes to then climb the final 300m that separated them from the summit. A quick photo up top wasfollowed by a long abseil descent back down to Base Camp.

So this is the story of the 'Cruz del Sur'. "We gave it this name because we saw the star shining high in the sky every night " says Bubu and adds "apart from three snowfalls, the weather was always fantastic…"

THE ROUTE
Cruz del Sur
La Esfinge 5325m, Paron Valley, Cordillera Blanca
Grade: 7c+
Length: 800m
Summit: 10/07/200
Climbers: Mauro "Bubu" Bole (ITA), Silvo Karo (SLO)
Photographer: Boris Strmsek (SLO)

The route:
1) 35m - 6b+
2) 50m - 7c
3) 55m - 7c+
4) 55m - 7b+
5) 55m - 5a
6) 50m - 7b+
7) 50m - 7b
8) 40m - 6a+
9) 50m - 7a+
10) 50m - 6b+
11) 55m - 4c
12) 50m - 6a
13) 55m - 7a+
14) 60m - 6a+
15) 60m - 6b+
16) 60m - 5a