New route on Aguja Mermoz in Patagonia by Matteo Della Bordella, Leo Gheza, Sean Villanueva

Italian mountaineers Matteo Della Bordella and Leo Gheza and Belgium's Sean Villanueva O'Driscoll have established an extremely logical 500m route up the east face of Aguja Mermoz in Patagonia's Fitz Roy massif.

After a slow start to the season, a short weather window allowed the trio to head up into the granite mountains. "We met by chance on New Year's Day. We went bouldering and we met him there, barefoot, having just arrived in Argentina" explained Della Bordella. "Sean was supposed to wait for his climbing partner, scheduled to come on 20 January. We on the other hand, after the long wait for a weather window, were itching to go back into the mountains. So I suggested this line on the East Face of Aguja Mermoz, first to Leo and then to Sean." Both were keen. "Sean had eyed this line previously, understandably: it's blindingly obvious."

The trio left El Chaltén on 9 January in order to climb on the 10th. "We started up the face at the crack of dawn, wanting to make the most of the short spell of good weather."

Gheza established the first pitch. "He climbed smoothly and then, almost at the end of the pitch, the ropes dislodged some stones which hurtled down and sheared one of the ropes. A clean core shot. Not the best start to our climb, but at least nobody got hurt. We decide to stop for a moment and consider our options. In the end we came up with a solution that allowed us to continue climbing."

The result is a 500m route that climbs straight up the center of the east face of Aguja Mermoz, past 7b max difficulties. "It's a difficult, beautiful and logical route, that offers some extremely pleasant crack climbing and a great finishing corner."

The trio reached the summit at 21.30 local time, at last light which provided a unique sunset over Cerro Torre. "We chose to bivouac at the summit and descend the following day (Wednesday 11 January) and return to El Chaltén. We didn't leave anything in-situ and managed to recover all the gear we used."

The new route shares the first four pitches of the Ferrari-Ceballos, then ascends independently to the left towards the summit, to the right of Vol de Nuit. The route has been called ¿Qué mirás, bobo?, in reference to the highly popular catchphrase uttered by Argentinian football player Lionel Messi during the 2022 World Cup.

Links: ragnilecco.com, pataclimb.com, FB Matteo Della Bordella, Ferrino, Karpos, KONG, SCARPA, Vibram

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