Patagonia, Holzknecht and Moroder climb Fitz Roy and Cerro Torre

The Patagonian season has kicked off to a great start with the two South Tyrolean alpinists Adam Holzknecht and Hubert Moroder who in just four days this early November managed to climb two symbols of Patagonian mountaineering, Fitz Roy and Cerro Torre.

On their arrival at El Chalten the two Catores climbers decided to make best use of the weather window and on 8 November they bivvied at the foot of Fitz Roy. At 03:00am the next morning they set off up Supercanaleta, reaching the summit at 16:00 and, circa 35 abseils later, returned to the base at 22:00.

The next day they descended back to El Chalten but seeing that the weather forecast continued to hold they packed their bags and, after only one rest day, ascended to Cerro Torre intent on climbing the Via Maestri. Things ran perfectly on Sunday 14 November and in a mere 15 hours the two stood on top of the famous rime mushroom, while at 23:00 they were safely snug in their sleeping bags at the base once again.

Put like this, their climbs almost seem like a "walk in the park", but it's clear that this couldn't be further from the truth. On the contrary, Holzknecht and Moroder's climbs were carried out with extreme precision and speed. As can be gleamed from their report on www.catores.com, the two met - and overtook - other climbers including one of the great experts of the massif, Rolando Garibotto who was involved in some "cleaning up"...

The Italo-Argentine mountaineer has chopped some of the bolts planted last year on Cerro Torre by an expedition led by David Lama from Austria during his attempt to free the Via Maestri. It comes as no surprise that this is being feverntly discussed in the Patagonian circles. The bolts, and certain aspects of Lama's expedition, had been heavily criticised right from the outset and Garibotti has now removed 17 bolts which, in contrast to what lama and his team stated, were "very much on route" of the original line forged by Cesare Maestri. Furthermore, according to Garibotti, local mountain guides have completed the works by removing 5 haulbags left in-situ by the Austrian expedition. As usual, much is going on in Patagonia...