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Patagonia news 2002

Brief news roundup of Fitz Roy Patagonia ascents 2002 by Luca Maspes

January 2003

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Patagonia Luca Maspes

D. Fregona

The Italian Mountain Guide Luca Maspes has just returned from two months in Patagonia, where he put up two new routes and sent the following report.

On 1/11/02, together with Diego Fregona, Maspes climbed the hitherto untouched west face of one of Cerro Hermoso's three peaks, renaming it "Cumbre Silvia". The 1000m route was climbed alpine style in 10 hours, and crossed mixed terrain in the upper section, 70Â° ice and V+ rock.

Maspes and Fregona then concentrated their efforts on attempting the outstanding NE face of San Lorenzo, but were forced to retreat after just 100m due to the high temperature and the enormous 10km serac that lines the entire eastern crest of San Lorenzo. The route had been attempted in the past, notably by the Frenchmen Simon Destombes and Jean Annequin who reached 2/3 height in February 1999. A month later a Swiss team including David Fasel (first winter ascent of the Via dei Ragni on Cerro Torre, together with Crouch, Sigriest and Ulrich) encountered similar conditions and were forced to retreat due to serac discharge. Recently a French team attempted a line to the left of the East Ridge of San Lorenzo (to date the only route climbed via the Argentinian side, first ascended by the South Africans in 1986 and only twice repeated.) More info on www.tvmountain.com.

Maspes then travelled to the Fitz Roy-Cerro Torre region where stiff winter conditions had haltered most activity. Notable exceptioons included Fitz Roy, which saw three ascents in one month; a French duo via "Supercanaleta", three Swiss via the "Californian route" and two Argentinians along the "Franco-Argentinan route".

Together with Marcello Cominetti Maspes ascended the S/SE Face of Cerro Grande at the start of December. Choosing a 600m new line to the right of Casimiro Ferrari's route, the two Mountain Guides climbed mainly mixed terrain (ice max 75Â°) to reach the final crest and join up withone of the few existing routes up this enormous mountain, but retreated before reaching the summit due to the impeding darkness.