Patagonia: Paolo Marazzi & Luca Schiera climb new route up Cerro Mariposa

"We spent 25 days in the Turbio valley waiting for the right conditions that practically never came, except right at the end when a tiny weather window allowed us to climb the SE Face of Mariposa!" This is how Italian mountaineer Paolo Marazzi announced the new route he and Luca Schiera forged up Cerro Mariposa, a huge peak in the remote Rio Turbio valley on the border between Chile and Argentina in northern Patagonia.

At present there are few details about the ascent, apart from Marazzi’s final comment "900 really cool meters. An adventure which included falling off a horse, rowing an inflatable canoe without knowing a thing about canoeing, long reads and exceptionally beautiful places."

The new climb is located to the left of the first route up the face, La Vuelta de los Condores (700m, 5.11 A2), established by the Canadians Will Stanhope, Marc-Andre Leclerc and Paul McSorley and America’s Matt Van Biene in January 2014. The video of that ascent is posted below to give an idea about the wild beauty of this corner of Patagonia.