Yacaré on Aguja Rafael Juárez in Patagonia first ascended by Pedro Odell, Tomas Odell

Pedro (19) and Tomas Odell (17) are part of the first generation of climbers born and brought up in El Chalten and the young brothers are rapidly making a name for themselves in their backyard mountains. In 2022 Pedro teamed up with Horacio Gratton and Esteban Degregori to make the first ascent of El Zorro y la Rosa on the SE face of Aguja Saint-Exupéry, and this season he joined forces with his younger brother to establish a new route on the east face of Aguja Rafael Juárez on the 1st of February. Their 550m Yacaré was graded 6c+/A0 and caught the attention of Sean Villanueva and Pete Whittaker who freed the line a week later at 7a+. Pedro’s report of the first ascent is published below and comes after a solo ascent of Thaw’s not Houlding Wright (Leo Houlding, Kevin Thaw, Cedar Wright, 03/2004) on the south face of Aguja de l’S and an equally commendable ascent on Cerro Torre which terminated just a few meters below the top of the summit rime mushroom. This would have been the first complete ascent of the mountain this season.

YACARÉ ON AGUJA RAFAEL JUAREZ by Pedo Odell
The first time we noticed the line was from the ridge between Saint Exupery and Rafael Juárez, a beautiful splitter crack with a dihedral below it. In 2022 Tomas, my father and Martin Heredia attempted the line, but in order to get to the steep part you have to climb 200m of easy terrain that was full with snow. This took them too much time and once they reached the steep terrain, they decided to turn back.

During a short weather window towards the end of January 2023 we decided to go again, this time just Tomas and I. It was a windy window, so climbing a small east face (compared for example to Fitz Roy) proved the right decision.We slept on the glacier below the mountain and started climbing at sunrise. The first part was dry so we did this fast, in just one long pitch, during which we spotted an easier access to the steep wall. After 4 pitches of really loose terrain we reached the dihedral.

We were expecting wide cracks and it didn’t disappoint: first a dihedral of perfect granite, protected mostly by #5 cams, was followed by a traverse to a splitter crack that gradually widens the higher you climb, from #3 to #6. After this section we joined the last 3 pitches of the De Klerk-Brugger variation of the Piola-Anker route and followed this to the summit.

The crux pitch is superb but we didn’t climb it free; a week after our ascent, Sean Villanueva and Pete Whittaker did, and in much harder conditions!

Links: Pedro Odell IG, Tomas Odell IG, www.pataclimb.com