Cochamó valley, Chile: new big wall on Cerro Trinidad Central by Leo Gheza, Angelo Contessi, Diego Diaz

From Cerro Torre to Cochamó in the blink of an eye, from the perfect ice climb to establishing a big wall Cerro Trinidad's pristine granite, before taking off from the summit. This is what I enjoy doing, searching out adventures in different settings, trying to be as versatile as possibile....

For those who don't know Cochamò, it can be described in a nutshell as the Yosemite of South America, fortunately though far less famous and touristy. Having no roads and infrastructure, it remains fairly natural and wild. The entrance trail is 13 km long, and this in itself helps to dissuade the vast majority of those responsible for the the classic overcrowding in parks that can be reached by car.

After an inspection in February 2023 with Magda Mittersteiner, during which we climbed and flew with our paragliders and explored 3 beautiful new take-offs, this year the idea was to establish a new route right in the center of the mountain that has come to represent the valley, Cerro Trinidad. This 800m monolith is strewn with lines reminiscent of those of legendary El Capitan in Yosemite.

Early February, our team wass complete. After a rather disastrous January in El Chalten, Magda and I travelled to Puerto Montt to meet up with Diego Diaz, a friend and local from Cochamó. We were joined from Italy by "Angelino" Contessi, another old friend with whom I've established various new routes across the Alps. We sorted our stuff and loaded our horses with almost 200kg of gear, all the equipment necessary for a few weeks alone in the park.

On 7 February we were ready to climb, but we stopped even before we began: the line we had wanted to establish on Cerro Trinidad Nord had already been climbed! Lack of information is a big problem in these places and finding topos of what has already been done here isn't that easy. We were downbeat, but fortunately during a climb&fly with Magda a few days earlier I'd noticed an intersting line on Cerro Trinidad Central. Our plan B.

We transported all the gear to the base of the wall; unfortunately the lower section of the line was a little more exposed to rockfall than that of plan A, but we assessed the situation carefully and took some fairly calculated risks.

Straight away we made best use of a 4-day weather window to open the first 500 meters which weave their way up technical slabs and cracks. We resorted to some aid and these sections, though hard, can probably be climbed free. In the meantime Magda spent her time climbing and discovering new take-offs; it's hard to believe that no one before us had flown with a paraglider in this place, the peaks seem to have been just for this.

We then encountered another setback: Diego, in addition to falling ill, had a "little" accident... Given that he fell 20 meters down a chossy gully I'd say he was was pretty much unscathed, apart from a few bruises and scratches fortunately he didn't break anything, let's just say he got really lucky... This obviously forced us to change our plans and after taking Diego back home, we decided to take advantage of two days of bad weather and instead take a short rest.

We slowly recharged our batteries while Magda escaped to another magical location in Patagonia, the Paine Towers. Their call was simply too strong for her to resist and understandably so, it's one of the most beautiful places to climb and fly in South America, and to some degree I envied her. But we'd started our line, and it needed finishing!

Angelo and I regained our strength and set off for the summit push and established the entire upper section, the second half of the route, adding another 450 meters of logical climbing up an obvious system of cracks. Vertical, sustained and never straight-forward, they provided some thrilling climbing! We managed to free all the pitches except for one, which we dubbed the Changing corner of Trinidad; time ran out and we didn't get a chance to free it, and we hope it'll be an intersting objective for future ascensionists. We reached the summit at about half past nine in the evening and were rewarded for our efforts by the full moon and clear skies throughout the night. We bivied roughly 100 meters below the true cumbre, knowing that Diego was with us in spirit.

The following morning I "sailed away" with my paraglider and 15 minutes later I landed next to the campsite down in the valley. What more could I ask for? Angelo and our friend Aro who'd joined us at the summit spent the next 4 hours descending on foot. Perhaps I owe them a few beers ;-)

The result is not any old outing, but huge big wall climb! Adventurous, varied and above all complete. Making the first ascent of a 1000-meter climb and subsequently taking off from the summit is something I will never forget, and in the end what remains etched in my mind are the beautiful moments we shared together. Keeping the team unified is important, as they say here, "buena onda". One always learns something new.

by Leo Gheza

Gheza thanks: La Sportiva, Salewa, Skywalk paraglider, Samaya, Lappas climbing

Cerro Trinidad central
NUNCA SAY NUNCA (spanglish)
5.12+ / A1 / 1000m
12-13-14-24 February 2024 Angelo Contessi, Diego Diaz, Leonardo Gheza