11 February 2020
Corrado “Korra” Pesce, born in Italy in1981, from Novara ; living in Chamonix since over a decade, he is a very strong climber; now more “transalpine french” than italian, as he himself feels, he has become an Alpine Guide in France, he got a family on the French side of Mont Blanc. He likes difficult and technical routes ; has climbed a lot in the Alps and in Patagonia. He has just published a nice, very interesting story of his latest climb on Cerro Torre on Instagram that we copied here. It is really interesting for having a look at the current and future prospective of Patagonian climbing. It should be remembered that for the whole month of January the weather was bad, therefore the window of good weather caused ….
13 November 2018
Patagonia
A great start for climbing season in Patagonia, with the feat of the French Martín Elías, Jérome Sullivan and François Poncet who have opened a new path, “La Mariposa” (1200 mt, A3, M7, 6a) between 18 and 19 October on the inviolate spire of the South Pillar of Cerro San Lorenzo, called “El Faro” (3150 mt)
South Pillar Cerro San Lorenzo
“We started climbing at 10 in the morning, the forecast gave good conditions of high pressure until the next night, so we had 48 hours. First a part of technical climbing on mixed terrain and good rock, after we reached a ramp of snow and ice that we had identified during the previous exploration. From here, untied we quickly climbed the ramp of over 500 meters, with access to the steepest part of the wall. We climbed quickly and this made us hope to be able to sleep on the hill - but when we reached the end of the ramp, we realized that the bad conditions of the snow, the rock and the lack of ice would have created many problems and slowed down. When the night reached us I was climbing the first 30 meters of what would become the key section of the whole street: a vertical 80-meter chimney covered in snow, which I miss the words to describe the ugly quality of the rock. “Loose” is not suitable. “An asco” as the locals say! “
10 March 2016
Kelly Cordes (c) Cerro Torre
“with full respect to the current rate of progression and the next-level skills of today’s top climbers, I think it’s fair to say that the single biggest change in the history of Patagonian climbing occurred far from the mountains, circa 2005.”
continue reading the original Kelly Cordes article on his website
21 February 2016
Cerro Torre rockfall (c) Lauri Hmlinen
“The extreme heat of the last few summers, and the heat of the five summer weeks we had this year, without a doubt have an impact on the permafrost, making the mountains more unstable”
Rolando Garibotti
THE LONG AND HOT PATAGONIC SUMMER
The amazing series of ascents along the Patagonic granite towers, a continuous flow of lines repeated in speed, in free climb for the first time, the traverse crossing record achieved by “Captain Safety” Colin Haley along with Alex Honnold - btw we’ll must talk about what this duo, a perfect merge of very different styles, had been able to show : the vitality and the purest form of alpinism - seems to have no end, because of a long good weather window that lasted a month and a half of good and hot weather. Rolando Garibotti, guardian, mentor and singer of all Patagonic ascents and sensitive, ethical and environment “guru”, writes the downside of this extraordinary hot patagonic summer, caused by increasing climate changes , on his Facebook page Patagonia Vertical.
