Alpinist Markus Pucher Solos New Patagonian Line

In April, the strong Austrian climber, Markus Pucher, soloed a new route on a rarely attempted peak near El Chalten.

On his Facebook page, Pucher wrote, “New route on West Face of Marconi Sur. Into the Wild 800-metre M5.”

The Marconi range were named for Guglielmo Marconi and were first spotted in 1926. Despite its obvious challenges to today’s alpinist, the area sees little action.

In 1995, Antonio Taglialegne made the first and only ascent (till 2015) of Marconi Sur via a solo of the East Face.

The west face had been attempted in 1982 by Argentine climbers and in 1999 by French climbers, but neither team stood on top of the mountain.

It only took Pucher a six-hour round-trip to make the first ascent of his Into the Wild route. It’s not only the first ascent of the face, but the second ascent of the mountain. The actual 800-metre line took Pucher only two hours and fifty minutes.

Pucher is an accomplished Patagonia alpinist who made headlines in December 2014 for soloing the Ragni Route on Cerro Torre in less-than-perfect conditions.

For more on Cerro Marconi Sur and topos of the routes, visit Pataclimb.com.