Canadians Climb New Patagonia Route

January 24 2014, El Busca Jesus, AI4R, M5, first ascent by Tony Richardson and Jonny Simms

January 2014, the weather in Patagonia has been finicky at best. Richardson and Simms arrived in Patagonia shortly after New Years and repeated the new must-climb route, Super Domo. Simms and Richardson are no stranger to adverse alpine conditions, their local mountain rage, the Canadian Rockies, area good training ground for climbing anywhere. They recently climbed a new route on Cerro Pallone.

In a correspondence with Gripped, Simms said, “We started on the route Rayuela which consisted of AI3/4R for four pitches, we used stubby screws and natural pro. At the top of the forth pitch we stepped left into moderate mixed terrain, M5, we the stepped left due to the natural weakness and delaminating ice. The M5R pitch traversed left and up a thin corner system. Exiting with an M5 slab sequence on good gear at your feet to reach an obvious snowfield. Pitch six started at the high-point, up and left of the snowfield at M4. At the top pitch six, we traversed right about 200 m along the snowfield to two ice choked chimneys. There are two, side by side. Pitch seven and eight consisted of fun, but slightly run-out thin ice, climbing mainly on natural pro. One more moderate pitch topped us out on the ridge. This is another moderate option for those days when rock climbing is not possible.”

The photos below were taken by Richardson and provided to Gripped for this story.