Canadians in Patagonia and New Routes 2018

There are a number of Canadians currently in Patagonia taking advantage of the so-far-so-good conditions.

Canadians Michelle Kadatz and Hannah Preston are climbing up a storm. Kadatz had posted a photo on Instagram that showed her with a bloody head, but she recovered quickly and has since climbed a number of routes.

The pair got on Rubio y Azule, a classic on Media Luna. Kadatz said after, “Great day few days in the hills… We had quite the adventure out there. We went as hard as we could with out little weather window.”

They then teamed up for the wild 400-metre Voie des Bénitiers 5.12- on El Mocho. The route was first climbed by Daniel Anker and Michel Piola in 1989.

@hannahraepreston taking off on the crux pitch of Voie Des Benitiers, El Mocho, 7b.. some ninja footwork up there!! We were so stoked to complete our first route in Patagonia!! Big Thanks to @mec and @alpineclubcan

A post shared by Michelle Kadatz (@michellekadatz) on Jan 29, 2018 at 6:22am PST

Will Stanhope and Chris Brazeau are currently sending hard crack in Patagonia, too. They also climbed Voie des Bénitiers 5.12- on El Mocho.

They then climbed The Brass Parrot link-up on Aguja Desmochada, which links parts of El Condor, Golden Eagle and The Sound and the Fury.

Stellar crack climbing on the Brass Parrot link-up on Desmochada, which combines parts of the routes El Condor, Golden Eagle and The Sound and the Fury. I highly recommend it. Chris Brazeau ? @arcteryx @fiveten_official @metoliusclimbing @maximropes

A post shared by Will Stanhope (@willstanhope) on Jan 30, 2018 at 4:25am PST

On the northwest face of Cerro Pollone, Matteo Della Bordella and Luca Schiera made the first ascent of the 300-metre Maracaibo 5.12 C1.

“Luca and I swung leads up the seven pitches, some of which were really exciting, while others were a bit wet, until about 50 metres below the summit ridge where we were met by poor quality reddish rock,” said Bordella on planetmountain.com.

“Just before the top of the face we made for a pendulum rightwards that enabled us to return onto compact granite and quickly reached the crest.”

The Patagonia season has another month to go and there is some good weather in the forecast. For more new routes in 2018 down south visit here.

We spent a few days in the mountains. @matteodellabordella and I tried to approach Marconi glacier during a windy and rainy day, but we failed. The next day we reached our tent, there we waited one (warm) day staring at the walls while the sun was melting the rime and snow. We woke up in the night, right after the dawn we got to the base of cerro Pollone northwest face. We followed a logical sequence of cracks and corners which led us to the top ridge. The wind gusts were getting stronger, soon we realized that was too dangerous the descent from that side, the only option was to find a way to Fitz Roy glacier before the dark and then we walked back to El Chaltén in the night. _____________________________________________________________________ Durante l'unica finestra di bel tempo io e @matteodellabordella siamo saliti nella valle del Piergiorgio, abbiamo passato l'unica giornata calda a guardare le pareti pulirsi dal ghiaccio, il giorno dopo abbiamo aperto una via sul cerro Pollone e scendendo dal panoramico versante opposto abbiamo raggiunto El Chaltén 24 ore dopo la partenza.

A post shared by luca schiera (@lucaschiera_alpinista) on Jan 29, 2018 at 9:07am PST