Climbers Free 24-Pitch Route in Chile at 5.13d
Earlier this year, a three-man team opened what is now one of the country's hardest big wall routes
Three climbers recently freed a 24-pitch wall on Cerro Capicua in Chile’s Cochamó Valley, a project that had been started two years before. Hayden Jamieson, Jacob Cook and Will Sharp made the first free ascent of Picaflor, which was first climbed in 2017 at 5.10+ A1, earlier this year at 5.13d.
In 2022, Jamieson, along with Bronwyn Hodgins, Danford Jooste, Tyler Karow and Jaron Pham, had made a multi-week attempt to free the route. Their effort was documented in the film Picaflor, which you can watch below.
The 2022 effort ended with all but one pitch having been freed. “I had invested around 10 days of work into pitch 20 and deemed it possible, but just barely,” Jamieson sais in his story in the 2024 American Alpine Journal. “I knew that I’d need to improve my climbing level if I wanted to stand a chance at freeing Picaflor, so for the next two years I trained with that specific intention.”
Returning to the route this year, Jamieson found an “easier” variation to pitch-20 that clocked in at 5.13+. In the end, Jamieson, Cook and Sharp all freed each of the 24 pitches.
Picaflor 2022 Attempt
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