Riders on the Storm in Torres del Paine Freed
More than 30 years after the first ascent, the legendary big wall route has been completely free climbed
Nico Favresse, Siebe Vanhee, Sean Villanueva O’Driscoll and Drew Smith have made the first free ascent of Riders on the Storm on the Central Tower in the Torres del Paine over an 18-day push. The 1,300-metre alpine big wall was first climbed in 1991 by Kurt Albert, Norbert Batz, Bernd Arnold, Peter Dittrich and Wolfgang Güllich at 7c A3. The ascent took 15 days over six weeks. Gullich, the first climbed to send 5.14d with Action Directe, named it after a popular song by The Doors.
In 2006, Favresse, Olivier Favresse, Villanueva O’Driscoll and Micke Lecomte attempted to free Riders of the Storm. “We’re really psyched because we just succeeded on Riders On the Storm,” said Favresse. “We did it in big wall style over an 11-day push on the wall. We freed everything except for three pitches (and two others we didn’t redpoint). Sometimes ice was a big obstacle but we were able to get past these cruxes. Everything we deemed freeable for us except one pendulum. However we discovered a three-pitch variation to the right of the original line that might go free, but would be very hard, perhaps 5.13. The Portaledge was really nice to have. In one storm we flew in the air in the portaledge for many long seconds without touching the wall. After we tied it down, it was better. Time and weather conditions kept us from freeing everything. Three pitches are around 5.12d or harder. I redpointed one of them. It was an exceptional route, as good as the quality found on El Cap, and steep too.”
Several teams have since attempted to free Riders on the Storm since 2006, including Mayan Smith-Gobat and Ines Papert in 2016, who climbed the route established new free variations but did not redpoint every pitch. Smith-Gobat returned in 2017 and attempted it again with Brette Harrington and Drew Smith, but were hampered by bad weather. “Our attempt resulted in five weeks of gruelling effort to get the rope up the wall,” said Harrington. “We encountered constant storms of snow, and 100k winds. Using ice climbing and aid tactics, we arrived at the five pitch variation, and had just two days of good weather to work on freeing them.” Harrington returned again with Jacopo Larcher and Siebe Vanhee but once again encountered bad weather.
The first attempt to climb the tower was in 1940, but the first ascent to the summit was by Chris Bonington and Don Whillans up the 600-metre North Ridge at VI A2 in 1963. There are now over a dozen climbs to the top of the esthetic granite peak. The first route up the face was the South African Route in 1974 and the second was Magico Est in 1986. The first free ascent of Riders of the Storm is one of the finest alpine free ascents of the past year.
2016
2017
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