Home > International

Silvia Vidal Went 33 Days Solo on Her Newest Big Wall

The new 1,200-metre A3+ 5.10 is in Patagonia and in order to climb the cracks that were full of vegetation, she used crampons and an ice axe.

Top big wall climber Silvia Vidal spent 33 days alone from Feb. 7 to March 10 climbing a new route up the west face of Cerro Chileno Grande in Patagonia, Chile. She called the 1,200-metre A3+ 5.10: Sincronia Magica. It took her 16 days to transport her gear through a forest and up a glacier to the base of the wall.

Vidal was fully isolated from the rest of the world for over amonth with no form of communication. Vidal has climbed new big wall routes, solo, around the world. She returned from her climb before the coronavirus lock down in South America.

She fixed the first 180 metres before her 33-day push. In her story on planetmountain.com, she said, “The wall is huge and vertical. There is circa 330m of vertical terrain, with much vegetation that prevented me from enjoying the climbing there, especially since I didn’t even know how to breach it. I graded it MT (Bush “Matojo” Traction) because in order to climb the vertical cracks that were full of vegetation I used crampons and an ice axe. Protection was very poor and runout.” Read the story here.

“Returning from an expedition where you have been alone and totally isolated requires time to acclimatize to ‘civilization,’ to manage to adapt to the changes. But this time on my return what has changed is the entire planet. The world has changed, and so have we.”

View this post on Instagram

Catalan alpinist Sílvia Vidal has consolidated her reputation for being one of the world’s foremost big wall climbers with her 33-day solo first ascent of Sincronia Magica up the West Face of the remote Cerro Chileno Grande in the Aysén region of Patagonia in Chile. Without any form of communication whatsoever, Vidal remained totally isolated from the rest of the world for a month and a half in order to establish the first route up the face. Circa 1200m high, this breaches difficulties up to A3+/6a+ and was climbed in a determined push from from 07/02 – 10/03/2020, just before the lockdown in Chile. Vidal’s previous first ascents span the globe from Patagonia to Alaska and Pakistan’s Trango Towers, and the details of her most recent solo trip just before the lockdown in Chile due to the Coronavirus crisis are explained in her report. ➡️ Link in bio #bigwall #bigwallclimbing #patagonia #patagoniachile #firstascent #alpinism #alpinist #firstascent #cerrochilenogrande #aidclimbing #soloclimbing

A post shared by Planetmountain.com (@planetmountain) on

Film on Silvia Vidal

Check out the latest buyer's guide:

Easter Weekend Sales on Climbing Gear

Be sure that your rack is updated and ready for the upcoming rock climbing season