The Epic Patagonia Route by Dean Potter and Steph Davis
Two climbers just repeated the pic 2001 route and brought a drone, which shows just how awesome the climb is
The Potter-Davis on the north face of Aguja Poincenot in Patagonia has become a must-climb over the past few years. It was first climbed by Dean Potter and Steph Davis in a 25-hour camp to camp push at V 5.11 C1 WI4. And one of the most recent repeats, by Grigoriy Chshukin and Leonid Krupa, was documented in a short film and uploaded this week. It shows just how magnificent the cave and roof of the Potter-Davis route really is.
In the 2002 American Alpine Journal, Davis wrote, “Above, the climbing became more difficult and harder to protect, without a direct crack system for the next pitch. We found no more anchors as we continued up steeper rock into a massive roof system, which eventually took us directly onto the summit by evening.” About the massive roof system, the route description on PataClimb reads, “By crawling up into and behind the left most crack, and then riding pony out along the top of a rock bridge one manages to climb out of the roof. One final easy pitch leads to the summit.” And in 2023, Colin Haley said, “The route was challenging, sustained, and very high quality. The comparisons that have been made to the North Face of The Rostrum in Yosemite are well deserved.”
The first ascent went like this. Davis and Potter left Paso Superior on March 12, 2001. They moved into the couloir right of the East Face and began up neve. A short section of near-vertical ice led them to the rock face 25 metres below the ridgeline. They climbed four pitches along a crack system to the top of a pillar. Above, the face offered sparse protection. They followed an angling crack to a small roof. A corner led to a large cave blocked by a roof with two cracks on either side. They crawled into the left crack, moved behind it, and crossed a rock bridge to exit the roof. One final pitch led to the summit. They completed the round trip from Paso Superior in 25 hours.
It had been attempted twice before. In 1996, Pere Vilarasau and Xavi Teixidor climbed the first four pitches, leaving bolts. They found a few pitons in the first two rock pitches from a previous attempt. During a repeat ascent in 2006, Horacio Codo, Luca Fava, and Elio Orlandi left the cave heading horizontally right using aid. Potter and Davis had attempted that line but returned to find a different route.
The Potter-Davis in 2025
