Historic First Traverse of Torre del Paine Massif in Patagonia
Sean Villanueva O’Driscoll has once again pushed the limit of hard solo climbing in South America
Sean Villanueva O’Driscoll has made the first traverse of the four peaks of the Torres del Paine massif in Patagonia. He recently made the first free ascent of the Central Pillar via Riders of the Storm with Nico Favresse, Siebe Vanhee and Drew Smith, read about it here.
Villanueva O’Driscoll climbed from Feb. 22 to 25 alone during a good weather window linking several big wall routes, including Il Lungo Sogno (5.10 A2 900m), the Kearney-Knight (5.10 A2 850m), Monzino Route (5.10b 200m) and Puro Filete (5.11 A1 300m). He bivied between the routes and rappelled from the summits into the cols between spires.
The news broke on Rolando Garibotti’s Patagonia Vertical: “While several traverses have been done of the Towers, none had followed the entire skyline or included the fourth tower, known as La Peineta. O’Driscoll concluded that a southwest to northeast traverse is what made the most geographic sense, starting via the west ridge of the South Tower, to tackle the south faces of Central and North Towers, plus the Peineta.” See Garibotti’s post below and visit here for more info.
Villanueva O’Driscoll is one of the world’s leading alpinists, with difficult first ascents around the world. He’s received two Piolet d’Or, one for an expedition to Greenland in 2010 with Olivier Favresse, Nicolas Favresse and Ben Ditto; and one for his solo first ascent of the Moonwalk Traverse, a more than 5,000-metre-long 5.10 along the Fitz Roy massif, read about it here.
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