A Patagonia Epic with Colin Haley
El Corazón is a massive rock climb that follows splitter cracks up the east face of Fitz Roy
Colin Haley and Tyler Karow attempt El Corazón on the East Face of Fitz Roy (Cerro Chaltén) in a push during a marginal weather window but were forced to bail with only four pitches of moderate rock to the summit snow slopes due to a storm.
“We quickly found ourselves in a very serious situation rappelling down unknown terrain without a full sized tagline, prepared to ditch the entire rack,” said Karow. “After each rappel, I would stomp my mesh approach shoes against the rock to remove snow build up. I carried no hard-shell jacket or pants but luckily it was windy and cold enough that my clothes never got saturated. My fingers and toes would go numb and all I could do was hope that each rope pull didn’t result in a snag so that we could keep on moving down to stay warm.”
El Corazón is a 1,250-metre 5.10 A3 said to be one of the finest rock climbs in Patagonia. Read more about it here. Watch Karow’s entertaining video about their attempt below.
El Corazón Attempt
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