Entre Cristales y Cóndores - Cochamó 2022
Reunited at last…
What the hell am I doing? - I am all packed and prepared to leave for my fourth climbing season in Valle Cochamó. Covid is spiking to levels never seen before and I am about to lose my shit waiting for a covid test result in time to catch my plane to Santiago, Chile. I have invested a lot of time, money, and stress into making this trip happen but as every second passes, I keep questioning if I am making the right decisions. I start pondering if this was even a good idea in the first place; after all, I am once again leaving my significant other to take care of our dog and van for two whole months while I go hide from real life to play in the mountains at the height of a pandemic. I can’t believe I convinced her to let me do this a second time [she agreed to stay behind while I went to Cochamó for the 2020 season]. At this point - while waiting for the test results - I feel like I’m on autopilot and just along for the ride, so might as well see where this takes me…
Receiving a negative Covid test really was the hard part, after that it was pretty much smooth sailing and not at all unlike my past trips to Chile. My climbing partner, Kevin Heinrich, had already went through the process a week earlier and assured me that as long as the test was negative, that I shouldn’t have a problem getting in. This is Kevin’s first time to the Valle and he arrived to Chile a few days before me and began buying supplies. He and I exchange messages on WhatsApp on the days leading up to my departure; “Where do I find bencina blanca?” “What do you think of this tent?” “Where did you say I can find dried fruit?” Looking back now, I probably sandbagged Kevin a little by not being the first to go down but Kevin is no stranger to international travel and I’m sure he would say that this is all a part of the fun. I eventually jump through all the hoops and we rendezvous at the climbers’ hostel in Puerto Varas. I’m exhausted from too many sleepless hours on a plane and crash hard that evening. The next morning we begin a two day rampage, buying enough food and all the supplies we need for 30+ days in the Valle.
Our “mission” on this trip is to finish establishing, and free climb, a new route on a formation named Atardecer that I began working on in 2020 with Jonny Baker. While we are at it, we plan to install about 30 pounds of stainless steel anchor hardware on popular established routes to continue the anchor initiative work that I also started that same season. For me, this trip will be the culmination of all my rock climbing experience thus far: from free climbing virgin stone at my limit to efficiently pulling on gear to get the rope up, from cleaning stubborn shrubs and dangerous choss to slamming quality stainless hardware for future generations to enjoy securely; and all this in an expedition style, way out in the middle of nowhere Patagonian jungle.
This is Kevin’s first time to Valle Cochamó and I promised him an incredibly high quality big wall first ascent with minimal cleaning. The icing on the cake is a shot at free climbing what will likely be the hardest pure crack pitch in Cochamó to date. Kevin recently broke into the 5.13 grade on gear and I can only imagine his stoke to give this rig a shot. For me, I have plateaued at the 11+/12- grade for the past several years as my personal climbing took a back seat to my career as a rock guide. I was psyched to finish this route up so that others may enjoy its incredible splitters. Additionally, the thought of freeing the crux was motivation to truly train for climbing for my first time ever during the whole year leading up to the trip. You’ll never know what you are capable of unless you try!
Kevin and I giggled like children while looking at my photo album from the first attempt with Jonny and what all was in store for us. Being Kevin’s first time, I thought he would want to climb a few classics to get a feel for the area before getting to work. To my surprise, he was laser focused on the project. “Let’s get this thing finished first and if there’s time left over we can climb the classics”. His mentality blew me away but honestly I was relieved as I have climbed extensively in the Valle and I knew how much hard work, as well as luck with the weather, it was going to take to develop and finish this route before our return flights to the States. As a route developer, I have spent a week here and a few weeks there working on developing a new route but this was the first time committing to a multi month international project. This dream has been six years in the making; I first spotted the splitter third pitch on my first trip to the Valle in 2016 and subsequently imagined a line up the face connecting to the obvious steepest section of wall; an overhanging crack splitting a perfect wave of granite at the very top of the mountain.
The trip began with a bit of a sputter. We arrived in the Valle greeted by unstable weather but even so, we got straight to work and did what we could between the bouts of rain. First thing was first: Kevin needed to see the crux pitch to determine if he even thought it would be possible to free. We climbed El Filo La Aleta de Tiburon (The Shark’s Fin) to quickly gain access to the summit. It had been two years since I was on the summit of Cerro Laguna and I got us a little lost looking for the top of the route although we discovered another pristine finger splitter along the way. Eventually we found what will be the end of the route and Kevin was blown away when he saw the splitter crux pitch; he instantly got to work. We fixed the rope and he micro-ed what will likely be the crux of the crux pitch: the last 15 feet of mega steep .4 locks with no feet. He was able to do all the moves but without linking. “This might be possible”. We hastily retreated to the bivy before the rain started back up. The crux pitch was the big question of this route and Kevin thinks that he might be able to do it with enough time working it.
Thinking that the route will be free-able at a mere semi- mortal grade, stoke is high. We continue to have unstable weather but barrel head first into the job of developing. On several occasions, to combat the poor climbing weather, we would depart basecamp and approach the climb at approximately 3.3 miles and 3,600 feet of elevation gain through thick jungle to push the route up a few feet higher just to turn right back around and head back to basecamp before a day of rain. After about a week of chasing a few hours of stable weather here and there, a high pressure system set in and we would enjoy impeccable blue bird skies for the better part of a month. We spent approximately 32 days (including rain of course) developing the route: envisioning, leading, aiding, cleaning, trundling, top roping, bolting, more scrubbing, and then one final scrub.
We spent an incredible two – 10 day stretches bivied on top of the mountain working on the route without seeing another human being. A family of five condors would greet us and impress up with their massive wingspans, sounding like a jet plane as they lazily floated around the summit. The sunrises and sunsets are indescribable and beyond comprehension. I am completely content being totally disconnected from everything including “the real world”.
Six weeks into our trip we finally got our first chance to climb the completely developed route - ground up. Some of the pitches we had yet to lead and didn’t actually know how difficult some of them would feel. We approached the route while the full moon lazily hung around the sky until mid-morning. We start firing up the route with purpose, already knowing every inch of rock even though we hadn’t even climbed it all yet. Around the third pitch I start to realize something is wrong. What we thought was an inversion of clouds in the Valle was actually smoke and it was getting thicker and more intense. I start to wonder if a wildfire is ripping down the Valle and what that would mean for us. I try to shake off the worst of the thoughts and keep on climbing. Kevin tries to reassure me, “There isn’t much we can do about it up here and we are actually probably safer on the summit than in the bivy.” I find it difficult to stay in the perfect flow state that we had going on further down route. The sun peaks around the corner at about 1pm and it’s nearly impossible to climb the last few pitches in the heat. We free climbed the whole route up to the crux pitch 10. Luckily we left ourselves an escape hatch and bail up a fixed line on the crux pitch after Kevin gave the crux a good old college effort. It was too damn hot to do anything at that point. We arrive on the summit to clearly see what is going on: a wildfire in Argentina just south of Bariloche which is about 40 miles away as the crow flies. We are not in any immediate danger but are instantly reminded (especially as a Colorado resident) of the very real problems we are having in “real life”.
With two weeks left of our two month trip, Kevin and I began to feel the pressure. Most of the heavy lifting was finished but two pitches remained: the crux pitch 10 and the final pitch 11. Pitch 11 became my mini project and pitch 10 became Kevin’s project. The weather began to trend to instability again and it seemed as though the forecast changed on an hourly basis making planning logistics somewhat of a nightmare. I wanted to make sure we had time for some anchor improvement work but freeing the crux was also a priority. We decided that we would take advantage of a necessary food resupply to head to the bivy and spend a day improving the anchors on Surfing for Stone and Path of Righteousness. I found it rather comical that at six weeks into our trip, with mostly favorable weather, this would be the third established route we climbed. After a long day’s hard labor, both routes had all bomber stainless anchors with rappel rings and our focus shifted back to our project.
In true Cochamó magic fashion, we serendipitously met Cris one evening while packing food in basecamp for our last push. We had been spending so much time on top of the route that we didn’t have a chance to meet many of the other climbers hanging around basecamp. We had noticed a new tent next to our camp but had yet to put a face to the tent. While I am hand grinding our coffee, a friendly and charismatic character came to chat with us. This character was named Cris and turns out that Cris was a lover of coffee and had a big bag of whole bean coffee with no coffee grinder. As a coffee lover myself, I was obligated to lend Cris the grinder as I know what it’s like to not have your morning coffee! Cris, Kevin, and I instantly hit it off with deep belly laughs and while we are hearing each other’s background stories, it comes out that Cris is a professional photographer from Argentina living in Chile. Before meeting Cris, Kevin and I had dreamed about how epic the photos of the crux pitch would be at sunset. [The formation that the new route is on is named Atardecer which translates to sunset - it is the last feature to receive the suns glow every evening in Anfiteatro] We had this grand idea but no photographer. Insert Cris. We told Cris about the new route and he was instantly sold, no convincing necessary. He wanted to join us to photograph us working on the route. Cochamó Magic.
As the forecast began to take shape, it became quite apparent that we were only going to have one more shot at the last two pitches before a week of rain would settle in and end our work on the new route. We had a brief three day window to work with. We made plans with Cris to meet us on the summit after he and his partner climbed the Shark’s Fin. Even though we knew Cris for only a few hours, it was as if we were buddies for years; the banter between us all was unmatched. I feared that I would lose my balance and fall off the cliff from laughing so hard. We had such an incredible time horsing around with Cris and trying hard on the last pitches. After the sunset, it came time for Cris to rappel down the route and back to the bivy. Kevin and I retread to our summit bivy knowing we only had a day or two left to free the crux.
(The six photos below were taken by Cris Posadas @gamantri; click image for full size)
Kevin’s 30th birthday would fall on the second to last day without rain. We knew we still had a huge task ahead of us but Kevin threw down and sent the last 12- pitch on lead at the end of the day in less than stellar conditions. We both agree that the last pitch is probably the best pitch of the route with its mind blowing exposure, multiple cruxes, and varied crack and face climbing. Our last day on the route began with birthday brownie breakfast pancakes which were supposed to be normal brownies the night before for Kevin’s birthday dinner. This would turn out to be a horrible idea as we both ended up feeling nauseous throughout the day. We had to take an extended siesta to get back to feeling somewhat normal. That evening Kevin was feeling good enough to give the crux one last burn. Kevin gave a valiant effort but the crack is just a monster of a pitch. It was time to accept that the route was not going free on this trip. We spent our last evening on top of Cerro Laguna enjoying one last amazing sunset while we began to process everything that we experienced in the last seven weeks.
Entre Cristales y Cóndores is a 1500 foot, 11 pitch route up the formation Atardecer in the Anfiteatro of Valle Cochamó. The route currently goes at 5.12- C1 and we believe the crux pitch 10 will clock in somewhere in the solid 5.13 range. ECYC is defined by several high quality splitter finger cracks weaving a path that crosses Al Centro Y Adentro but stays almost completely independent save for a shared scramble pitch and 30 feet of climbing on pitch 8. We developed the route in a modern style with bolted anchors and only placed 15 protection bolts where there were no other options for gear.
(The two photos below were taken by Cris Posadas @gamantri; click image for full size)
We make it back to basecamp just in time for the rain to start. We wouldn’t see the sun again for the remainder of our stay in Cochamó. It rained so much that at one point the horse packers couldn’t cross the river and we worried that we wouldn’t be able to get our gear out of the Valle on time to catch our flights. We settle in under rain tarps and get to connect with our neighbors in camp for our last few days. Cris and his partner August continue to leave us rolling on the floor; I can’t remember the last time I laughed so much. We still had some anchor hardware that needed to be installed so we spent a day at a dry sport climbing zone, Pared Seca (Dry Wall), replacing hardware store anchors with proper climbing hardware. Our final day arrives and we pack up camp and begin the long journey back to the United States.
This opportunity was expressly made possible with the support of several particular people and organizations. I was awarded a Live Your Dream Grant through the American Alpine club, a big ol’ bag of stainless was donated by the American Safe Climbing Association, and Rocky Talkies helped cover the overweight baggage fees among other expenses. There are several individuals who greatly contributed to making this trip happen as well whom I deeply thank from the bottom of my heart! All of you together helped make this six year dream of mine come to life.
Thanks for reading this! There is so much that happened in two months that I can’t begin to scratch the surface here. Let me know in the comments if you want to hear about something specific about the trip and I’ll be working on writing another post and sharing videos from the trip.