The Whillans Ramp - Cerro Poincenot

After just a few days in El Chaltén, our first weather window appeared in the forecast.  It was the first window in a while, and the hordes of climbers in town started to buzz, mostly with pretty ambitious plans for what appeared to be a pretty decent window.
Neale and I discussed trying something small, but after consulting those more knowledgeable about Patagonia than we are, it was decided to take advantage of what appeared to be a multi-day window.  We prepared to attempt a route that was a fairly high priority for me on this visit, the Whillans Ramp on Cerro Poincenot.  As we packed up and discussed our ambitions, we were interrupted by the sound of sobbing.

From the bus ride into Chaltén. The biggest peak, just right of center, is the mighty Fitzroy. The peak just left of it is Poincenot.

We investigated to find a young man in the corner of the dorm room in our hostel, bawling his eyes out.  We asked him what was going on, and he revealed that he didn't have anyone to climb with for the coming window.
After a short discussion and an assessment of his skills, we determined that he was a better climber than either of us and that he could join us for the Whillans.  Drew immediately ceased his sobbing and began to stuff a backpack full of cams, crampons, and pride.  And with that, our intrepid duo became three.

(the world of climbing being a small place, after a few days of "I know I've met you before" we finally determined that Drew had come to a barbeque at my house in Squamish a few years back.)

We hiked in and setup camp at Piedras Negras, a bivy site that many other parties were using as well.  We socialized before we slept.

This is an actual photo I took during the hike in, but my camera has a cool mode where it re-renders the photo as a painting.  The image here was an actual output of my camera.  I think it's pretty fun (the original photo was nothing special).

This photo was taken in another special camera mode, HDR, where it takes three photos (at different exposures) and re-renders selecting the brightest colors (it also makes it look a little like a painting, but that isn't as obvious in this photo).

Janet, Drew and Sarah were colorful in camp.  Neale was standing there too, but I told him and his black jacket to "get the fuck out of my photo."

Not bad weather.

SarBear (one of my very good friends from when I lived in Squamish who is spending the season in Patagonia) and I posed for a photo in her partner Dorte's sunglasses.  Dorte is a Patagonian legend and a co-author of the guidebook to Patagonia climbing.

In the morning, about 2am, we launched.

Drew at Paso Guillamet

The Piedras Blancas Glacier.

Drew starts up the ramp part of the Whillans Route.  Below us is an enormous big wall, which would make a fall from this snow traverse a serious mistake.

Drew led the entire snow ramp in one pitch, while Neale and I simul-followed.

At the top of the ramp. This is not really a very great picture, but it's of me, so on the blog it goes.  Photo by Drew Thayer.

This was the crux pitch, which Drew led in fine style.  The climbing was absolutely excellent.

Continuing up the rock.

This next photo is where things began to wrong. We had route-finding decisions to make: left or right.  We also didn't know which bump was the summit. But straight ahead was this crack, which looked about 5.9 (but was probably low 5.10).  So we went up the middle, between the peaks, confident that due to the low angle of the slope, it would be a "slam dunk" to the summit.  So we harnessed Neale up, and sent him on his way....

And it was a dead-end.  Blank in both directions.  The summit was only a couple of hundred vertical feet above, but the wind was howling on the ridge, it was 5 o'clock, and it was clear that we were not going to go down and then back up.  We were done.

At our high point. This is our non-triumphant non-summit photo. Photo by Drew.

Rappelling. Photo by Drew.

Aguja De La S in the back and St. Exupery in the front.

When we wrapped back around to the south side we were treated to a Spectre of the Brocken - our shadows cast into a concentric rainbow formed by the sun shining into the swirling clouds below.

And if we looked in the opposite direction? The baddest mountains in the world.

Me in the middle, shooting the photo, Drew and Neale on either side with their hands up in wild celebration of beauty.

St. Exupery.

Look very closely at the small notch and there are two people bivied there, on Chiaro di Luna.  I heard from some Canadians that a couple of Argentines stumbled into Niponino hungry and exhausted the following day - I think that that was these guys.

Heading down in the fading daylight.

Look closely, you can see two headlamps on the ramp.  A (different) couple of Argentines were heading up to climb all night.

Our day went long. We were starting to get kindof tired...

Us, back at camp, as the sun was starting to come up. The descent from Paso Guillamet went on forever. Neale, bless his tired little heart, seemed to remember that one is supposed to smile for photos, and diligently did his best.

Back at the trailhead we ran into our friends Colin Haley and Rolando Garibotti (adorably, if you'll recall Sarah and Dorte from the sunglasses picture at the beginning of this post, Colin is Sarah's boyfriend and is friend from when I lived in Squamish, and Rolo is Dorte's boyfriend, is the other author of the guidebook, and is a Patagonian climbing legend.). Rolo's truck had had a tire slashed and he couldn't find his hidden key and was generally having one of those days (though he and Colin had made the first ascent of a peak called Cerro Marconi Central). He walked to a friend's house and was able to get a ride back to Chaltén, and I got to jump in the back of the truck.
This photo is once again using the HDR painting mode. But join me, please, in loving this picture.

Thanks Neale and Drew! We got close....