The Wind, The Snow, The Amy Couloir

A small window was appearing in the forecast for Christmas Eve.  It was the only break in the weather for the foreseeable future, so we decided we should do something with it.

We hiked in the previous afternoon up to Piedras Negras and collected the ropes that we cached last time.  Last time we socialized in the sun, but this time we set up the tent and dove in to get out of the cold wind and blowing snow.

Camp at Piedras Negras, looking at the leaning summit of Guillamet.

Neale laments the wind and blowing snow.

 In the morning (1am) we continued to push back our start time as the weather continued to be unpleasant. When we finally decided at about 3am to at least fail standing up instead of fail from within our sleeping bags, Colin Haley and Joel Kauffman walked through camp.  We followed Colin and Joel up through shitty blowing snow to Paso Guillamet where we put on crampons.  Colin and Joel have climbed a lot in Patagonia, so we were essentially looking to them for an assessment of whether or not this was climbing weather. Colin and Joel seemed to be going for it, and so we did, too.

Colin crampons up just below Paso Guillamet in the blowing snow. 

The sun rises and the snow blows at looking east (ish) fom Paso Guillamet.

Lago Viedmar and the rising sun as seen from Paso Guillamet.

The Amy Couloir is an easy and short couloir (gully) rising from near the Paso to the Comsaña Ridge on Guillamet.  I led the snowy couloir in one pitch.

Looking down the couloir from the belay at the top.  Neale was being closely followed by an Italian guided team. The couloir itself was mostly sheltered from the howling wind.

Neale just finishes the fun crux, a move pulling over a short steep and rocky step into the snow.

 Neale reported that the Italians were planning (perhaps saying they were hellbent would be more accurate) on going to the summit. It was super windy at the ridge, but the belay was reasonably sheltered, so we decided to let them pass and then see what they did.
The guide screamed "to the summit!! We all go to the summit!!" as he simul-climbed past. His enthusiasm was indeed infectious, and we decided to take a crack at it.  I led the short, steep rock step in my crampons a few minutes behind their second, and got on top of the rock step to find that the guide had set his belay in the full blast of the wind. He was again leading, slowly scratching his way up 5.9 rock climbing in full ice gear. His client was standing in the wind, belaying and shivering. I immediately down climbed and Neale and I began the rappels. The Italians retreated not too long later.

Back at camp - the sky was clear, but it was still quite windy. We were hit by some gusts of wind at the base of the couloir that nearly took us off of our feet.

Fauna.

Neale walks out.  It was still very windy.

Flora in the Rio Electrico valley. 

We were able to hitchhike back to Chaltén by mid-afternoon. I actually hadn't realized that it was in fact Christmas Eve, thinking that it was the 23rd, and most stores were closed and it was tough to find food. 

For those that want to know how the high-end alpine team of Colin and Joel fared, they made it a couple of pitches up their goal, an ice chimney on Val Bois, a peak a couple peaks further along the ridge line.  They bailed due to the wind and the hot sun melting their route. They instead climbed Cerro Madsen, a small peak above Lago de los Tres. Colin said it was the windiest summit he'd ever been on and they had to hold themselves down to avoid being blown off the mountain.