Patagonia Beta?

[TheNumberNine]

Hey fellas,

 

Partner and I are headed to El Chalten in December to do a bunch of mountaineering and stuff. Wondered if anyone has been and if so if you could spray some of that sweet beta about the town, sport/trad climbing nearby, anything in the rack to bring to the mountains that is crucial, etc. I'm planning on bringing my trad rack down (BD c3's-#3 camalot), stopper classic set, a shit ton of alpine draws, jumar, biners, prussiks, pulleys, and about 9 screws.

 

What kind of weather are we looking at? I know it's considered unstable but are we talking first ascent peak xv/ MH absolute zero jackets here? I'm planning on bringing my nepal evos for the ice, snow, mixed climbs and my mythos for the rock climbing we do.

 

How'd you get to el chalten? Fly to el calafate and bus it? Where's good to camp or stay in town? Any pertinent info would be greatly appreciated.

[John Frieh]

http://pataclimb.com/

[TheNumberNine]

I know I know.. I'm looking for more anecdotal stuff at the moment.

[Blake]

In town there is bouldering and sport climbing - you wont ever use your rack.

 

There's not much around there to qualify for "mountaineering" as I usually hear that term applied. Generally there are alpine rock routes anywhere from 10 pitches to nearly 2000 meters, where being able to climb steep cracks very fast (especially when wet and you're freezing cold) is pretty helpful. There are also amazing alpine ice and water ice features, especially in the Torre Valley, but these are fully two-tool real climbs, not walk ups.

 

It helps to be fast and efficient, as the breaks in the storms are seldom long-lived.

 

A 20deg sleeping bag and your warmest layer being something like the DAS (or feathered equivalent) is a good setup. If you're aiming for rock routes, consider bringing good tennis shoes and aluminum crampons as well. Size your rock shoes to wear over socks.

 

Most climbers will fly to BA and then Calafate, there are several busses a day from Calafate to El Chalten. I've also flown to Bariloche and climbed there in early season, then ridden the bus for 30hrs down south (Ruta Cuarenta) to reach El Chalten. If you're in town for more than a few weeks, try to negotiation a long-term rental or camping price, as things are pretty expensive in town now. There is no longer a national park campground, and many places charge more than $10/day for the ability to camp in a windy, flooded field, and share the use of a kitchen and bathroom.

[Jim]

Ditto Blake. No sense staying in town much - just head for the hills. Cerro Solo as a warm-up would be good - from Bridwell Camp. Also Cerro Velluda and Marconi Sur.

 

Not much in the way of cragging. Awesome rock at Bariloche - itis the place to go for pure cragging. Take the longer loop to Frey Hut via the ski area, nice hike. Torre Principal is a must do.

[John_Scurlock]

Silas Wild has traveled extensively and repeatedly down there.. you might benefit from talking to him. I'll send you a pm.

[Kraken]

Bring your own coffee. They have horrible, sugar infused dirt caffeine down there.

 

Bring your own candy bars, energy bars and gels. You can't really find anything good in town and when you do it is expensive.

 

Wallstein (Mikey Schaefer) may be able to hook you up with a contact for a cheapish place to stay if you PM him here.

 

Last year, staying at a reasonable hostel, we were paying about $17/day.

 

If you do choose the hostel route, don't worry about making reservations in advance...it isn't really possible to book one for the whole time anyway on line. You need to do it there in person. When you walk around town you will find them anywhere.

 

I'd def talk to some of the regulars (Colin, Mikey) to see if they have any contacts on renting a long term apartment/ floor space.

 

A few things about the travel to Chalten:

-Be prepared to pay a $140 or so fee when entering Argentina after getting off the plane. It is good for 10 years though so you won't pay it again on repeated trips.

 

-The bus from Calafate to Chalten is about $120 round trip

 

 

Good luck. I was down there last year. I arrived at the end of the best weather window in history and left 28 days later as another awesome window opened up. I didn't touch granite in between. Boom or bust in Patagonia. Give it a go and hope for the best. It's a beautiful place.

[pcg]

Awesome rock at Bariloche - itis the place to go for pure cragging.

http://www.clubandino.org/

 

[TheNumberNine]

Thanks for the info, fellas.

 

 

Nepal evos... Are they going to be warm enough for Patagonia climbing?

 

Also... What do you guys think about investing in some cyborg crampons? I currently have some g-12s, new-matic style, crampons that are beat to hell. Not planning on climbing anything in Patagonia harder than m4/70 ish degree ice.

 

I don't really like the idea of doing long routes in newmatic style crampons so I'm trying to decide on whether the cyborgs are necessary, considering future ice endeavors, or if some pro style sabertooths will be enough.

 

 

[keenwesh]

cyborgs are good, but pretty much any mono point crampon will work well enough. If you're planning on doing mixed routes I'd upgrade 'pons, but I've seen guys climb M8 in sabertooths, so if you're a badass you might not need to purchase mono's (I am not a badass).

[jacemullen]

I'm not the OP but I am wondering how wise it would be to fly down to El Chalten solo and find partners there? Will I just be hating life and not climbing or will I be able to find some people there?

[ryanhuetter]

If you fly into Chalten solo and start looking for partners, you are gambling big. You don't want to be working out the kinks of a faulty partnership with some Polish dude you just met 20 pitches up a routes.

Trust me...

 

Nepals are probably overkill for routes in the Torre Valley, but for mountain routes like the Whillans on Poincenot, they would be the ticket. I'd bring some Trangos for Torre Valley stuff, and for a lot of the short stuff like Guillamet Mermoz etc.

 

[Wallstein]

The weather can obviously be sporadic down there. I've climbed in 160g primalot insulation layers on some days and have not even brought an insulation layer on other (that is very very very rare...) I'd bring as many options as you can fit in your bag.

 

As far as boots go again, it depends on weather and route selections. I've climbed rock routes without even bringing boots. just went with a good approach shoe. The sportiva Ganda guides are pretty popular down there. Most of the climbing i've done I've had Sportiva Trango S. Those have gotten me up Fitz a couple times. If you plan on icy/mixed stuff the Trango Extreme's seem to be pretty good bet on the Fitzroy side. If you going for stuff on the Torre's a lot of people wear a Batura style boot.

 

Crampons, again lots of different ones getting used. I've actually spent more time in aluminium pons than anything else. Its either those or something like Sabertooths. Mono's don't seem that popular there or needed. Best setup in Sabertooth fronts mixed with Neve backs.

 

When you fly into Calafate try and get a bus right from the aiport to Chalten. This saves time and money. The transfer to Calafate is expensive as well as lodging there. best to get Chalten as quick as possible. you want to get reservations for the bus ticket from the aiport before you fly down. google around and you will figure it out.

 

If you can find a LAN flight all the way down on one that is the best bet. You shouldn't get charged for your bags twice that way. If you fly to BA then change airlines to Aerlineas Argentina they might nail you with baggage fees. Its gone both ways for me. Avoid the females at the check in counter... the dudes always seem more chill.

 

Lodging is really hard in Chalten. Almost impossible to line something up before hand. There is a hostel that caters to climbers but you can show up and figure that out. Lots of people still camp.

 

Picking up partners there seems to happening more and more. Might be harder depending on your experience level. But if you are good with people, make friends easily and have solid alpine skill you should be ok.