Colin and Marc tearing it up

[glassgowkiss]

From Colin on FB:

"Yesterday I hiked out of the mountains very tired and content. On Jan 18 Marc-André Leclerc and I approached to the Col de Esperanza, and over the following three and half days we traversed the Torres from south to north, starting with the Ragni Route on Cerro Torre, and finishing with El Caracol on Cerro Standhardt. I had attempted this traverse in 2012 with Jon Walsh, but we were thwarted by storm. This time there were moments when I thought we wouldn't pull it off, but we persevered, and more importantly the good weather lasted long enough, with the wind gusts finally getting strong only during our last three rappels to the glacier. This photo is looking down the last pitch of El Caracol, which is probably the most difficult pitch of the traverse, digging through vertical rime to

aid off the knifeblade crack underneath (Although no pitches on the traverse are extremely difficult - it's more of an endurance and logistics challenge). For three days I had been rushing as much as possible, but at this point I finally relaxed and took my time, because with only 40 meters left to Standhardt's summit I knew it

would take a raging tempest to convince us to turn around. @mdre92, twenty-two years old, is a very talented climber. His only previous climb in Patagonia was El Mocho, and on day one his unfamiliarity with the terrain on Cerro Torre was evident, but he adapted amazingly quickly, made an awesome climbing partner for our first ever climb together, and by day three he was a veteran of

climbing on the Torres. We are naming our climb the Traversia del Oso Buddha. "Oso" for Bjørn-Eivind Årtun ("Bjørn" means bear in Norwegian, "Oso" means bear in Spanish), and Buddha for Chad Kellogg. This traverse was first envisioned by Bjørn-Eivind, and we made plans to attempt it

together in 2011. The first attempt was made by Bjørn-Eivind and Chad in early 2012 - Bjørn-Eivind was killed by rockfall a couple weeks later in Norway, and Chad was killed by rockfall about one year later on Cerro Chaltén. They were both amazing, inspiring climbers and wonderful people, and I wish I could tell them that Bjørn's dream has come true"

 

All I can say- wow! A truly world class route, without hype and spray.

[JasonG]

So, is this a reverse of the traverse he and Rolo did?

 

Very cool!

[glassgowkiss]

Basically what Colin and Rolo did- in reverse.

[Don_Serl]

An outstanding climb from two great climbers. It's wonderful to see Marc Andre linking up with a guy like Colin, from whom he can learn a lot. I'm always wondering, 'what next?', when it comes to Marc...

[olyclimber]

This is pretty awesome. Cool to see both these guys succeed, but even cooler to see Colin mentor up Marc, who has been to me almost since he started posting here, an obvious talent. I hope this isn't the last time we see these two pushing the envelope together.