Argentine-Chilean Patagonia San Lorenzo Attempt from Chile. John ...

Argentine-Chilean Patagonia San Lorenzo A ttem pt fr o m Chile. John H auf, T om W alter and I w ent in from the C hilean side, an interesting and varied six-day trip: by bus from Puerto M ontt to Q uelló n, ferry to Puerto C hacabuco, bus to C oihaique, plane to C ochrane, horses to A rroyo San L orenzo and finally by foot to the De A gostini Base C am p site at the edge o f the forest. To drive in from the A rgentine side is obviously sim pler, but one needs the proper vehicle, access problem s have been reported w ith the ow ners o f the esta n cia s, and the scenery on the Pacific side is better than the pam pas. C oihaique has all the food and supplies an expedition m ight need at typical Patagonian prices. C ochrane, a very isolated village o f 3000 people, has som e food but it is expensive and there is no gas. At Base Cam p we spent a few days scouting routes. O ne line that looks good is the north-northeast face at the head o f the glacier that drains into the R ío de O ro, a large alpine ice gully that goes straight to the sum m it. This gully w ould require cold w eather as we w atched m uch ice and rock falling dow n it on a w arm afternoon. Instead w e chose a line on the north face, directly above B ase C am p. This face gets raked by ice avalanches from the ice cliffs at the top, but after w atching it, we thought we saw a route that w ould keep us safe. W e began on a beautiful hot day, M arch 3. The follow ing day started clear and we set out from a bivouac at 2000 m eters. A fter an hour of exposed clim bing through séracs, we crossed the bergschrund and relaxed, continuing up on ice through sm all buttresses. W hat m ade the rest o f the route fairly safe was that w e w ere not in the larger gullies that receive everything falling from above. O ur crux w as a 40-m eter frozen cascade, 70° to 90° steep and only a m eter w ide, w hich took us through a rotten cliff. It led to a snow ridge w hich w ent directly to the top cliffs, full o f icicle-hung overhangs. Som e zigzags through them got us to the sum m it ridge at four P .M . The w eather was deteriorating fast, w ith a lenticular cloud over the sum m it and clouds sw eeping in from the w est. For that reason, we did not continue east to the very top. For a brief period, the view was spectacular, from San V alentín, across the valley

o f the R ío B aker, south to the peaks o f the Southern Icecap. W e d id n ’t know how to get off the m ountain quickly and w ithout rappels, aw are only that De A gostini’s first-ascent route w as som ew here on the w est side, and so we staggered through the w ind for a while before finding an icefall that looked good. W e raced dow n it under low ering clouds. W e spent that night in rain and snow perched on rocks som ew here on the w est side and returned to Base C am p the follow ing day, M arch 5. Since the w eather stayed unstable after this, we hiked in the neighboring valleys. The adjacent C adena C ochrane has some very nice clim bing and one can be active there even w hen upper San Lorenzo is engulfed in storm . R ock quality is disappointing on the north and w est sides o f San L orenzo. C learly, the big routes are on the east or northeast o f the peak. T im o t h y R a w s o n ,

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