Optimizing Short Weather Windows

This season in Patagonia has been particularly rainy and windy. Everyday, everyone in El Chaltén likely has the same routine: wake up, check the weather, bemoan its awfulness, eat breakfast and then decide on a training activity for the day. When a weather window does come, it is generally a short one, surrounded by periods of precipitation, and continuous winds.

Watch the weather like a condor 🦅

We took advantage of a couple shorter windows that were like this to climb Cerro Solo and Mojon Rojo, two smaller, less technical peaks. These choices were possible for us to climb in a day from town, so we could maximize our use of the weather, without getting stuck in any heinous weather. But we knew we could climb bigger things during these short periods.

We saw a good window coming, with just enough time to climb Poincenot via the Whillans-Cochrane route, so we hiked through the night, camped as close to the base of the route as we could, and started climbing in the night to hopefully get off the peak before the bad weather started.

Don’t climb into the Wall of Hate

But the bad weather came in early. We summitted before the bad weather was supposed to start, but it was just about on us when we reached the top. We descended in the wettest snow I’ve ever been in, getting soaked to the skin.

The lesson here is: don’t climb into the so-called ‘Wall of Hate’ instead try to be heading down well before it’s expected arrival. This season has had a trend of the windows closing earlier than anticipated.

When we got back to down, completely drenched and nearly hypothermic, we checked the weather and saw another short window approaching. So we swapped out our boots and took off for the Italiana route on Saint Exupery.

Take advantage of every small window

This advice might be controversial since there are always grey areas and edge cases where this tactic doesn’t work. But every window that you can take advantage of will boost your knowledge of the area, the weather patterns and route conditions, and it just MIGHT turn out to be a better window than predicted.

Even though we didn’t summit Saint Exupery that day, we learned a heck of a lot about the route, the conditions, got some fantastic photos, and saw everyone else in the range getting after it on their various routes. Aguja de l’S was particularly popular, and a good choice for that day. Several parties summited, in the snowy and icy conditions.

Due dilegence

Once back in town, with the weather looking abysmal again, and gusts stronger than any I’ve experienced in town, our hopes got low again. We did our due diligence of unpacking, checking weather, cleaning and prepping all our gear for another outing. These steps are so important to be ready to go out again. But once we had done these routine things and the weather was still looking poor, we started training at the gym.

Don’t overtrain

Of course it’s important to not stagnate. There are always a hundred exercises to do to train the muscles that don’t get exercised enough by just climbing. We hit the gym pretty hard, and then the next day looked so beautiful, we had to go out. But we were so tired! The lesson is pretty clear: be ready for the events that matter, in this case the good weather!

Be ready for the big one!

Finally, be prepared for the big window to arrive. Be in town, have all your gear ready, and be physically prepared. Then GO GET IT!!!