Torre Egger Traverse (a Smash ‘n Grab Story)

Climbers: Priti and Jeff Wright

Climb Date: January 18, 2022 – January 21, 2022

Climbs/Rappels

1. Aguja Standhardt Climb via the North Ridge route Festerville (400m 90° 6c) in 15 pitches (14 pitches of rock and 1 pitch of rime ice) from Col Standhardt
2. Aguja Stanhardt Rappel via South Face (7 Rappels)
3. Punta Herron Climb via North Face route Spigolo dei Bimbi (350m 90° 6b) in 9 pitches (5 pitches of rock and 4 pitches of snow+ice+rime ice)
4. Punta Herron Rappel via South Face (1 Rappel)
5. Torre Egger Climb via North Face route Espejo del Viento (200m 80° 6a+, often referred to as the “Huber-Schnarf” route) in 5 pitches (3 pitches of rock and 2 pitches of snow+rime ice)
6. Torre Egger Rappel via Titanic (countless Rappels, two downclimbing snowfields, and one 30m downclimb from the summit)

Overview

In January of 2022, we completed another Patagonian “Smash ‘n Grab”, summiting three of the four peaks in the Torre Range via previously established routes (11 days Seattle-to-Seattle): Aguja Standhardt, Punta Herron, and Torre Egger. 

Including our ascent of Cerro Torre in 2020, we have now climbed all four summits of the Cerro Torre skyline, making Priti the first female to summit all four peaks.

Our intentions with this blog post is to:

1. Show lots of pretty Overlays of the route to provide context and hopefully and interesting, vicarious journey through the storied Torres Traverse. We hope these Overlays will be useful for future parties who want any beta for any of these three routes.
2. Short fact-based trip report of exactly what we did
3. Photo gallery of only the best pictures along the way

Overlays!

The Story

2022 marked their fifth climbing trip to El Chaltén.  In 2019, they completed a 10 day Smash ‘n Grab of Cerro Chaltén (Fitz Roy).  In 2020, they spent two months in El Chaltén, during which time they climbed Cerro Torre on the route Via dei Ragni.  Urgency and several parties in line behind compelled them to accept a top-rope on the final pitch of the summit mushroom of Cerro Torre, joining the conga line.

Their 2022 traverse from Aguja Standhardt to Torre Egger enchained three distinct climbing routes (all established by different parties), climbing for four days and three nights, bivying twice on Standhardt and climbing through the third night up-and-over Torre Egger. 

After arriving in El Chaltén, they cached a tent at the standard Niponino Base Camp, carrying a tarp and a double sleeping bag for the traverse.  They started on the route Festerville (400m 90° 6c) which follows the spine of the North Ridge of Aguja Standhardt for approximately 13 rock pitches.  Another team of two (Michał Czech from Poland and Agustín de la Cerda from Chile) started up the route ahead of them and the four effectively joined forces, climbing symbiotically, each team helping the other along the way.

After summiting Cerro Standhardt via 30 meters of 90° ice and rime, Michał and Agustín rappelled the Exocet route back to Base Camp while Jeff and Priti made seven rappels down the South Face of Cerro Standhardt.  The South Face rappels end 30 meters below the Col de los Sueños (the col between Standhardt and Punta Herron), requiring climbing the final 30m of the route Tobogán to reach the col.  

The traverse continued up to Punta Herron via the route Spigolo dei Bimbi (350m 90° 6b) climbing 5 pitches of rock and another two pitches of beautiful, vertical ice and rime to the summit.  A single rappel from the summit of Punta Herron led down to Col de la Luz under the North Face of Torre Egger.  Spigolo dei Bimbi included some of the most fantastic rock climbing that the pair had ever climbed in Patagonia!

From Col de la Luz, they continued up the route Espejo del Viento (200m 80° 6a+, often referred to as the “Huber-Schnarf” route) in the dark of night for three rock pitches which ends in a long, run-out, wet, technical slab traverse under Torre Egger’s overhanging summit mushroom.   They continued through the night, climbing two more moderate pitches up the mushroom on easier 70 degree snow and ice to the summit of Torre Egger at 2:00AM, the most difficult summit in the Chaltén massif.

Priti Wright became the third female to summit Torre Egger (in addition to Steph Davis and Brette Harrington) and the first female to summit Punta Herron.

They continued through the night without a bivouac, descending 27 rappels and down-climbing along the route Titanic which follows the East Pillar of Torre Egger.  Upon reaching their tent at Niponino in the Torre Valley after 44 hours of constant movement, they collapsed in their tent realizing they were too late to catch their planned flight home.

Unfortunately, they neglected to notify anyone that they were missing their early-morning airport taxi.  When the taxi arrived at their hostel Aylen-Aike, the driver woke up Korra Pesce who was sleeping in the room where they had previously slept.  Korra notified the hostel owner Seba and Rolando “Rolo” Garibotti who were all quite worried and proceeded to notify rescue teams.

Later that morning, Rolo successfully contacted the pair on their inReach before any rescue efforts began, teaching Jeff and Priti a valuable lesson. 

A week later, a team of bold volunteers attempted an unsuccessful rescue of Korra Pesce, the legendary French-Italian Alpinist, who will be sorely missed by his friends, family, companions, and fans.  Being back at home in the US by the time the accident occurred, Jeff and Priti wished that they had been present to aid the operations.  The 2021/2022 Patagonia season was marked by several notable deaths and rescues in the mountains as well as several celebrated new climbs.  Patagonia continually demands of its visitors the humility that this place deserves.

Thank you

We really want to thank Rolando Garibotti and Colin Haley for their beta, support, and encouragement; Agustín and Michał for being a great team to partner with as we shared the same objective on Cerro Standhardt; Aylen-Aike for putting us up at the last minute in El Chaltén; Hector Tito Soto Nieto and Andrew Reed for loaning us your cams (we decided what route to do while on the airplane); our bosses and work colleagues for letting us go for a week with hardly any notice; Ilia Slobodov for the awesome weather updates while on route; and Kelly Cordes for the rad Patagonia gear.

Strategies

Our itinerary was relatively slow for this objective (four days instead of a reasonable two-or-three days), and we made many routefinding errors. We didn’t do any simul-climbing, but with light packs, all of this terrain could theoretically be simul-climbed by 5.11a crack climbers. We climbed the route by “French Freeing” (pulling on gear) the pitches of 6b and 6c with the follower jugging those pitches and hauling packs. The packs were hauled on many pitches in general, simply to further enjoy the fantastic rock climbing.

If we were to repeat this route, I think a reasonable itinerary would be:

1. Climb from Niponino to the nice bivy site below Col Standhardt (short day).
2. Climb Col Standhardt to the base of the Standhardt summit mushroom, or stop earlier and bivy at the rappel station at the top of Festerville’s Pitch 11.
3. Climb the Standhardt summit mushroom, rappel, and bivy again at the summit of Punta Herron
4. Climb Torre Egger (start as early as possible!) then descend Titanic (East Pillar). It’s also possible to descend the Americana route (South Face of Torre Egger), but Titanic is a more popular descent route.

If you only wanted to summit Torre Egger by the easiest route (skipping the summit of Aguja Standhardt), this would be a reasonable itinerary:

1. Climb from Niponino to Col Standhardt, continue climbing the approach for Exocet, bivy at the base of the Exocet chimney.
2. Continue south along snow ramps towards El Caracol to a rappel as shown in the overlay pictures on pages 147 and 163 of Patagonia Vertical (2nd edition), climb 60m of the route Tobogán to the col, then climb the route Spigolo dei Bimbi and sit-bivy at the summit of Punta Herron (no really good options here).
3. Climb Torre Egger (start as early as possible!) then descend Titanic (East Pillar). It’s also possible to descend the Americana route (South Face of Torre Egger), but Titanic is a more popular descent route.

Gear for Punta Herron/Torre Egger

2x Camalots to #1, 2x TCUs, 1x Camalots to #3, 6 ice-screws, a set of stoppers, and deadman stuff sack (substitute a jacket instead?) to rappel off of Torre Egger (or a retrievable ice tool anchor or downclimb)

Gear for Festerville

2x Camalots #.3 to #3, 1.5x TCUs, 1x Camalots #4+5 (omit if climbing the Pitch 5 variation), 4-5 ice-screws (12 if climbing Exocet), and a set of stoppers

Note: Summit takes V-threads

History

Interesting history of the Torres:

https://pataclimb.com/knowledge/peaklist.html

Itinerary

1/13/22-1/15/22: Depart Seattle 12:33AM. Travel from Seattle to El Chaltén, stay one night (1/15/22) in Aylen-Aike Hostel

1/16/22: Hike to Niponino

1/17/22: Hike from Niponino to Torre Glacier bivy site (short day to wait for icy conditions to improve)

1/18/22: Climb up to Col Standhardt and bivy above Pitch 11 (near rappel) with Agustín and Michał.

1/19/22: Climb Pitch 12-13 to summit and bivy on a flat ledge beneath summit (short day)

1/20/22: Rappel South Face of Aguja Standhart, climb North Face of Punta Herron, rappel South Face of Punta Herron, climb North Face of Torre Egger through the night

1/21/22: Summit Torre Egger at 2:00AM (no bivy), rappel Titanic, bivy at Niponino

1/22/22: Hike out to El Chaltén, book new flights (missed), and party all night.

1/23/22-1/24/22: Arrive in Seattle 12:55PM