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West
Face of Cerro Torre by IMCS guide Jim Surette
 The
West Face of Cerro Torre is gaining the reputation as one of the
best ice climbs on the planet. "It was like doing a big wall made
of ice...40 pitches!" is how Jim Surette describes the Ferrari route
on the West Face of Cerro Torre.
In January Jim and Charlie Fowler managed to tick the Torre using
a bold approach directly from Camp Bridwell, on the east side of
the mountain, across the range to the base of the West Face. They
climbed and descended the route in three days with a forced bivy
on the summit.
The weather is notoriously bad in Patagonia. Last year Jim was stormed
off the mountain two times during a five-week stint. But that's
a typical story. This year he had to wait out four weeks of bad
weather. Happily, the scene at Camp Bridwell sounds quite convivial.
Jim recalls, "There was a good group of people down there. We had
fondue parties, walked the slack line, bouldered, went to town to
eat, and had the best New Year's party I've been to." The village
of El Chalten is only a two hour hike from base camp, short enough
to head in for a steak and some wine. The four weeks of waiting
paid off with a four-day window of good weather. Jim described the
weather during their climb "...like being in a dream where everything
was perfect."
Jim was happy to be climbing with Charlie Fowler, who is an old
Patagonia hand. Charlie made the third ascent of the Super Couloir
on Fitzroy during his first trip there in 1977. He had already summitted
Cerro Torre via the Southeast Ridge and has made a number of other
climbs all over the range. "Climbing with Charlie was awesome. He's
pretty laid back. It was also cool because Charlie was the person
who inspired me to go try Cerro Torre the first time."
Most parties attempting the West Face use a base camp on the ice
cap below the route. Jim and Charlie saved two weeks of travel time
and humping loads by approaching the West Face directly from Camp
Bridwell instead of going over the ice cap. It wasn't an easy alternative
and if a bad storm moved in they would be stranded on the ice cap
with minimal supplies and no chance to wait it out for another attempt.
"We traveled up the glacier below the Torres; it was pretty broken
up in spots. Three pitches of ice up the ice tongue brought us to
the Cerro Standhardt col. The col has this huge chockstone wedged
above it. When we got there we could see out across the ice cap
and tell the weather was good. We rapped three pitches and then
descended way down to the ice cap." Jim and Charlie climbed from
dawn until midnight to reach the base of the West Face. According
to Fowler, "We were completely exhausted."
Jim and Charlie started climbing at noon the following day, waiting
that long to recover from the effort of their approach. Mixed climbing
and the route's only pure rock pitch took them to the Col of Hope
where they planned to bivy. Unable to find a spot, they climbed
two more pitches where they were able to hack out a small ice ledge
to spend the night hanging off ice screws. And what was the climbing
like on the "world's greatest ice route"? "The route had everything,"
Jim said, "easy, hard, killer mixed, a few scary, unconsolidated
pitches. The Helmet is very unconsolidated snow. If you thrashed
too much the snow would just give way underneath your feet. We had
to swing our tools lightly and Zen our way up. The pitches above
the Helmet were perfect mixed climbing, killer rock and really good
sticker ice. We were just punching it up these steep grooves with
hardly any pro because it felt solid."
Their original plan was to haul all their gear over the summit and
descend the Compressor Route down the East Face back to Camp Bridwell.
But the hard, technical climbing made them opt to leave most of
their gear at the bivy above the Col of Hope and dash for the summit
unencumbered. "The headwall is 95 degrees, very pumper even though
our packs were practically empty." according to Jim. "The sun was
setting as I led the last pitch through these really sketchy cauliflower
towers." recalls Charlie. "It was a beautiful sight but we were
too exhausted to be excited about reaching the summit. We made ourselves
some hot soup and settled into a cold bivy in the shelter of a wind
tunnel." Jim added, "We climbed until 11:00 PM so that made it a
short night.."
With their gear still below on the West Face, Jim and Charlie had
to scrap the plan to rap down the fixed anchors on the Compressor
Route. At dawn they started back down the West Face. There aren't
many fixed anchors, so it's forty rappels off of v-threads and bollards.
Eighteen hours later they made it all the way to the base of the
route. With the weather deteriorating, they decided to descend over
the ice cap rather than reverse their initial approach. "The next
day we made it to Paso Marconi and off the ice cap before noon.
Then it was down off the glacier, into the forest and down into
town." Jim exulted. "We celebrated with beers, bife, and pappas
fritas. We slept in, had a huge breakfast and watched The Matrix.
But we still had to walk back up the hill to camp to complete the
loop." In all Jim and Charlie's adventure took seven days.
Asked if he wants to go back to Patagonia, Jim replied "Yes, Fitzroy
alpine style. If I told you what route I'd have to kill you!"
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