Riders on the Storm - Climbing in Patagonia's Torres del Paine

In January of 2017 Mayan Smith-Gobat, Drew Smith and I attempted to free the East Face of Torre Central's Riders on the Storm 1000m. This route has not seen a free ascent due to an unavoidable blank section of wall that requires mandatory aid climbing.

The season prior, in February of 2016, Mayan, along with Ines Papert, discovered a detour to surpass the blank wall. They equipped five pitches, yet the season ran short, and they did not have the chance to free them.

Our attempt resulted in five weeks of grueling effort to get the rope up the wall. We encountered constant storms of snow, and 100k winds. Using ice climbing and aid tactics, we arrived at the five pitch variation, and had just two days of good weather to work on freeing them.

I discovered a hanging corner, with a technical slab which I equipped with a single bolt and a piton. While Mayan and I both managed to do all the moves on all the pitches, we did not have the chance to complete them due to ensuing storms.

We hope to come back to the climb but there has been significant rock fall down the line over the past three years. Due to the warming and variable climate, it is currently not safe to return.

Heres a short edit of our efforts.

Photo by Drew Smith