Climbing the Red Pillar on Aguja Mermoz town to town in 24 hours

I was initially unsure if I wanted to go back into the mountains of Patagonia after John Bolte died. I went out to climb with Cedar one day but it didn’t feel quite right and we happily bailed after Cedar managed to pour boiling water on himself while cooking dinner. Shortly after, another micro-window was on the horizon and I made plans to climb with Pedro Odell, a local 18 year old who I had recently met in the mountains. The wind in the afternoon of the window was looking problematic so I suggested that we go for the Red Pilar on Aguja Mermoz (https://www.mountainproject.com/route..., a long, hard, and sustained free climb that goes up the east face of Mermoz and is relatively well protected. Pedro and I racked up for the climb and opted to go light and fast in a single push from town. I went to bed the night before at 7pm with my alarm set for 11:45pm to get picked up at midnight by Max, Pedro’s dad. Max drove us to El Pilar and we began hiking at 12:32am.

We chatted for the first hour and then enjoyed the silent of the night as we booked it through the forest and up the trail to Laguna de Los Tres. We quickly found ourselves in a cloud which I knew to expect. The forecast showed the low clouds dissolving by 6am and perhaps by 4:30am, we could see the stars… perfect timing. We motored up the glacier in our crampons and made it to Paso Superior just after 5am. We stopped for maybe 20 minutes to boil water before downclimbing to Glacier Superior and hiking to the base of the ice slope below the Red Pillar by first light. The bergschrund looked relatively chill to cross and a game of Rock, Paper, Scissors, settled that Pedro would be leading it. He climbed up placing a couple screws for a few moves of steep ice before passing over to the 50 degree snow/ice field above. He placed a Microtraxion and continued up as I simulclimbed behind with one ice axe in hand.

Pedro got us to rock and I led a short pitch to the first bolted anchor of the route just as the sun crested the horizon. We were off the ice… perfect timing. Pedro had climbed the first 4 pitches of the route in the past and offered to take the lead of the first 3 pitches. He led up the relatively easy pitches quickly depositing us at the base of the first crux. Pitch 4 is rated 7a or 5.11d and appeared to be a steep and perfect splitter crack ranging in size from fingers to hands. I had heard at least 3 accounts of people getting shut down on this pitch and being forced to aid climb it, eventually leading to a bail… this was also the story of Pedro’s last effort.

I quested up the steep splitter and climbed my way to the top of the pitch happy to have sent without too much fight. The next pitch is also rated 7a and turned out to be significantly more difficult as I was forced to hand jam and icy crack at the crux roof. I finished that pitch panting and very satisfied to send. I linked the next two pitches for 60 meters of perfect hand crack and made it to the base of the final 7a. I wanted to send badly and shed a layer in preparation to try hard. I made it most of the way up but a foot slipped and I fell out of finger lock as I was clipping a cam. With the extra rope out, I took a sizable fall, perhaps more than 20 feet. My freeclimbing pursuit was now over and my mentality shifted to climb as quickly as possible to get to the summit before it got too windy. It aligned nicely with conditions since the terrain from here on became more icy and cold as the sun fell around the corner. Pedro took over the lead and tied our whip count with 1 each. I took back over and French freed my way to the top of the vertical terrain.

The quality of the route blew me away. The climbing was steep and sustained at 5.11+ on perfect red granite. We arrived back into the sun as we crested the ridge which was a huge relief for our cold bodies. My hands were throbbing from being pumped and were bleeding profusely… typical. Pedro and I ditched our boots and tag line and continued up the ridge to the summit. The wind was picking up and I almost made the call to bail. After a tagging the summit, we down-scrambled and rappelled back to our boots while saddlebagging the ropes on each rappel. Once we made it back to the east face, the wind died down and I felt more at ease.

Put up by Kurt Albert and Bernd Arnold with a power drill in 1999, all the anchors on the Red Pillar are comprised of quality stainless steel expansion bolts… quite the treat for a place like Patagonia. I led the first half and Pedro brought us down to the base in perhaps 2 hours total. The wind picked up on the very last rappel and began to rage as we walked across the glacier to Paso Superior… once again, perfect timing.

We made it back to El Chalten at 11:50pm after what would be the longest day out for either of us to date… 23:20 on the go and nearly 24 hours town to town. I made the claim it was one of the best days of climbing I’ve ever had and Pedro quickly agreed.