First ascent of El Flechazo

El Flechazo (Cupid's Arrow)

First ascent on Cerro Standhart, Argentina, Patagonia Febuary 2020 with Nicolas Favresse. We spent three days on the wall, and celebrated my birthday with some cake, singing, and ice cream on the summit.



On the approach walking up Cerro Torre valley we didn’t have any objective, no expectations, we were just going up there to enjoy the moment, the top far from our thoughts, without importance, accepting the possibility of not reaching any summit, we were going up there to live an experience, to learn and have a good time.

Most walls were either covered in rime or soaking wet. Nico spotted a nice, clean, dry line on Cerro Standhardt. “We might as well try that!” So we did.



We named the route “El Flechazo”, Cupid’s arrow in Spanish, as an anti-missile, make love not war kind of thing, to counter the missile names of the other routes on that face (Exocet, Tomahawk). Love stops missiles. However some seemed to think that we were suggesting that Cupid’s arrow has caused more pain and human damage than any missile in history. Whatever way you choose to look at it “El Flechazo” is more powerful!



Music:

Outro song is a cover from SUMO called "El Reggae de Paz Y Amor" recorded at a party at the Hem Herhu hostel in El Chalten, with amazing voice from José Del Castillo and additional instruments from the monkeys, Jim Reynolds, Michael Brines, Jon Griffin, Tad McCrea and others.

Intro music is from a jamming session at Alexis' birthday Asado in El Chalten with all the local titanes and monos.