BURSTAfter 19 days on the east face of the Central Tower of Paine in Chilean Patagonia, it took some time for Nico Favresse, Siebe Vanhee, and Sean Villanueva O’Driscoll of Belgium to get used to walking on horizontal ground again. The experience was intense, marked by bad weather and harsh climbing conditions. As Villanueva O’Driscoll put it in the American Alpine Journal, “We just barely managed to pull it off!” And as Favresse said in Alpinist, “This is definitely the longest I have pushed it on a wall climbing hard pitches in such poor weather.”
El Regalo de Mwoma (VI 5.10 A4) was originally an aid route established in 1992 by a British team consisting of Noel Craine, Paul Pritchard, Sean Smith, and Simon Yates (AAJ 1993). The line follows an obvious crack system that cuts straight up the steep east face. The route first caught the Belgians’ attention in 2009, when Favresse and Villanueva O’Driscoll free climbed the South African Route to its right. The crack on El Regalo de Mwoma appeared extremely thin, and reports of extensive knifeblade nailing suggested it was unlikely to go free. Still, the only way to know for sure was to try.
The team walked into the park on January 20, 2017, with their first load. On January 24 they climbed and fixed two pitches on the lower slabs. Two additional carries followed, along with food and gear preparation for the wall. During storms, they sheltered in caves at the base. Over two more days in the first week, they managed to climb and fix the remainder of the lower slabs. These first seven pitches followed a direct line to the main crack system, unlike the original route, which traversed in from the left. To the Belgians, this variation seemed more logical.
On January 31 they committed to the wall in capsule style, using two portaledges. Their first camp was set above a comfortable ledge at the top of pitch seven. A few days later they moved to a dramatic hanging camp above pitch 13, directly over the two crux pitches of the route.
The first crux, pitch 12, originally pitch 18 and rated A4, follows a spectacular dihedral with difficult friction stemming and a very hard final move, freed at 5.13b. The second crux, pitch 13, is a variation to the original line. The team traversed left into a different crack system one pitch lower than the British ascent, avoiding a section rated A3 on the original topo. Their variation climbs a sustained and technical face with small crimps, protected mainly by small wires in a thin crack, also graded 5.13b.
Unstable weather, strong winds, cold temperatures, snow, and iced cracks made free climbing extremely difficult. On the days they could climb at all, they managed only one to three pitches before retreating to the portaledges to warm up and restore circulation. Six days were so severe that they did not leave the portaledges at all. Time was spent reading, playing music, meditating, and doing yoga. One highlight was Villanueva O’Driscoll’s 36th birthday, celebrated with popcorn and music. Favresse played guitar, Villanueva O’Driscoll played the tin whistle, and Vanhee experimented with the mouth harp.
On February 14, their 15th day on the wall, the team finally caught a clear weather window and sprinted to the summit under blue skies. Despite it being Valentine’s Day, there was little time to linger, as the wind on top was bitterly cold. They descended back to the portaledges just as snowfall resumed.
At that point, pitch 13 still needed to be redpointed. Food supplies were nearly exhausted, as they had planned for only 15 days, but the team chose to ration and wait. On February 18, their 19th day on the wall, after three more days of bad weather and with no food left, they prepared to descend. Favresse had already missed his return flight to Europe. They waited until the afternoon in the hope of one last opportunity. As Villanueva O’Driscoll described it, “our miracle arrived.” The wind dropped and the snow eased for a few hours, just enough time for Favresse to redpoint pitch 13. The team then rappelled through the night in heavy snowfall.
The team climbed El Regalo de Mwoma, 1,200 metres in length, in 26 pitches, compared to the original 36. The final grade was 5.13b. The ascent was completed team free, with followers mostly climbing free without jumars, except during the worst weather. The hardest climbing lies between pitches 10 and 16 and includes two pitches at 5.13b, one at 5.12d, and two at 5.12b. The remaining pitches are mostly in the 5.10 to 5.11 range, often complicated by icy cracks and snow covered holds. No bolts were added, and much of the protection relied on small wires.
Reflecting on the climb, Villanueva O’Driscoll called it “an incredible adventure,” adding that it demanded a fierce effort. In his words, it was “a proper battle, a proper fight!”
A 2017 film about the expedition just dropped online called Notes from the Wall, check it out below.
Information from the American Alpine Journal, Canadian Alpine Journal and Alpinist.
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