Go back to Frey.
Go back to Aguja Frey.
Torre Principal.
Incessant wind and cold for a third night in a row. A bit of a lull in the morning and so figured we should tick off the more exposed formation as we were running out of remaining days. 2.5 hours of slogging up gullies put us at the base of the notch that marks the start of the Normal Route on Torre Principal. We scrambled up and over the notch and got hit by what felt like a freight train of wind. Fortunately, our route of choice, Chocolate Liquido (6a+), was only 4 pitches long. Though the day started out partly cloudy, things were quickly becoming sunless, cold, and very windy. Very good crack climbing on pitches two and three (pitch 3 was not the advertised “4” ~ 5.6…) and a classic finishing, face climbing pitch (where all routes join the Normal). A handful of single rope raps and some roped down climbing put us back at the base. Having gotten a taste of the coldness on the west side of the ridge, we were cured of our desire to go back for Total Sinestro route – a nice looking route that according to a local climber (Mike from Switzerland who seemed to live in Frey for long periods of time) required “swimming weather” to be tolerable.
Photos
Morning glow on the east face of Torre Principal (not the day we climbed it).
Shirley on the morning approach to Torre Principal. The day started out cold of course but without the strong winds we’ve seen on previous mornings…this would not last.
Slogging up to Torre Principal. Despite multiple layers & jackets, we never really broke a sweat (Feb. 2015).
Ridge scramble marks the final section of the approach to the base.
Leading the first pitch of Chocolate Liquido. The obvious dihedral above me is the money pitch of the route. Normal route is just to the left (Feb. 2015).
Views from low on Chocolate Liquido (Feb. 2015).
Shirley on pitch 1 of Chocolate Liquido. It was cold and very windy (Feb. 2015).
Starting up the fun pitch 2 of Chocolate Liquido (Feb. 2015).
Looking back at Shirley from the pitch 2 dihedral (Feb. 2015).
Looking to exit the wideness at the top via some face climbing to the right – it worked (Feb. 2015).
Shirley topping out on pitch 2 of Chocolate Liquido (Feb. 2015).
Starting up pitch 3 of Chocolate Liquido (Feb. 2015).
More views from the route (Feb. 2015).
The book shows this pitch as being rated 4 (~5.6)…pulling over the bulge using the fist crack felt significantly harder than that (Feb. 2015).
Happy if cold Shirley on pitch 3 top out (Feb. 2015).
Fourth and final pitch – here we join the Normal Route for the beautiful summit block pitch (Feb. 2015).
Ref. Frey is in the left hand valley; El Cohete Lunar is in the right hand valley (not visible).
Fun face climbing on perfect golden granite (Feb. 2015).
Shirley on the final pitch (Feb. 2015).
Click for video (Feb. 2015).
Almost on the summit…
The lower spires of Torre Principal..as seen from the summit (Feb. 2015).
Shirley on the summit of Torre Principal (Feb. 2015).
Shirley rapping off the summit in deteriorating weather (Feb. 2015).
Clouds rolling through (Feb. 2015).
A series of raps and some roped down climbing of the Normal Route brought us back to the base (Feb. 2015).
Hiking down in frigid temps and increasing winds (Feb. 2015).
Lago Schmoll from the hike down (Feb. 2015).
Back to camp (Feb. 2015).
Refugio Frey (Feb. 2015).
Celebrating with a bottle of wine and some freeze dried food (Feb. 2015).
Whey simply heat the kettle? Nuke it!
Go to El Cohete Lunar.
Go back to Frey.