Cordon Adela - Adela Central, Sur, Norte to col de la Esperanza.

TN. Travesía Sur a Norte

1500m D

Eduardo Brenner and Silvia FitzPatrick (Argentina), October 1988.

Description. Climb any of the existing routes to the summit of Adela Sur and continue traversing the Adela summit ridge northward, past the Central and North summit to a long descent to the col de la Esperanza. This involves a lot of treacherous and time consuming weaving around cornices and snow mushrooms.

History. Eduardo and Silvia climbed Adela Sur via the SE face, to the col Trento and near the summit of Adela Central established a snowcave that they used on subsequent attempts. During their final attempt they climbed to col de la Esperanza and attempted to reach the snowfield on top of Cerro Torre’s south face, hoping to traverse across it to the upper portion of the Compressor route. However, featureless mediocre quality rock hindered their progress and they were eventually forced to retreat somewhere above the col. They descended to Circo de los Altares and returned to the Torre valley via the Standhardt col. Quite an adventure!

One month later, in a tragic river rafting accident Eduardo lost his life, leaving the Argentine climbing community shaken by the loss of one of its best and surely its most charismatic alpinist.

Descent. The first ascentionist descended north from the col de la Esperanza, to Circo de los Altares, and back to the Torre valley via the Standhardt col.

Photos (click to enlarge)

Cerro Grande, Cerro El Ñato, Cerro

Adela Sur, Central y Norte - east face