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| Our campsite in Frey |
During the mid to late 90s, I was every summer climbing in Frey. Named after Emilio Frey, a topographer and explorer who was the first superintendent of Parque Nacional Nahuel Huapi and cofounder of Club Andino Bariloche, the golden granite of the area is known internationally and holds some of the best rock climbing in Argentina. Located in the north of Patagonia in the Province of Rio Negro, the crag is visible from the city of Bariloche.
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| Looking across Lago Nahuel Huapi to Frey, above the city of Bariloche |
Even though I'd done a lot of routes in Frey in the past, it had been 16 years since I'd climbed there. In fact, I hadn't even done an honest-to-goodness multipitch rock climb since the summer of 2003. Not to mention that the hike into Frey requires hauling a heavy pack up 8 steep miles of trail with 2,500 feet of elevation gain. Plus, the approaches tend to be steep, long and complicated (at least compared to what I'm used to in Balcarce). Even though I felt confident that I was well-trained and my artificial hips could take the punishment, I also experienced the anxiety of possible failure.
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| Torre Principal on the approach hike to Frey. |
The plan was to drive to Bariloche with Martín, climb a couple weeks with him, then meet up with my old friend, Joe Cupps, from Laramie, Wyoming. Joe and I would stay climbing for rest of the summer. Gaby, whose father was having serious health problems, would come if she was able.
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| Arroyo Van Twitter on the hike in |
My hips handled the hike in without problems and the next morning Martín and I started out with a classic (and very popular) four pitch 5.9 line on the north face of Aguja Frey.
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| Martín gestures the way to Aguja Frey on our first morning |
I had some ambitions to try some hard stuff during my month in Frey, but I felt a bit shakey on this first route (even though it's easy). I could tell it would take me a while to get reoriented to doing long pitches on granite. I even made the classic rookie mistake of not taking enough long runners for a 150 foot pitch and I had to fight hard against rope pull to make the last traverse to the belay.
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| I didn't take enough long runners for the beautiful crux pitch of Sifuentes-Weber |
At the third belay we crossed paths with a couple climbing together, who both work in Refugio Frey. It turns out the girl, Pupi, was friends with Martin's son, Marcelo, who is a climber living in Bariloche. We watched Pupi do just fine, leading her first ever trad pitch (a beautiful 5.8 line straight up summit).
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| Los Refugieros sharing a belay on Aguja Frey with Laguna Toncek below |
After finishing up the four pitch route, we rappeled down the front of Aguja Frey and climbed up the two-pitch Diedro y Fisura de Jim.
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Aguja Frey and Yan Pipols. Diedro de Jim finishes on the right side of the notch
between the two formations and Fisura de Jim goes up the face above and right. |
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| I'm stoked to have enough long runners as I head out to climb Fisura de Jim |
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| Climbing the bomber 5.8 hand jams of Fisura de Jim |
The next day we went to climb Del Diedro on M2, followed by a two pitch climb on El Tonto.
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| The view looking towards Aguja Campanile from the approach to M2 |
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| Hiking up to M2, the closer formation up and right |
Del Diedro has to be one of the best one-pitch 5.9 routes anywhere in the world. After a short, exciting traverse, the route climbs steep, juggy cracks, straight to the summit of M2.
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| Climbing up Del Diedro |
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| On the summit of M2 |
After rapping off M2, Martìn and I hiked up to El Tonto where we climbed the first pitch of Le Gran Tom followed by Le Petit Pom. I was a bit surprised to see Le Petit Pom had been downgraded to 6a+ (from 6b). It had never seemed all that easy to me (I'd call it stout 10c) and it may be even a bit harder now, since a key hold has broken. Anyways, I was still happy to send it first go.
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| M2 is on the left, El Abuelo is in the middle and El Tonto is on the right |
Even though Le Petit Pom is protected by bolts (and one sling over a horn) there is no fixed belay. Because I figured Martìn might need some help from above, I set up a bomber nest of cams.
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| Three good cams on top of Le Petit Pom |
Our third day turned out to be a bust. We went to do Del Techo on El Abuelo but I messed up the direct start and started up the wrong way. After having to downclimb some loose choss, I decided Del Techo could wait for another day, and we went to try some nearby sport climbs that I had onsighted years ago. Unfortunately for me, I got my ass kicked on the sport routes and decided I'd had my fill for the day.
The next day Martín and I needed to hike back down to Bariloche to get more food supplies. We spent the night at his son's apartment and refueled with beer and pizza. Then we hiked back up to Frey with more food, ready for another round of climbing.
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| Martín back in camp after refueling in Bariloche |
In the morning we went back up to El Abuelo to climb Del Techo.
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| Heading out to El Abuelo |
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| Hiking along Laguna Toncek to reach El Abuelo |
This time I went the right way. The first pitch is a corner to a short squeeze chimney and felt way stout for the 5.8 grade. Doing it, I realized I had actually done it before: dèjá vu!
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| Getting ready to step into the squeeze chimney on the first pitch of El Abuelo. |
After several more easy pitches there is a long, beautiful crux pitch that goes up a crack to a roof, followed by an exciting traverse left and than an easier chimney above. I realize now that when I climbed here before (two different times? three different times?) I always chose to climb the crack to the right, instead of doing the funky looking crack on the left, which is the actual line of Del Techo. The line I've been doing all along is actually called "Tenés Que Entrar Para Poder Salir" and I've never really done the gnarly looking crack of Del Techo. Go figure. Anyways, the crack of my choice is a wonderful pitch.
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| The beautiful crux pitch of our route on El Abuelo |
The next day Martín said he was totally fried, so we decided to rest up and then try a line on El Piramidal the following day. Even though I'd climbed a lot in Frey, I'd never done a route on this formation, so I was stoked. Some kids we'd met from the USA told me about a nice hand crack they'd done (one of the pitches of Ignorancia Urbana) and we decided to try and mix this with some pitches from other routes (including a straight up finish at the end that's not marked in the guide) to get as direct a line as possible.
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| Hiking to El Piramidal |
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| Hiking past El Abuelo on the way to El Piramidal |
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| The routes on El Piramidal are on the golden wall to the right |
I was hoping to start with the first pitch of "Mastropiero Nunca Màs" / "Licuado de Banana" or maybe "Dedos Ensangrentados" but the first two lines join together at a bomb bay chimney (and I was not in the mood for that) and the other line really looks like a sick joke. I don't know, maybe the start of "Dedos Ensangrentados" is not as bad as it looks (rated 5.9 in the guide) but I have a feeling it is. Rather than take my chances getting my ass kicked by a scary-looking sandbag, I decided to start with the first part of "Shiva La De Los Cuatro Brazos" and traverse left to crack we'd heard about.
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| Checking out the way up on El Piramidal |
This turned out to work pretty well, although the traverse was a bit of a drag because of a big step down where the rope hooked behind a huge block. Anyways, from the end of the traverse, the route was three beautiful pitches straight up.
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| A nice hand crack on El Piramidal |
After finishing up these three pitches and summitting, the "easy" downclimb (literally: "destrepe fácil") turned out to be pretty weird. However, after scouting around a bit, we finally discovered that there is a fairly easy, albeit exposed, solution to getting down.
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| Looking for the easy downclimb |
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| Now it's a long walk back to the base |
That gave us one more day of climbing before we needed to head back down to Bariloche and pick up my friend Joe Cupps at the airport. We opted to do some of the one pitch routes behind and left of Aguja Frey.
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| All good things must come to an end |
When we got down to Bariloche there was an urgent e-mail from Joe and it turned out he had broken his collar bone skiing, just three days before the scheduled flight. There was no way he would be able to travel for several more weeks. Meanwhile, we learned that Gaby`s father had fallen into a coma and seemed unlikely to awake, so she had decided to make the long 1,500 mile trip (first from Rio Cuarto to Balcarce, then from Balcarce to Bariloche) to come and meet me. She was just arrving to Bariloche about the time we got to Marcelo's apartment. Martín, on the other hand, would have to go home home the next day because of work and family obligations.
Since Gaby had traveled so far, we decided to check in to a hotel for a couple of nights and spend a whole day just hanging out in Bariloche. Then, barring further problems with her dad, we would go four nights up to Frey (three days climbing) before going back down to Bariloche to check on her father's condition.
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| Gaby on the hike into Frey |
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| Resting at the bridge across Arroyo Van Twitter |
We climbed two days doing some of the one-pitch routes in and around the base of Aguja Frey and also one day climbing on El Tonto. A highlight was doing the second pitch of Le Gran Tom (Gaby climbed well!), an exciting and complex 6a on El Tonto,
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| Gaby top roping a one pitch route in the gully behind Aguja Frey |
When we got back down to Bariloche, the sad news was that Gaby's dad had died without ever coming out of the coma. My summer climbing trip was over and we got ready to drive the 900 mile trip back to Rio Cuarto, although first I needed to go back up to Frey and pack down about 50 pounds of our gear. Gaby was in no condition to help out, so the next day I hiked the streep 16 mile-round-trip alone and brought down the gear. My hips were a little sore after that, but Dr. De Smet's surgeries worked like a miracle come true.
Comment: Some of the scenery photos are older and were taken by Mike Pleinis in the 1990s.
