MOUNTAINEERING
brought them to Argentina which was followed by a long and complicated journey overland to fi nally arrive at the towers. Three months were then spent camped beneath the Central Tower of Paine. Near the end of the trip the pair succeeded in making the fi rst ascent of the Central Tower via the Rio Ascencio – an impressive effort for the time, up one of the most impressive rock pillars on earth. After stocking up on noodles, Smash and dulce du leche (a local caramel delicacy) in Puerto Natales, we walked into the Bader Valley, our home for three-and-a-half weeks. Having set up a reasonably comfortable basecamp amongst a cluster of trees, we began ferrying gear up to an advance camp. Finding a suitable place, we got to work preparing the area. It was more involved than we anticipated due to the strong winds, and we were left cowering behind boulders during the stronger gusts. After digging some snow walls against an overhung boulder, we thought we’d created a fairly sheltered spot to put up a tent. I started putting the tent up from the inside and whilst I waited for Twid and Jerry to tie it down, an almighty gust came, lifting the tent
“DESCENDING THEIR FIXED LINES DOWN THE STEEPEST SECTION OF WALL, THEY HAD TO PULL THEMSELVES DOWN THE ROPES AS THE UPDRAFT WAS SO STRONG.”
The South Face of the South
Tower of Paine: Raphael Jochaud nears the end of the fi xed lines.
up, with me inside, and blowing it over into the boulder fi eld. Bruised and disorientated I hung on to the tent with one hand and a boulder for dear life with the other, until the wind abated enough to fl ip the tent back into its alcove with me still inside. We hastily weighed the tent down with bags of rocks and were soon huddled inside our, now highly-ventilated, fabric shelter. For Twid, the wall we had our sights on was unfi nished business. In 2006, Twid and Stu McAleese had inched their way through the complex and dangerous loose rock on the central section, beginning to think they’d broken through the most diffi cult ground when they were hit by a savage
46 | 70TH ANNIVERSARY | FOR BRITISH CLIMBING AND WALKING SINCE 1944
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