UKH

I thought this was extraordinarily beautiful:

https://vimeo.com/408175270?fbclid=IwAR2xmQnDkUtgrdkjYxp0Z9l7VxFqxYuJ4_bSXR...

Did you look at the other films of the whole climb.  I especially thought this one was amazing

vimeo.com/392129258

The climbing through the mushrooms, wow.  I thought the headcam footage really added to the experience of watching when usually it is just distracting.

Good grief, is nothing sacred, it's like Mt Blanc or Everest, punters crawling all over it....

Very nice! Thanks for posting

thanks Rob

Wow. Thanks for posting. The summit headwall and the ice chimneys look incredible as does the whole of the Patagonian icecap.

Perfect weather!

Those 'mushrooms' are crazy !  Forgive my ignorance (I don't do winter) but the lead climber seemed to be climbing the summit mushroom with a pair of sharpened snowshoes .... in his hands !

They are 'ice axe wings' - see e.g. https://www.instagram.com/p/BNSkUy9joht/?taken-by=peter_graham_climbing

It went something like this.

Dad.

10pm. How's the packing going , son?

Son.

OK,dad, almost there.

Later. Sorted now, just got the ice wings to make.

Dad, ******** ****** ** *.

3am. A lot of alu swarf  on the workshp floor. Thank f*ck for that . They might work. Thanks for helping to make them, dad.

7.30am dad gets to work in Kendal after driving from coniston to Manchester airport and back.

(Edited version).

Seriously good footage. Amazing how full on the conditions look . The north face in particular is almost totally rimed.

Thanks for the info, they look ingenious if a little heath Robinson ! Someone was obviously in the boy scouts

Magnificent! Even looked quite busy up there!

Chris

Could have done with a pair, but they didn’t exist. Might have got over the mushrooms. Scary days those.

The ones in the footage here look (at a distance) like commercial products. And indeed googling now I see that such things are available to buy off-the-shelf, e.g. https://grivel.com/products/wings

Your highpoint looks pretty wild, Phil.

It was. So near but yet so far, about 40m actually. Two wings in Tom’s hands. No stopping him!

Am I correct in understanding that you got to the base of the mushroom - so far as you could see, obviously? And up to that point had you found any climbable ice of the type that Maestri claimed to have encountered, or did you have to stick to rock?

Fantastic.  Thanks for posting.  

It is interesting that he graciously includes a credit to the team that "opened" the route for the season. It appeared that at times they were simply hooking into bomber pre-made placements in cleared runnels. For the first team up clearing all the rime to get at the ice and then making the placements, it must be a very different undertaking. Presumably Abalakov belays/ab points are in situ too.

I feel sorry for them. Go to Cerro Torre for a quiet day cragging and some a*se with a drone shows up!

But I bet they'll have been really excited to spot themselves in the video.

An Alpinists wet dream, such beauty.

Amazing video, thanks for posting that

What a fantastic peak. Horribly steep though. And the ice on top looks to me like the stuff of nightmares to be honest. Or let's say not my cup of tea

I think it is what is sometimes dismissed as "mountain porn". But who cares, especially at the moment.

It's one of the most amazing videos I have ever seen, but then I am rather attached to Cerro Torre. I should point out that it is against park regulations to fly a drone in the National Park.