The Avellano Towers 2014 - Part 1

The unclimbed North East face of the South Avellano Tower. (Photo John Crook)

Jim Donini had offered to show us cool unexplored mountains and we were hooked. After two months of bumming around in Chalten the blast of enthusiasm provided by Jim and Angela was phenomenal. From the deck of their house by Lago General Carrera we plotted.

Jims next-door neighbour, Lito Tejada-Flores had climbed Fitzroy in 1968 with Yvon Chouinard, Dick Dorworth and Doug Tomkins. From Yosemite, the crucible of granite big wall climbing, they had driven south in a van surfing and climbing until reaching Fitzroy.

After succeeding in climbing Fitzroy, the third accent of the mountain and the first accent of the “fun hogs route”, they all made it back to California. All however were highly influenced by their experiences. This trip and Patagonia more generally changed them and remade the rest of their lives.

Lito now lives in Northern Patagonia for six months of the year. From the house he built, perched on a marble headland he has an unbroken view of unclimbed mountains surrounding the lake. Lito, whilst no longer climbing mountains, maintains a huge passion for mountaineering and was doing a good job of making John even keener than he already was.

The Avellano Towers from the South.

Lito was showing us aerial photographs of the Avellano Towers, which his wife Lindi had taken whist documenting Lago General Carrera as part of the campaigns against Patagonian dam building. The photos clearly showed a big granite wall and Jim who had climbed there previously vouched for its existence.

Aerial photo of the Avellano Towers from the east

With the energy flowing from Lito and Jim the possibilities of failure were low. As we had a few more drinks and discussed the logistics the possibility of failure fell to nil.

Unfortunately the possibility of failure when we sobered up was higher than nil.

Add the long approach and big wall things were less certain.

Jim shamelessly sandbagged us into a “short approach” which left us panting for breath as we wallowed in the wake of the seventy year old. In our defence we had heavier bags.

We found the big wall and it was big. It proved too big for us on that occasion. After valiant failure we retreated licking our wounds.

There had been three major problems:

1.         Not enough food;

2.         Not enough gear;

3.         Not strong enough.

I returned to work, which was quite frankly duller than Patagonia. My resolutions to never return evaporated like the morning dew to be replaced by psych.

The South Avellano Tower at the head of the valley

The first step was recruiting Reeve, this hopefully dealt with problem three.

Applications for MEF and BMC funding were submitted and John after briefly wavering threw his hat in with us. A chance encounter with Will at Beaston Tor saw us up to the target number of four participants, suckers, marks or willing victims.

My personal kit seemed to take up a worryingly large amount of the house

Things came together, we begged borrowed and stole a huge amount of kit. Rab went out of their way to sort us out with a load of their gear, which solved problem two. This ensured we could devote our money to arranging boats and gauchos to carry all our food, solving problem one.

Realising the pile of equipment was far too enormous to approach the towers using the route from Buria Murta John and I used in February we concocted a ridiculous plan.

Step 1 - Boat across Lago General Carrera

Lago General Carrera is big with over 1,850 km squared of surface area. It is also deep, 850 meters deep at the western end and always windy. How hard could finding a boat across the lake prove to be?

Step 2 - Access the Towers by travelling up the Avellano River valley.

The route in from Buria Murta involved a hideous cow trail, which gained and lost approximately 600 meters of height in the first 7km. This was followed by 5 km of the most exerting jungle bashing and river-walking I’ve ever encountered. This nicely warms one up for bypassing a 70 meter cliff band by clinging to tree roots on a vegetated tree rake. Following this some nice granite slabs, polished and impassable when wet lead to death moraine screes and a high coll. From here a short romp down an ice filled gully might gain the base of the route.

Areal photo of the mountains with the Avellano River running down to Lago General Carrera

Having perused google earth I knew the following: The Avellano valley only gains 500 meters in total from the lake to the base of the route; there are signs of agriculture and habitation as far as the confluence at 25 km. Using copious amounts of optimism we decided there would be someone willing to packhorse equipment up the valley in exchange for cash.

In December 2014 we returned with a huge amount of optimism and a plan involving boats and horses.

The route from Buria Murta involved river walking up the valley below

Thanks to the BMC and the MEF for helping to meet the cost of this expedition.

Thanks to Rab equipment for helping with the gear we required.

And finally thanks to Outside for providing all the kit we had forgotten we required at incredibly short notice!