Relying on the Unreliable

It only took three months to get the weather window I dreamed of—three months of Southern Patagonian winter gales, three months of hunkering down in the tiny Argentinian town of El Chaltén with only sporadic skiing, three months of drinking maté and scarfing empanadas and endless rounds of off-season ping-pong. In that time of short days and long storms, Scott Becker and Carlos Suarez, two European climbers, and I were the only foreign visitors in El Chaltén for the austral winter. Scott and Carlos had their eyes set on a highly coveted winter ascent of the Ragni Route on the West Face of Cerro Torre. I’d come for the skiing. It wasn’t clear whose goal was more farfetched.

A week before my return flight north, it finally arrived: a stretch of cold, clear skies extending off the calendar that both locals and renowned alpinists deemed unprecedented. Pedro Fina, a local friend and trekking guide, and I shouldered oversized packs with