Torres del Paine

On arrival at the foot of the Central Tower of Paine, 2,454m, this team discovered that their original objective of the S Ridge was already occupied by a strong Swiss party, so they turned their attention to a new big-wall route on the W Face. In a period of six weeks of some of the worst weather in living memory, they climbed pitches between E3 and E5, with artificial sections of A2+, to within six pitches of the summit, leaving fixed ropes and all their lead gear at this spot before descending. After about a week of waiting, the weather seemed to improve slightly, so they made their bid for the summit. However, they found that continual lashing by the wind had frayed the fixed ropes, making them unusable and their lead ropes inaccessible, so they had no option but to clear what they could and descend.