Fabian Lentsch, up-and-coming freerider from Austria, spent his summer in the winter of South America. In the second part of his rider blog, read about his days in Bariloche with Eric Zeller, Leo Rauch and photographer Jonas Blum and an attempt to climb 6000m.
The last few days in Bariloche were really cool. We even had a great powder day, which was quite surprising as spring had already started. Thrilled by all the fresh snow, we unfortunately didn't take the time to take any pictures. Full throttle skiing was more important to us!
Fabi's helmet cam shots from Bariloche
Chile/Argentina 2011 from Fabian Lentsch on Vimeo.
The next day, we set off towards the north. On the way north, we decided to drive through Pucon to climb the Villarica volcano. As you read in the last report, we had already tried to do this a few weeks earlier. However, the bad weather made this impossible. This time we had a cloudless sky and practically no wind. We started at the Villarica ski resort and reached the summit around 3.5 hours later. Once at the top, we could see the huge crater or hole. The view was also very unusual, as you are practically standing on the highest mountain in this area and almost everything around is flat. Unfortunately, the upper part of the mountain was not very pleasant to ski on as the snow was really icy. Further down, we had perfect firn snow.
Unfortunately, our plan to climb Aconcagua in winter came to nothing as we didn't have enough time and would most likely not have been able to get a permit. For certain ascent routes, you supposedly have to be 21 years old. Leo and I finally decided on the Marmolejo. At 6108 m, it is the southernmost 6000 m peak in the world. We drove towards Santiago and then turned east into the Maipo Valley just before the city. After a few kilometers of asphalt road, we drove a little further on a gravel road into the rear part of the very narrow valley. At the end of the valley, we could already see the San Jose volcano, behind which should be the Marmolejo. We parked our vans at 2300m and packed our backpacks for the next 5 days in the tent. Unfortunately, Jonas already had to prepare for his flight home. Leo and I "enjoyed" our last night in the camper as we were facing 4 cold nights in the tent.
Climbing Marmolejo
Day 1
The next morning we started our expedition. Jonas took a few last pictures of us and then drove back to Santiago in one of the vans. Leo and I decided to skip base camp and go straight to Camp 1. Of course, as always, we were well equipped. We didn't have an altimeter, map or compass. With information from tour reports fleetingly memorized, we finally walked through the Marmolejo valley. At some point, we decided to go up a few hundred meters on the right and pitched the tent there. It later turned out that we had gone from 2300 m to 4000 m.
Day 2
After a thoroughly pleasant night, we climbed another 200 meters in altitude and realised that we were completely wrong. So we decided to descend to the end of the valley, where we should have set up camp 1. So we spent our second night at around 3800 m.
Day 3
It was time to get up at 7am. We packed up our tent and the rest of our things and set up a small depot with surplus gas cartridges and clothes. At 8am we finally set off in the direction of camp 3, which was located at 4500m. We had to cross a steep snowfield up to the ridge at 4200 m, from where we could already see the summit. It later turned out that it was only the pre-summit that we could see in the distance. We also realized that there was very little snow up to the summit. Nevertheless, we decided to continue on skis and accept an unpleasant descent. When we found the camp, we set up our tent and immediately started melting snow, as our water bottles were empty and we also needed water for our food. As on the previous days, this consisted of soup and some strange soaking noodles. To acclimatize, we climbed another 250 metres in altitude.
Day 4
Once again, the alarm woke us from our sleep - or rather our nightly doze. Because we hadn't slept particularly well. This time, however, it was half past three in the morning. We got dressed quickly and got out of the tent. As it was cloudless and almost full moon, the moon illuminated the whole mountain, so we didn't even need headlamps. It was freezing cold and a light wind was blowing. The closer we got to the (pre)summit, the stronger and icier the wind became.
We reached the summit much later than expected. From around 5300 m, it became very difficult to breathe, so we walked very slowly and had to take breaks after just a few steps. The increasingly strong wind didn't make it easy for us either. We used all the larger stones to hide from the wind and rest. If I remember correctly, we even fell asleep once.
When we finally reached the summit, the joy was of course immense. The view with the surrounding peaks was simply indescribable and we were finally able to eat our summit chocolate, which we had managed to save with difficulty for the summit day.
We left our skis about 200 meters below the summit. Skiing down from 5900 m to 4500 m was definitely the most strenuous descent in my entire life. We had to spend another night at 4500 m and skied down to the parking lot the next day.
Back in civilization, I discovered that I had frozen my nose, cheek and all the toes on my right foot. For a while, these parts of my body were completely black. I'll spare you the pictures ;). For several weeks I could no longer feel my toes. They have recently "thawed" again and have already started their second moult.
We spent the last few days in a nice motel in the Maipo Valley to recover from the exertions. After a chilled day on the coast, I started my 45-hour journey home via Santiago, Buenos Aires, Sao Paulo, Amsterdam and Vienna. I arrived in Innsbruck at 4am on Monday and had to go straight to school - much to the delight of my teachers. Leo extended his trip and will climb more mountains in Peru.
The whole trip was a great success and a new, adventurous experience. I can well imagine spending next summer in South America again. :)
I wish all readers a snowy and injury-free start to the season!
Text: Fabian Lentsch
Pictures: Jonas Blum, Fabian Lentsch, Leo Rauch
