CENTRAL TOWER OF PAINE
Paul Pritchard, Noel Craine, Sean Smith and Simon Yates added a fifth climb on the East/North-East flank (above, top right) in 1991/92. These cliffs were first climbed in 1974 by the obvious diedre-line in the sunlit area. Three lines were then added to the face to the left (see topo p81). The British team took a line up the right of the shadowy face, based on an impending diedre (the Great Scoop), followed by a chimney (the Coffin). Above these, at the 29th pitch, deteriorating conditions, plus food and fuel shortages forced a retreat from the face. Five days later, Smith and Pritchard, after a night of jumaring, pushed the route to the summit block. The pair managed to remove the bulk of the fixed equipment during their descent. The slab apron below the face was pointlessly equipped with over sixty bolts by Spanish climbers during an earlier attempt.]

    The Great Scoop proved the hardest part of the Paine climb. It had two long pitches, the first led by Pritchard, with a major fall, the second (opposite, far left) by Craine. “It had a stack of loose filing cabinets slotted into the top of it. I was belayed directly below, in the path of any keyed blocks he chose to unlock. To pass the blocks Noel first had to expand them with a pin, a delicate manoeuvre, and then aid up on micronuts. I had nowhere to run. He would say to himself, ‘I’m weightless. I have no mass.’ Using that meditation, even the most dreadful RURP placement could be forced into offering some support.”

    Opposite, below right: Simon Yates climbing up to the foot of the Coffin pitch using a crack in the wall of the approach groove (5.6, A2+). Photos: Sean Smith.

    Above, top left: At the Portaledge Camp at Christmas – Yates abseiling. The climbing involved exploiting the short spells of good weather between the regular Patagonian storms, all from this rugged but serviceable hanging campsite. Photo: Sean Smith.

    High on the face a pendulum gained a crack system which led to less steep terrain a few pitches below the summit. At this critical point (above, bottom) a major thaw soon had the rocks streaming with meltwater, forcing a return to the valley. After a morale-boosting session in the fleshpots of Puerto Natales Pritchard and Smith felt ‘rejuvenated’ enough to return (top, centre) to the mountain, jumar 1,000m to the high point, and tackle the final difficulties (opposite, top right). After ten hours of climbing (including a fall) they finally gained the summit area but, with time pressing, did not climb the final icy seven-metre obelisk. Photos: Noel Craine (bottom) and Sean Smith.

MT ASGARD (Baffin Island)
Mt Asgard is a magnet to big-wall climbers, particularly the imposing western flank (opposite, top left). In 1994 Simon Yates, Paul Pritchard, Noel Craine (above, left top, L–R), Steve Quinlan and Keith Jones set up a boulder/snowhole camp on the glacier below North Peak’s West Face.

    The plan was to tackle the West Face without the use of bolts. But whereas the Paine Towers are riven with vertical cracks, the Baffin walls are ice-eroded and blanker. Americans who had attempted the Asgard walls believed that any future route would require bolting, or at least riveting, to link features and make progress.

    Bad weather extended the schedule and Jones and Yates were compelled to leave for home. Luckily the Spaniard Jordi Tosas was able to team up with big-wall expert Quinlan to make up the foursome.

    The line chosen had the most linking features, starting with an obvious series of flakes which led towards a corner system in the centre of the face. A long free pitch, then a section of aid, was followed by a pendulum to gain the Great Flake which Craine climbed free at 5.10 (opposite, top right). On the wall above vague seams and incipient features (blank sections turned by pendulums or riveted), led to the central corner where a Portaledge camp was sited (above, centre).

    In the corner the aid difficulties unexpectedly increased (above, right – Quinlan leading) with brittle rock and shallow seams, climbed with copperheads and birdbeaks, giving two A4 pitches. A pendulum gave access to Pitch 10 – A2/A3 cracks (opposite, below), which led to a skyhook and rivet traverse to gain access to the diorite vein.

    After eleven days – climbing in the Arctic light, non-stop, day and night – the final seven pitches (5.8 – 5.10) brought all four climbers to the summit. (above, left bottom, L–R: Tosas, Craine, Pritchard, Quinlan). They had kept the drilling (all by hand) to 36 rivets and 10 bolts. There followed a 16-abseil descent de-equipping the route of the fixed ropes and camping gear. Photos: Pritchard Collection.