Patagonian Climbing

Some defend the magnitude of Patagonian climbing by arguing that despite only reaching 4,000 meters, Patagonia offers walls with slopes that leave nothing to envy the Himalayas, or that the "alpine" starts at sea level, where numerous glaciers shed their ice.

If there is anything that the Patagonia teaches us it is that the experience a mountain offers a climber cannot be measured in meters. It is something that would require a far more complex metric that, if it did exist, would be absolutely meaningless.

This is not to say that the great mountains do not offer a particular attraction with their size and promise of limitless horizons. It means that other smaller peaks, often hidden, offer huge challenges that can mark a before and after in one’s life.

Head wall on Cerro Torre

Summit of Fitz Roy

Cerro Torre massif