Italian spiders rock Chile's Cochamo valley

A small Italian Ragni expedition has just returned from a successful 40-day trip to Chile, where it made the most of fantastic weather conditions to climb series of routes in the Azufre and Cochamó valley.

PlanetMountain.com

March 2005

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A small Italian expedition has just returned from a successful 40-day trip to Chile, where it made the most of fantastic weather conditions to climb series of routes in the Azufre and Cochamò valleys.

The group, comprised of Simone Pedeferri, Giovanni Ongaro, Lorenzo Lanfranchi, Christian Gianatti, Ismaele Fosti and Angelo Forcignano first travelled to the Torri del Brujo in the Azufre valley where they made the first repeat and free ascent of 'Il Condor', climbed by S. Stucchi in 2003. The 300m route was climbed on-sight and graded 7b+ max. Pedeferri, Lanfranchi, Ongaro and Forcignani then made the first ascent of two 200m lines on the pillar opposite Torre Brujo, calling them "El Tremendo" and '"Iguana."

The team then moved from the remote valley to the extraordinary granite big wall in the Cochamò valley. After a bout of food poisening the Ragni climbers repeated a series of routes including 'Andala', 7b 400m, and 'La vista sul Condor', before making the first ascent of the 700m 'Nunca mas marisco', 7c (6c obl.) on the Central Trinidad wall.

The Azufre and Cochamò valleys receive 300+ days of rain a year, but the team enjoyed more than a fornight of cobalt blue skies.