New route on Cerro Arenales, Patagonia, climbed by Rebeca Cáceres, Nadine Lehner, Isidora Llarena

At 3,437m, Cerro Arenales is the second-highest peak on the Northern Patagonian Icefield and the fifth-highest in the Patagonian Andes. In 1958, a Chilean-Japenese expedition made the first two ascents, via the south face. Eric Shipton’s legendary 1964 expedition made the third ascent via the same route, but since then this remote peak has seen only one other ascent. Our team scouted a route on the north face of Cerro Arenales during our 2021 expedition to the Colonia Glacier, to make the first ascent of Cerro Silvia, a beautiful and remote peak named for legendary explorer Silvia Metzeltin.

With the support of the Grit and Rock Award, we organized a return expedition to attempt this route. We accessed the icefield via the Nef Valley, then crossed the Cachet Dos basin by packraft. The lower Colonia Glacier is very broken, so we traveled on the side of the glacier and via a system of nearby valleys to reach the main "pancake" of the Northern Icefield. From there, we crossed to the base of Arenales and established a base camp. We ascended a series of ramps just east of Cerro Garcia to reach a high plateau at 2,600m, where we built a high camp.

On November 3, during a warm, calm weather window, we attempted our planned route, but got turned around after six pitches of moderate ice climbing (AI 3) by enormous open crevasses bisecting the route. We scouted a second possible route, and decided to make another attempt on November 4. The route required dropping 150m down from the plateau to enter a steep ramp, where we climbed moderate snow and ice before weaving through crevassed cauliflower formations to gain the less steep slopes above. 3km of snow travel later, we reached the steeper mushrooms of ice and snow that often punctuate the high peaks of Patagonia. From the summit, we had spectacular views to the Pacific Ocean, out to Argentina, and to the Southern Icefield.

After descending from Arenales, we spent several days hunkering back at our Colonia base camp (and even built a snow cave that fit our packrafts as couches!). Once the storm broke, we continued our traverse south, crossing the Cordon Aysén towing a packraft as a sled. Two days later, we reached our cache of food and fuel, west of Cerro Bonete, our second climbing objective. We spent two days waiting out weather, gathering information on snow conditions and upcoming weather patterns. After learning that we would have very little climbable weather for the next ten days, we made the challenging decision to continue on with our traverse.

We exited the Northern Icefield near Cerro El Mono, to the east of Glacier Steffans, and spent five days ferrying loads down to Rio Huemules. From there, we paddled west and south to Fiordo Steffans, where we met a boat and returned to Caleta Tortel.

The 19 days we spent in and around the icefield left a huge mark on us as alpinists, and as humans. Our ascent of Arenales was the result of two years of researching, planning, training, and working hard to realize this dream. The traverse of the icefield brought us to places more remote and inspiring than we could have imagined, and it is hard not to dream of returning.

by Nadine Lehner

Thanks to Grit & Rock, NOLS, for the support

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