Ascent of the Fortress, Chilean Patagonia 1967/68
Click on images to enter the Gallery
Click for MAP of the area.
One of my great regrets of the '60s is not keeping a diary. I have many other great regrets but this one has come back to haunt in the writing up of an event that happened almost 40 years ago.
I suppose that even now, with so many expeditions going out the process is much the same. Find an objective, nominate a leader, look for funding, start with the Mount Everest Foundation then get to work on those begging letters. In the '60s expeditions were rare and industry tended to be quite generous, sometimes too generous. For instance, I seem to remember that we were donated a prodigious amount of toffee. In 1967 the cost of air fares was very high and we opted for a trip out the Buenos Aires on a cargo boat, a trip of about 20 days but all in first class accommodation, dining with the officers. From Beunos Aires we took a bus ride down through the Pampas, over the border into Chile to Punta Arenas where we met up with Derek Walker who was the headmaster of the British school there and had been on the Willans/Bonnington trip to climb the Central Tower of Paine a couple of years earlier.
So, 1, that's the Fortress, height - guess about 8000ft, a typical Patagonian monolith unclimbed at the time. Two is the team, left to right Ian Clough (leader), John Gregory, Chris Jackson (me), Dave Nicol and Niki Clough. Inset are Derek Walker and Gordon Hibberd. Three, Dave Nicol riding shotgun on our transport from Punta Arenas to the Paine National Park and the Fortress, I think that's Niki with the camera. Four, unloading our huge amount of gear into the army lorry which would transport us to our base camp hut at Pudeto.
Access into the Paine NP was through an army camp where papers were checked, we changed to army transport and collected our obligatory liaison officer and cook.
The base camp at Pudeto was separated from the Rio Francis valley which gave access to The Fortress by a large lake, Lago Nordenskjold. However, prepared for this we had brought an inflatable dinghy and an outboard motor. The outboard proved a little temperamental from time to time and it and Gorden had a falling out, well more of a falling in actually as the motor somehow slipped from the boat and disappeared into deep cold water. Picture 5, the back-up system. It proved to be a wearisome row and and we often opted to walk around the lake despite the necessity to wade a broad, braided glacier stream in the process. The lower slopes of the mountains were cloaked in evergreen beech, sturdy little trees which were impossible to push through and our main route up the valley was along the river bank. An advanced base was established in the upper reaches of the forest close to where it fizzled out into moraine. Now known as Camping Britanico.
You may have heard stories about Patagonian weather, well, they're all true. Day after day we were buffeted by gale force winds and driving rain with just the occasional fine interlude. It was poor climbing weather but it did allow us to get ABC well stocked. From picture 1 the route is fairly obvious, taking the long snow couloir to a narrow constriction (the Ice Hose) then onto slabs where is was hope that a traverse would lead into the summit corner system. Tents suffered badly in the storms and we came equipped a Willans Box, a construction of angle iron and heavy canvas that could (hopefully) be well secured to the ground. Even this suffered badly (6) and later in the expedition a box secured at the top of the snow couloir was found at the bottom in a sorry state.
The ice hose was our first major obstacle (7), about Scottish IV but with the poor ice tools of the '60s it was not quite a push-over. Above the angle eased and with the aid of a few pitons it was possible to leave the gully gain the huge fan of slabs which led to the upper corner system, see 8. Fixed ropes and an electron ladder in the Ice Hose were placed as we progressed. A temporary camp was placed at the foot of the slabs but was always left collapsed and weighted by rocks.
he weather remained poor and we were beginning to despair of ever getting back on the mountain. Eventually however, it settled out and Gorden Hibberd, Ian Clough and myself made a bid for the top. We stayed in the Willands box overnight and started up the Ice Hose at first light. We'd previously laid fixed ropes across the slabs so we were soon into the final snow runnel leading to the corner system.The top part of the corner proved too steep to free climb and indeed, with hindsight it may not have been the best line onto the summit slopes. Ian and myself climbed up to a small stance and Gorden climbed through and aided up out of sight onto the summit slopes. Then nothing. No call, no Gordon and Ian and myself hung in the corner for what seemed like hours, dodging blocks loosened by the sun and periodically shouting for Gordon to confirm that the ropes were secure so that we could jumar up. Hours passed and he eventually returned as light was failing, there were mumbled excuses about a lack of belays but the suspicion remains that he had made a bid for the summit.
The weather held but we were not equipped for staying out so we returned to ABC. Next day Dave Nicol, John Gregory and Gordon Hibberd returned up the fixed ropes and topped out. Above the granite corner the Fortress is topped by a snowy cap on Cretaceous shale at a lower angle, see 1 and the summit was a traditional display of snow mushrooms. Ten, the aid pitch, 11 snow mushrooms and 12 Dave Gregory with Chilean climbing school flag on the summit, January 6th 1968.
The weather window never really opened again and a further attempt to get the remaining expedition members on the summit failed when we found all the fixed ropes buried under feet of new ice.