UKC

McAleese and Turner ´The Good, The Bad and the Ugly!´

© mgjones
Stu McAleese and Mike 'Twid' Turner have climbed a new line on the previously un-climbed South Face of The South Tower of Paine in Patagonia. It took them 15 days to reach the top of the rock wall. With 5 days left they thought the 300m of easy snow and rock, to the summit, was in the bag. However 5 days of horrendous weather in a storm prevented them from successfully reaching the summit. They had a harrowing descent in a seriously nasty storm. Neither had seen such strong winds before, experiencing 200kmph gusts. While retreating both climbers were left, at times, flying horizontally from anchors! To abseil they had to pull themselves down the ropes!

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22 Dec, 2006
see twids website for more information http://sheersummits.com or http://climbwales.co.uk
22 Dec, 2006
22 Dec, 2006
Eeek!! "However 5 days of horrendous weather in a storm prevented the team successfully reaching the summit. The team had a harrowing descent in a storm neither had been in such strong winds 200kmph. While retreating both climbers in gusts were left flying horizontally off anchors, to abseil the team had to pull themselves down the ropes."
22 Dec, 2006
Amazing! Well, I take my hat off to them for getting so far and retreating successfully through that. Patagonia is obviously living up to its horrendous weather reputation. I hope other teams out there are doing OK.
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