The Italian, together with Dario Eynard and Mirco Grasso, completed a route that took three generations of climbers, and no less than thirty years. The details.
Della Bordella has been in the El Chaltén region since mid-January, as usual, displaying his «art» on the most emblematic mountains of Patagonia.
After having opened «Que siguiente?» in the Aguja Val Biois in mid-January, together with Grasso and Alessandro Bau, now it is time to explore a route that was started in the mid-nineties by Maurizio Giordani and Luca Maspes, who by then came within two hundred meters of completing the route. Now, Della Bordella, together with Eynard and Grasso, have managed to complete it and christen it «Crazy Gringos».
«After thirty years of work and three different generations of climbers… now the route is complete! Following the same line that Maurizio and Luca opened in 1995, Dario, Mirco and I were able to finish the job, with the same style and ethics.
Don’t be fooled by the aid climbing grades, it’s an amazing route mostly free climbing with some skyhook moves and bailouts. The rock and climbing style are unique in Patagonia, as it’s mostly face climbing with occasional flakes and cracks.
During our days on the wall we didn’t get any gifts from the weather or conditions, we really needed to give it our all and believe we could make it.
The summit day in particular was pretty epic: after a windy night on the portaledge, Dario started on a frosty morning with an impressive series of hook moves (the wall is in shade until midday), then I took the lead in the sun, climbing the fastest. that I could, then Mirco took over until dusk, finally, again Dario led the final icy long stretches (shared with «route of the brother») in the cold and dark night, shivering all together on the summit ridge at 3am before beginning a descent under the gathering storm. It was a great adventure.»
Piergiorgio Hill is located in the Cordillera del Chaltén Natural Site of the Bernardo O’Higgins National Park in the Magallanes and Chilean Antarctica region in Chile, and in the province of Santa Cruz in Argentina, near El Chaltén, on the border between Argentina and Chile. It is 2719m high.
Previously Chile claimed the entire hill, after the arbitration ruling in the Laguna del Desierto dispute in 1994, the limit was defined on the hill, which was recognized as a binational landmark by both countries.
On January 22, 2014, climbers Colin Haley from the United States and Rolando Garibotti from Argentina achieved the first complete ascent of Piergiorgio Hill. This climb culminated a challenge that had remained unresolved for more than 50 years, as the summit had previously been reached only up to a The 25-meter summit block was considered unstable by the first ascensionists.
The route on the east face of Mount Piergiorgio had been opened in January 1963 by the Argentine brothers Jorge and Pedro Skvarca, who decided to turn around in the absence of the summit due to the presence of verglas. For years, their attempt was considered the first ascent of the mountain, until Haley and Garibotti repeated the route and finally completed the climb of the summit block.
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