Whittaker and Villanueva O’Driscoll on a roll in Patagonia
- Thursday 23rd February 2023
Pete Whittaker and Sean Villanueva O’Driscoll have teamed up in Patagonia to do some notable repeats.
Both Pete Whittaker and Sean Villanueva O’Driscoll need little introduction as hard climbers well versed in the art of crack climbing. However, whilst Villanueva O’Driscoll is a seasoned Patagonia veteran having climbed many notable routes in the area Pete Whittaker is new to the area.
One of the routes they’ve climbed is a free second ascent of Yacaré on Rafael Juarez in the Fitz Roy Range. The route was only just established earlier in February but the young brothers, Pedro Odell and Tomás Odell. Their 550-metre route, Yacaré involved steep crack climbing up 5.11 as well as some aided “wide” cracks. Obviously that was like a magnet to Whittaker and Villanueva O’Driscoll who dived in for a second and free ascent.
Writing on his Instagram page about the route, Whittaker was full of praise for the route saying, “These guys are only 19 and 16, and I was very impressed with some of their leads on the lower half of the route which wandered through loose and chossy terrain.”
Whittaker went on to describe the route, “Higher on the route there was an offwidth splitter pitch which hadn't been fully freed. With Sean loving a good offwidth struggle as well, we got drawn into the idea of giving it ago. [It] Turned out to be quite tricky due to a lot of ice and verglass in the wide section. The pitch turned out to be 60m of incredible rock and incredible grovel, with a delicate slab move to connect the cracks.”
Taking advantage of another weather window Whittaker and Villanueva O’Driscoll were back in action on another newly established route, Anda p' alla! on the West Face of Guillaumet. This line was originally climbed at the beginning of January by @facusaubidet @jerecastana @santi.scavolini @franco_toscani.
As Whittaker said, “The route didn't disappoint, brilliant rock on perfect flaring splitters.” Again writing on his Instagram page Whittaker reported how their ascent went.
“@seanvillanuevaodriscoll put in yet more solid leads on-sighting through the first points of aid on pitch 4. Then I was up first at giving the crux pitch a look. The bottom section initially felt trickier than it probably should have, as it was a wet crack (about E5) which I had to chop ice from whilst climbing.”
Then however it got much harder. Whittaker again described the action, “I got stopped by an obvious crux; A thin seam with awkward body positioning and flaring finger jams. The individual moves went free and I went to the anchor. Sean had a lead and worked on the moves, then next go I surprised myself by redpointing it!”
They managed to summit Guillaumet in daylight and then safely descend down to camp by midnight.
And Whittaker’s take on the grade? “The estimated grades on the pitches with aid seemed about right. We thought 7b(ish) for pitch 4, and 8a(ish) for pitch 5.”
Whittaker summed up his first trip to the area saying, “It's an incredible place on the rock up there, but the mountains in Patagonia still scare me, so full focus and climbing well is the only option.”