Two young Americans have claimed what may be the longest route in the Fitz Roy region, a giant linkup of the Northwest Ridge of Mermoz to the North Pillar of Fitz Roy, including the first complete and first alpine-style ascent of the NW ridge.  Scott Bennett, 26, and Cheyne Lempe, 20, both from Colorado, climbed around 2000 meters of vertical gain, with much route-finding and ridge-winding trickery, and 500 meters of new terrain.

The idea for the long route arose the year before, on Bennett's first trip to Patagonia, brainchild of his friend and partner Blake Herrington. At first the idea struck Bennett as simply another variation

in a land full of such great opportunities, until he and Herrington climbed the Pollone Tower and looked out from their bivy.

From the Pollone summit,  Bennett tells us in an email: "We had a perfect vantage point from across the Fitz Norte glacier of the entire west side of the Fitz Massif, which is a complex mass of ridges all emanating from the summit. The ridge that seemed to reach down the lowest, and therefore promised the greatest amount of rock climbing, was the Northwest Ridge of Mermoz."

He has also written on his blog, "From [this] perspective ... the line jumps out as the obvious ‘line of strength,’ and the longest possible rock route up the massif. I became convinced that this line was actually the one to climb, perhaps the last remaining unclimbed major line up Fitz Roy.”

As Bennett had previously been mentored by Herrington, he in turn mentored Lempe, whose experience was in Yosemite and the Utah desert.

Lempe puts it this way in his own blog: "Blake couldn’t make it down to Patagonia this year, so Scott ended up taking me on the longest route of my life. ... With limited experience in the Alpine realm, I learned the true meaning of climbing ‘light and fast’. Attempts to cut weight included sharing a single sleeping bag, bivy sack, and toothbrush. Climbing in Yosemite Valley years prior opened my eyes to the possibilities of this style, and provided me with the confidence I needed to go big in Patagonia."

Bennett tells Rock and Ice: "The most memorable moments of the climb came as we neared the top of the North Pillar. We were attempting to follow the Kearney-Knight variations to the Casarotto route, but had no topos or info, so just kept following our noses. Cheyne made an amazing lead of a long, wet offwidth crack, which led us to a ledge from which we were confronted by an even more intimidating wet chimney system. We opted to poke around to the left, and managed to keep linking up cracks on the left side of the pillar as the sun set. We didn't gain the top of the pillar until well after midnight.

"In the morning, despite the fact that the summit was only 300m away, our ascent was certainly still in doubt. The previous year, two of our good friends had attempted this route, and had been stymied by melting runoff in the chimney above, and had narrowly avoided hypothermia while retreating through the night. We followed their advice and started climbing at 6am, and were done with the ice pitch by the time the sun hit everything. Sure enough, it started a cascade of falling ice and rock, but by now were back on dry rock and headed to the summit!

"We topped out in perfect weather, brewed up our last hot drinks and ate the obligatory summit alfahor (cookie pastry). We descended the Franco-Argentine, which took a moment to find, but then provided a very easy set of rappels. Rapping the Breccia, shortly after sunset, was scary. The unusual heat of this season has been causing rockfall all over the range, and a major one ripped down to our left as we rapped. We were very stoked to drop onto the Piedras Blancas glacier and follow footprints all the way down through Paso Superior to Lago de los Tres." They finally dropped onto flat ground and rest at 3:00 a.m.

Lempe and Bennett were on the climb from January 19-22. A synopsis for The Northwest Ridge of Mermoz-North Pillar of Fitz Roy Linkup on Bennett's blog notes free climbing up to 5.11, “with numerous points of aid, pendulums, and rappels. Net elevation gain ~2km, gross vertical gain maybe 300m more (due to rappels and downclimbing). We summited many subtowers and gendarmes, but avoided the actual summits of Aguja Mermoz and Aguja Val Bois. Summited Fitz Roy mid day on the 22nd, then descended the Franco-Argentine route, returning to El Chalten the following morning after one final bivy at Lago de los Tres.”

A few days before their Fitz Roy climb, the two had opened a new route on the West Face of Aguja Guillamet. "We named it Manos al Cielo, and dedicated it to Carlyle Norman, who suffered a tragic and fatal accident on the same day on Aguja St. Exupery," Bennett tells us. That route went at 5.11+, 450m, and appears the likely first free ascent of that face.

The two have another few weeks in El Chalten, and more dreams and great ideas, if blessed by further good weather, so stay tuned.

Also on his blog, in a photo caption beneath an image of Cerro Torre at sunset, Bennett writes a thank-you to Hayden Kennedy and Jason Kruk “for doing the right thing!” Kruk and Kennedy, friends and cohorts of his and Lempe's, recently removed over 100 bolts from the Compressor Route on the mountain’s Southeast Ridge, creating a controversy in which current mountain ethics vie with issues of history and precedence. Click here for a previous article giving background, and please see our upcoming issue, no. 201 (now at the printer), for a comprehensive account of an astonishing season in Patagonia. To which at least one more wonderful accomplishment has now been added.

(Top photo: Cheyne Lempe leads on the North Pillar of Fitz Roy. "I think it's the Casarotto route, but we were sorta lost," Bennett notes. "It's the long wet offwidth. He tied off his pack to a piece of gear since he couldn't fit into the squeeze otherwise." Below: Lempe leads up the NW ridge of Mermoz, with the North Pillar and summit of Fitz Roy visible in the right of the frame. Photos by Scott Bennett.)