18 Hours

Many pro athletes consider nearly unex­plored and untouched icy land­scapes the measure of all things. When it’s time to plan the next expedition, for many excep­tional athletes it just can’t be untouched enough. Patagonia’s northern ice sheet is that kind of place – a white expanse on the map that doesn’t have much to offer except kilo­metres of icy expanses and ice-covered summits. But that was precisely what became the deciding factor for Robert Jasper and his team.

In October 2019 the four-person team with Jasper, Heller, Thomann and Fengler headed off to Chile. From Puerto Bertrand they then headed by boat across the Lago Plomo lake into the Val Soler Valley that stretches many kilo­metres along the ice sheet. The approach took them through the wilderness and a cold rain forest until they reached the location for their basecamp after four days. What Robert and his comrades didn’t know yet at this point is that they would be passing a lot of time in this basecamp.

Untouched coun­tryside also always has a critical disad­vantage: Existing information about the terrain and current maps are either a rare commodity or filled with errors, here too in part because of the quickly advancing glacial melt. Add to that the huge amounts of ice breaking up and crevasses that made forward progress even more difficult. These conditions forced the athletes to make frequent plan and route changes. The weather too was showing its harsh side. Fierce storms with heavy rain and snowfall meant persevering in basecamp again and again and thus losing time.

After a total of four weeks in the wilds and six attempts at an ascent, LOWA PRO Team athlete Robert Jasper and his team still had not been able to climb the chosen peak, Cerro Largo (2,799 metres). The intended timing was being completed destroyed – so much so that provisions were starting to be thin and had to be rationed in order to have any kind of chance at all. And then came the chance: On the last possible day for an ascent, a window of good weather seemed to be indicated. “We went for broke to climb Cerro Largo in a so-called “single-push style” with light gear. First on skis, then on ice that was steeper and steeper and, at the end, over vertical rime ice mushrooms created by the wind”, said the pro alpinist about the conditions not exactly lacking in danger since a mistake in these conditions was always possible. But notwith­standing all adversities, they did it – they reached the summit.

In a total of 18 hours, Jasper, Heller, Thomann and Fengler made the round-trip from basecamp and back, covering just about 50 kilo­metres and 5,000 metres of vert. With that, they were the first team to climb Cerro Largo non-stop.