Full Transcript of Alpine Story with Silvia Loreggian

Please note this talk was transcribed by a robot and then checked by a human. both are prone to errors, so please forgive any typos or poor grammar.

Hi, everyone. And thank you very much for joining us for our very first in this series of alpine stories, our very first talk. This is actually a re-recording because we had a technical glitch on Thursday night that meant that we didn't get all of Silvia's talk. So we're recording it again on a Saturday afternoon. Especially for you guys. So that if anybody wants to re-watch it, they can. So welcome to Alpine's stories. I'm just gonna take you through a little bit about who we are. First, for those that are unfamiliar with us, Women's Alpine Adventure Club is a community project that's supporting women in achieving their alpine dreams. So we're bringing women together all across the world to help them develop their skills in the Alpine environment. Through meets in person and through our website where we've got online skills sharing, talks like this, favourite alpine routes as suggested by members and helping people to hook up and meet meet new adventure partners. And together we rock climb, ice climb, ski, mountaineer, hike and navigate our way through the mountains safely and having a great time together.

So that's a little bit about us as you guys aren't with us.

And now I'm going to hand over to Jenny. She's going to talk to you a little bit about Sylvia.

Thanks, Louise. Sylvia is an amazing climber, mountaineer and skier.

She comes from the Italian Dolomites where she grew up. So she's climbed lots of hard routes there, as well as climbing in Morocco and Nepal. She's a mountain guide and based in the Italian Dolomites. And she's also going to be one of our amazing female guides when we hopefully get to hold our meet there this year or next year. So we're excited to have Silvia with us. Thanks very much for joining us. Hope you enjoy the talk. Over to Silvia. Thank you.

Hello. Thanks to you for the invitation.

I'm very happy to share with you tonight to my own experiences in Patagonia with you; Women's Alpine Adventure Club. Such an amazing group of women.

The first time I've been to Patagonia. Next slide, it's in 2016.

And the way I started this trip, it was a bit crazy because a few months before I met a guy and we fell in love. He's now my boyfriend. So it was the true love, the deep end and the we discovered that both of us that we dream about the climbing in Patagonia. And so we decide to quit the job. And in the next few months we left for Patagonia. You know, we had the three months of travel and a not lot of money. So the cheapest way for travelling for us was hitchhiking. And from Buenos Aires we the hitch hiking started trip  in total, we did the four thousand kilometres in descending to Cortilla de los Andes which are the mountains at the border between Chile and Argentina. And after one month and a half of this kind of trip that we arrived to El Chalten, which is the main destination of our trip and we stayed there one month.

And now I start to show you the places where we stop during the trip because and a during we decided the month half that some climbing spots were staying there like one or two weeks for climbing to the first place where we stop. The first one is Los Arenales to close Mendoza. It's very cool because it's an unknown place and it's very quiet. You can't find the crowdy atmosphere that's you will find later in El Chalten. And the place here in the picture is looks crumbly rock, but it's very good quality. And it's a good place for opening new routes. There are a lot of opportunities. And it's so funny the history of this place, because then the only person you can find over there, it's a boy at the beginning of this valley who built his house by his self. And he's living there with his family. And he knows everything about this place. He wrote the guidebook, is a professional Argentine climber, and he can give you all the advices and the information you need for climbing there. And during our trip, he was so kind to host me on that final few days before we enter the valley.

Because then when you enter, you stay there with whatever you need for climbing. Eating and sleep for a few days and you enjoy the place for us the problem was that unfortunately when we arrived it started snowing. So we say five days closed that in the tent. Just waiting for some sun and then we had that one day of sun but everything was wet. So we did just one short climbing. And then again, this starts with the snow. So we haven't enjoyed a lot this place.

The next place where we stop is Canyon del San Atuel Rafael. near Here it is for sports climbing. You find a lot of crags inside this canyon. It's at the end of a big lake. So in a beautiful place, we enjoyed a lot place the because a boy, some from San Rafael decided to come inside for climbing with us. He didn't know anything about us, but he wanted to climb so much so that he say, I would come with you. I want to stay inside there. And so we could discover that the local places. Thanks to his participation.

Next one.

Another place where we stop is Frey. This is a famous place because you can reach it also from El Chalten if you are staying in El Chalten and you have a long period of bad weather. You can take a bus and in six, seven hours you reach Bariloche. From there you walk like four hours to reach the base for all climbing. And the place is very interesting because there are a lot of short routes - the length of these routes it's from a 100 to 300 maximum metres. So during a day you can have one, two or three routes or so if you want to. And it's a good training before Patagonia and a good alternative too. Then we reach Piedra which Parada means in like block rock. It's because that at the beginning of this canyon that you find a big wall of the big rock that you can see in the picture. And from there you enter it in this valley, which is famous also because Petzel made their climbing trip.

And so since that event, you find a lot of the new sport climbing routes. You have cracks and also multi-pitch. And it's a nice place. But actually, the quality of the rock wasn't so good. I find it's a very sandy. And so we stay there just a few days. And then we we also know that in Chalten El then it was coming a good weather window.

So we were really in a hurry to reach it. So then as quick as possible to enjoy the weather, because at what anyone knows about Patagonia, is the difficulty, difficulty with weather because the south parts of Patagonia is a thin land with mountains in the middle. And so they the big storms from both side of the ocean crash against the mountains. And having the good weather is really, really difficult. So you have to be very lucky. And then also you need that really stable weather, because sometimes you have a sun, but you have a really strong wind. So you can never walk in town and you can't imagine to climb up there in the mountains. And sometimes you have no wind but it's a completely cloudy. So you need really the good combination.

Next one.

And we finally arrived to El Chalten after one month and a half and we arrive with a good weather window. The problem is that you have also to to know a lot about the conditions in the massif because if you plan to go in to climb a specific route.

But you didn't know that. It was like a storm in the days before. You will find it completely covered by snow or ice. And the times that you calculated to climb, can change a lot.

So you have to know which is the best approach to reach the wall you want to climb. Sometimes you have to do a completely different approach. So it is difficult when you arrive to climb immediately something the first time that you are going to El Chalten. And when we arrive there, we wanted to climb Fitzroy and we try to. After two days, we have to come back because we find it very, the approach it was longer than that was to get you to take it and so on. We were out of time and we we learned that we had to ask it to the other alpinitis in town to the local alpinists and also the other tourists who knows the conditions before. And we have to ask for more information before trying it again. Next one. And so the next time that we we went up to the mountains with a good weather window and we had the opportunity to climb this beautiful route Aguja Poincenot, which is their second, the summit of the massif it's on the left of their Fitzroy's skyline. And the truth is beautiful because you can also see it from the town. It's very clear. And I put here the topo so you can see the line. It's the number one. So you have a first part in a snow where ramp the difficulty is maximum fourty degrees. And after these are you have to turn behind the wall. We can see no more on the topo. And you have a rock section at the maximal five plus degree. So it's a really enjoyable route. We find good conditions. And in one day we could do the up and down the climb. Next one.

Here is there is the snow ramp and this second part of the snow ramp. We had to cross the glacier at the start of the ramp.

The next one.

And then at half morning, we were on the rocks section and that's about 11:00, the next one.

And we were in the summit, the beautiful summit very scenic.

And I wanna show you a short video so you can enjoy it better.

However, it's.

And almost at the end of our trip, we had the opportunity to climb finally Fitz Roy and by the route Supercanaleta. It's a famous route. Because it's very impressive. When you see it, you have gully over 1,000 meter. It's the number 18. You can see it in the middle. Have this long gully and then at end of 1000 the meters. You take the longer way you can take it on the right to reach the summit because it's there. The easier way to climb on the rock. The rock section is not difficult because it's maximum five plus bottom. To find good condition on this route on the gully and both on the rocks section is very difficult. So normally if you have the gully in shape, you won't have rock in shape.

And these was for us. So we had a good climb during the gully and then it took a long time to climb the rock section, we had to climb all day with crampons and axes so what is easy with your hands is not so easy always with the ice axes. And we had to bivi two hundred meters started before the summit. And the day after we did this and 200 meters and we rapped down, a long day of rappel down because we came back at the tent that we put to the tent really at the beginning of the route. And we we took it one day just to rappelig down. Yes. So really long.

This is the gully section.

Now, another one.

This is the rock section you can see on the back and the huge glacier of Patagonia, next one.

And a short video for Fitzroy too what I haven't said before is that every route you climb in Cerro Torre or Central Fitzroy must take at least one day of approach. In the forest and then in the glacier when you go closer to the wall. And so did the planning of the route. That is always very difficult to also because of that, because you need to approach it with the bad weather or you need a longer good weather window to do it. So every time we did here, it took us like three or four days in total.

We can see the video.

And headed to that. When you come down from some a summit, when you did a cumbre, you will make a big meal together with the other alpinists.

Here are some all of our attempts. Next one.

This is the first day that we arrive where we find a lot of snow in the valley. Next one.

And then I came back to Patagonia last winter and again for one month and not so a long period.

And you really need a long time to enjoy this place because if you go just a few days and you don't have good weather, you can't see anything so is there any waste of time. And this time that we travelled to Patagonia, we decided to fly directly to El Calafate, which is the airport closest to El Chalten, and to stay in El Chalten. And we had the big main goal which was climb being Cerro Torre. We knew we were in love with this line. And it was a big goal because we knew that we didn't have the conditions. And then a long weather window for climbing it, we couldn't do it. And at the end of this long period there, we never had the opportunity to do it. And so we we tried to enjoy the same our trip over there. And we climbed the some smaller summit and there are some lower altitudes. Similar size to Cerro Torre but at a lower attitude. And so sometimes where up there is a bad weather or you don't have the good condition, it's a good opportunity to enjoy the climbing over there.

So when we arrived that we decide to bring up all our equipment at the base camp before Cerro Torre, which is called niponino, you know, it's close to this picture. And from there hoping for the good weather. The first days, it we could climb Aguja Meda Luna which is the mountain on the first layer of the picture. A route called Rubio y Azul. Yes, will the next one. This is the approach to the route. You can see the skyline of Fitz Roy. But from the other side. So it's not so characteristic because normally the pictures are all from its El Chalten side.

Next one.

Here we have on the right the fourth section of the route, five pitches of a dihedral off width. And then on the left in this second section, you have three beautiful pitches of the hand jamming. And the last very pitch with hard an overhanging off width. And then when the summit, very close to Cerro Torre. So it's really a good alternative.

The next one.

Here is the best section of the route.

And then approach to back to Niponino, you know, after the climbing.

Next one.

The second route we climb the is that what I've been evident in the mountain called El Mocho and there are days. The number one, no sorry the number two on the Topo, a kind of ridge.

And it's a good route. The next one.

This is base camp where you bivi on Niponino.

This is, again, the skyline of Fitzroy. By the other side.

And we have the moon on the back. Next, one. On the route, on El Mocho. Next one.

And this is dead the best pitch of the route to a beautiful thin crack in the first half of the pitch and then you cross it to a second crack on the left. You had the two meters of slab, but that if you have a really long arms so you can climb it.

If not it's a very difficult movement. But beautiful. Next one.

And this is the approach. Coming back from Niponino, to El Chalten.

Here you can see Cerro Torre and the line that we would like to climb, it's on the ridge, just so the ridge that we see in front of us in the picture and we can see also El Mocho, the wall where we climbed, which is that the mountain on the right of centre, the same skyline.

Then we climbed Aguja De L's here we are in Fitzroy, massif. We climbed the route 12. And it was three hundred metres of a gully and the last section of snow round to reach the summit. And from the summit that we did a traverse of the South ridge. Just so the number six in the picture. From there we would like to rappel down and start climbing on another wall on the left, too. But when we arrive at the end of the traverse, a really strong wind starts twirling blow and it was impossible to do anything. We tried to rappel down, but the ropes they stay in the sky. Then we tried to take down the ropes, but the ropes they blocked in some rocks. So we had to like it four hours of fighting against these fucking winds. And we decided that the only option we had was to climb back the traverse and doing the rappels down on the other side where it was repaired by the wind.

Next one.

We reach the end of the galley and the last part.

This is the window of the traverse where you can see Cerro Torre on the left and the skyline on meet right.

It was a beautiful day on until then again, when the wind starts blow, so we were very optimistic for the opportunity of the day.

But to the end. No way. Next one.

And the last climb we had. We would like to climb another route.

But asusually in Patagonia and you have to plan B and also a plan C, in eventuality that the weather is bad or the conditions.

And so again, we climb these that we had the lesser the mountain on the left and by a route that I don't know because we just tried to go up. It wasn't a good route, actually, and it was covered with snow And it's not so amazing. But we reach our summit. So we came back towards El Chalten happy about it.

Next one.

This is when Laguna Sucia and during the approach to the glacier, you cross this beautiful lake.

Next one.

This is the only good pitch of the route we climbed

The next one. And then we are up and down by the other side.

Next slide.

Again, Lagunas, who said it was already bad weather. The same day that we came down, so it was really short. Good weather window.

And the next one.

And then when we finish our trip, we were so boring about the bad weather we had. We say, OK, we won't come back to Patagonia no more. But a friend. And very strong alpinist who is Ermanno asked me called Salvaterra and Stefano, even we would like to finish this project on the West Face of Torre Egger. I can show you that picture in the next slide.

The tower on the left of the Cerro Torre and the he wants to climb the is the one route which the sun in its face in a really beautiful wall. If you see you can to dream to climb it, because it's really compact and good quality.

I really loved the summit and Ermanno Salvaterra has this project since a long time. He made three expeditions to the tower for climbing the route and then stacked up to 300 meters before the summit. So we are planning together to come back next to autumn to finish this route.

Hopefully we can have some luck with the weather and we can bring back the summit.

Next one. And I finish with my presentation, if you have any questions.

I'm here to answer to you.

It's amazing, Sylvia. Thank you so much for that.

It's just out there in amazing video and photos and just quite incredible to see. And so we've got a few questions for you that people have written in and with. So first question is just what training did you do for your trips? Was there anything specific to going to Patagonia that you trained for?

Yes, I did. The specific training does the two months before leaving - all the because month before or the year longer. I train by myself. So I have a basic training. During all my life for alpinism in general. And then the specifically for Patagonia. I know that you have to train a lot staying outside in the long time. mountains And so maybe I'll leave one, two or three experiences up in the mountains, high mountains. For example, in Mont Blanc massif longer ridge course or something like that. And so I trained to say outside for a long time in cold condition and this kind of training. Then I know that's how you have to be very trained by working a lot and bringing a heavy backpack. And so these two I work at home or when I go climbing or approaching for something that I bring more weight than I would just for training.

And then at the same time you have to train your climbing. Because depending what do you want to climb in Patagonia about if your if your main goal is for example, of rock climbing. You know that's you have to train your fingers and your strengths or your endurance, whatever you need for climbing. And so I train in the gym and as more as possible in the wall in the rock.

Great. I say that I think that endurance is long days. It's certainly something to work towards. And another question we had was your first trip when you were hitchhiking. How many bags did you have with all your equipment and how did you manage having all of that stuff with you jumping vehicles?

This is a good question, because we have really not all the equipment. We had the two big whole bags and two big backpack. And we manage it by doing hitchhiking and only hiking to during five or six days. So what we were always on the street there and we we never walk with this heavy backpack.

And when we reached the place where we want to stop then, we we were in touch with maybe a friend of a friend or someone that we meet during the hitch hiking for leaving part of what we had in his house. And then we we went to climb one week or two weeks only with the equipment we need to for that's climbing because during the first month and a half, we'd never needed ice climbing equipment.

So it was always something more that we could leave to behind and then go up a bit lighter.

Brilliant. Thank you. And so just next question is, what would be your top tips for people who are going to Patagonia for the first time? What do you think the most important things are for them to know in?

I think that when you go for the first time to Patagonia and you need to be very passionate, you need to choose a good a partner. And a good partner is someone that you already know you have already climbing with because you'll find a lot of difficulties. Not only during the climate, but also all the time. You stay in El Chalten waiting for good weather. And this is very important to enjoy your experience.

And then I suggest to train a lot before leaving, because when you reach El Chalten and the most of the time, if you don't do anything, you have just to wait that is hoping with weather. And if you say, for example, one month, where you go up just to one or two times, you really lose your physical preparation. So if you have a strong one before leaving, you can arrive in good condition until the end. If not, you won't have eaten.

That sounds like good advice. Thank you. Now, just one last question. And switching to the Dolomites and what what's your favourite route in the Dolomites and what's what's the best one you've climbed?

It's very difficult to say just one because you can imagine that we have a lot of good routes and different characteristics for each one. But then if I have to say that the best of wall for me is for sure is Marmolada and saw all the routes that I climb there are beautiful. Because the rock is just perfect. So whereever you climb there. It's beautiful.

Perfect. Thanks for that. Thank you so much, Sylvia, for taking the time to talk for us. I'd say for re-recording it is about technical issues. Thank you so much. And we really look forward to spending some more time with you as a club in the Dolomites. Hopefully when we can come, as I said, say thank you. We really appreciate your time and your story today. And then we've at the end of this presentation, there's some contact details to Sylvia if you are going to the Dolomite's or whatever. And you'd like to employ her for guiding. Thank you. Sylvia was the first in our series. Next up, we've got more to expect each Thursday evening. So in the next slide, I think. Yes, say up next, say next week. We've got Tamsin Gay. Who's a guide British Mountain talking to us about undiscovered Arctic. So she's going to be talking about some works and guiding like she did for the BBC for a documentary. Some of you might have seen it with Steve Backshall and Aldo Kane and say there'll be all sorts of brilliant stories, include helicopters, polar bears, rifles and crossing glacial rivers in your underpants. So join us for that next Thursday. And then after that, we've got Lou Reynolds. Se's an aspirant guide and she's going to be talking to us about the lessons she's learned, climbing some of the grand course and big routes in the alps and say if you're looking towards, you know, increasing your alpine climbing or maybe think guide scheme, that might be good when you join. And then the week after, we've got our token male speaker Jerry Gore, who's a great supporter of the club, and he's going to be talking to us about his misadventures on Big Walls. And I think he's talking to us about a big wall in Borneo and one in the Bugaboos as well. And Jerry, it's always very entertaining. So I really hope you can join this. And we've got other speakers worked in until the end of June, including Becky Coles and Adele Pennington. And the same same link. We'll get you in every Thursday evening. And then one day to Lizzie. Now she's going to tell us a little bit more about how you can get in contact with us.

Thank you so much, Jenny.

I am so grateful for everybody who joined us. If you want to stay in touch, we would love to do that. So visit us on our web site, sign up to our newsletter. We send out alerts when there's exciting stuff happening. There's a lot of things coming up. The full schedule of events is also listed on the web site. So you can have a little look what's coming up beyond the three that we're just listing now and find us on Facebook. We've got a page and a group. But if you just type in women's alpine adventure club, we've got the events listed there as well. And as promised, we've got the contact details for Sylvia. Again, thank you so much, Sylvia, for sharing your Patagonian love story and all pictures the of beautiful, beautiful rock. Also want to say thank you to Jenny for putting together this amazing set of talks and getting Sylvia to join us and ways for all the support and and, you know, love you guys. We also just want to say thank you to everybody who joined us on Thursday. We hope that we'll see you next Thursday and Thursday after that for the other great talks that we have. And we just want to say stay safe. You know, we miss all you guys and we hope that everybody as well. And we're looking forward to getting together for some adventure soon. So stay safe.

Lots of love from WAAC and we'll be fine. Thank you. See you next week bye.