cerro conico - 7451' - south ridge class 5.2
january 2023
After a visit to Futaleufu on my way down the Caraterra Austral, I was exposed to an entirely new area of the Patagonian mountains, and spent quite some time researhcing what some of the striking peaks we saw from the roads were. I was quite impressed with some of the rugged and steep mountains we saw. Upon looking thorugh the PeakBagger app to help with peak identifications, one that stuck out was Cerro Conico. Due to it having more than 5000 feet of prominence, it was shown, plus this peak towered above Futaleufu with great visibility just to the SE from most of the town. I did a deep dive onlne to see what I could find about it for potential routes but only found trip reports from climbers approaching it from the Argentina side. Apparently a nice hut is found at the edge of the glacier on the east side of the peak and it is commonly summitted by Argentenians utilizing a moderately technical rock climbing route. Since we were on the Chilean side however I wanted to find a way up from the west. After some time searching I found a WikiExplora post about someone who had hiked up to treeline from Rio Chico by parking on road W919 near its end where a private bridge crosses to the rovers east side at 750 meters elevation. We decided we would utilize this same approach as the user said the bushwhacking was manageable, so we parked in a small opening just off the road here, loaded up our packs for a single night and around mid morning we used this private bridge to cross the river.
We then followed along the bouldery riverbank for a few minutes, crossed over an old barbed wire fence, and located a dirt 4WD road that ascended gently into the mature Alerce forest. This road took us up for about 10-15 minutes to a prominent fork, where we stayed left and continued walking another 5-10 minutes to an old dilapidated cabin by a creek. There were a bunch of those annoying hitchhiker plants that clung to our pants and socks which rerquired great effort to remove. The Patagonian plants are pure evil! From the old cabin, we left the road and began walking straight uphill on the low angle slopes. The bush was mostly short shrubs and did not hinder progress too bad but some of them were thorny; par for the course in Patagonia. As we continued, we entered a section of more open but younger Alerce forest with little undergrowth. Here we began veering slightly right and away from the creek we had been loosely following until a steep berm to our right was reached. We made a steep but short 50 foot climb on loose dirt with veggie belays, then continued on a leftward ascending traverse through the forest up moderately steep slopes. The long curve to the south then back around that is shown on the WikiExplora map in the link above we found to be unnecessary and we just made for a straight line in a southeastward direction steadily gaining elevation. There was only one 200 foot section that had quite think brush where the trees dwindled, but this section can be avoided by continuing further left as you ascend instead of going higher up. Upon hitting a small dry ravine, this can then be followed straight up to treeline. We found this to be the best way. The trees get stunted and shorter with many interlocking twisted branches along the crest of a broad ridge for the final 200 or so feet to treeline. All bushes and trees abruptly ended at 1475 meters where a beautiful grassy flat spot just a couple minutes below the ridgecrest that makes an amazing campspot. Here we setup camp and took a nap as the time was too late in the day to attempt to keep going.
We then followed along the bouldery riverbank for a few minutes, crossed over an old barbed wire fence, and located a dirt 4WD road that ascended gently into the mature Alerce forest. This road took us up for about 10-15 minutes to a prominent fork, where we stayed left and continued walking another 5-10 minutes to an old dilapidated cabin by a creek. There were a bunch of those annoying hitchhiker plants that clung to our pants and socks which rerquired great effort to remove. The Patagonian plants are pure evil! From the old cabin, we left the road and began walking straight uphill on the low angle slopes. The bush was mostly short shrubs and did not hinder progress too bad but some of them were thorny; par for the course in Patagonia. As we continued, we entered a section of more open but younger Alerce forest with little undergrowth. Here we began veering slightly right and away from the creek we had been loosely following until a steep berm to our right was reached. We made a steep but short 50 foot climb on loose dirt with veggie belays, then continued on a leftward ascending traverse through the forest up moderately steep slopes. The long curve to the south then back around that is shown on the WikiExplora map in the link above we found to be unnecessary and we just made for a straight line in a southeastward direction steadily gaining elevation. There was only one 200 foot section that had quite think brush where the trees dwindled, but this section can be avoided by continuing further left as you ascend instead of going higher up. Upon hitting a small dry ravine, this can then be followed straight up to treeline. We found this to be the best way. The trees get stunted and shorter with many interlocking twisted branches along the crest of a broad ridge for the final 200 or so feet to treeline. All bushes and trees abruptly ended at 1475 meters where a beautiful grassy flat spot just a couple minutes below the ridgecrest that makes an amazing campspot. Here we setup camp and took a nap as the time was too late in the day to attempt to keep going.
We hung out at camp a bit and decided to hike up towards the craggy towers and buttresses guarding the upper mountain to attempt to find a route. We continued back to the ridge and hiked up to the summit of a small rounded 1645 meter peak just above the camp area. This offered a stunning view of Cerro COnico west face, the Rio Chico valley and many other Chilean peaks to the west and north. We descended slightly and traversed onto the wide scree slopes on the lower west face and ascended class 2-3 rock steps up to the uppermost snowfield where a handful of options presented themselves. The summit we knew was above us to the left, and the south ridge seemed the most logical route from what we could see, but how to get onto the south ridge was a little elusive. The west side of Cerro Conico is a mirage with dozens of little towers, buttresses and notches. The imposing west ridge that drops wildly below the summit guarded any feasible access to our left as we ascended the basin, and directly forward the south ridge offered little accessible points. Off to our right would obviously lead the wrong direction away from the summit, but cliffs guarded the basin here as well.
As the afternoon went on and the sun started getting low on the horizon we reached the upper basin and the final snowfield just below the final cliffs to the south ridge. Here, we opted to ascend scree rightward to the only easily accessible point to the ridge; a low saddle at the base of the south ridge. We were able to cross to the east side here and get a glimpse of the southeast side of the mountain, and hopefully a better look at the upper south ridge from the east. Upon reaching the saddle (which was the international border) we were greeted with a stunning view into Argentina. A low angle glacier terminated right at the saddle on the east side and allowed us to easily walk on soft snow until we got a great view of the SE face of Cerro Conico. This would be Bri's first steps into Argentina ironically enough. The SE face looked imposing, and certainly no way to feasibly access the south ridge from this far down, as steep cliffs and gendarmes guarded the lower ridge. We admired the views for a bit, and Bri did some headstands in the evening sunlight. As we started back down we noticed a very low and dramatic V notch at roughly the midpoint of the south ridge that offered a potential 4th or low 5th class route to at least get to the south ridge. We decided to explore that the following morning, and hiked back to our camp for the night.
A comprehensive overview of the route to Cerro Conico and the key features are provided after the photo set below.
As the afternoon went on and the sun started getting low on the horizon we reached the upper basin and the final snowfield just below the final cliffs to the south ridge. Here, we opted to ascend scree rightward to the only easily accessible point to the ridge; a low saddle at the base of the south ridge. We were able to cross to the east side here and get a glimpse of the southeast side of the mountain, and hopefully a better look at the upper south ridge from the east. Upon reaching the saddle (which was the international border) we were greeted with a stunning view into Argentina. A low angle glacier terminated right at the saddle on the east side and allowed us to easily walk on soft snow until we got a great view of the SE face of Cerro Conico. This would be Bri's first steps into Argentina ironically enough. The SE face looked imposing, and certainly no way to feasibly access the south ridge from this far down, as steep cliffs and gendarmes guarded the lower ridge. We admired the views for a bit, and Bri did some headstands in the evening sunlight. As we started back down we noticed a very low and dramatic V notch at roughly the midpoint of the south ridge that offered a potential 4th or low 5th class route to at least get to the south ridge. We decided to explore that the following morning, and hiked back to our camp for the night.
A comprehensive overview of the route to Cerro Conico and the key features are provided after the photo set below.
Small Scale full route overview
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Larger scale summit area route overview
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Route overview to Cerro Conico from near the summit of point 1645
The following morning we were forced to delay the start of our summit attempt due to low clouds, so we slept in and had a leisurly morning. Around noon though, the clouds thinned enough to where we felt comfortable starting up. We retraced our route back up the basin towards the base of the west facing cliffs guarding the south ridge. We aimed for the very prominent and deep V notch in the middle of the ridge. The scree got very loose as we entered the narrow gully that led the final 50 feet to the top of the notch, however that just led to cliffs all around and an overhanging drop on the east side! A route traversing left for a few 4th class moves right after entering the narrow gully gave access to a ledge system to traverse north towards the next higher notch, which culminated in 60 feet or so of sustained and exposed 4th class climbing to reach the broader notch just north of the V notch.
Once here, we could see a feasible route continuing up the south ridge, staying mostly off the crest on the east side. A series of ledges, short low 5th class sections and at times very loose talus up to 100 feet below the ridge crest brought us back to another small notch in the ridge where we had to briefly cross back to the west side to navigate around a big cliff. This turned out to be pretty easy though and once past this obstacle we crossed back to the east side and continued up easier, but very loose boulders and talus. Everything seemed to shift up there on the upper SE side of the mountain. There was one final crux about 200 feet below the summit, where a 20 foot slab needed to be climbed to reach the final east facing boulderfield that led to the summit. Since it was now mid afternoon, we were in a cool brisk shady wind the whole way on the ridge. |
Route topo for accessing the south ridge. Traverse left before reaching the true top of the deep V notch
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Upon reaching the summit, we were somewhat burdened by clouds that obstructed the views, but an awesome summit register with a seemingly complete ascent history was found, with the first 19 ascents being hand written all at once as a re-recording (the original summit register had likely been damaged and was replaced). I have included photos of each page below because I thought it was so cool! I don't know enough Spanish so I cannot confirm if every entry was by climbers ascending from Argentina, but I could possibly claim a first ascent via the peaks south ridge from Chile however the route was at most low 5th class so I cannot rule out someone wandered up there before. If anyone can read through all the entries from the photos below I would love to have them translated.
We spent a good 45 minutes on the summit hoping for a larger break in the clouds and trying to read the Spanish that had been recorded in the summit register. I wrote our entry, only being the 25th ascent, and the only one in English haha. To our astonishment, someone had summitted earlier the same day from the Argentina side! So there were two ascents on the same day oddly enough. Despite carrying a 60m rope up there we never ended up using it. Just below the summit though on the west side were some fresh looking chains. Below them was a clean cliff of maybe 3 pitches length so maybe that is a route people have done, I have not found any beta online for it though.
We spent a good 45 minutes on the summit hoping for a larger break in the clouds and trying to read the Spanish that had been recorded in the summit register. I wrote our entry, only being the 25th ascent, and the only one in English haha. To our astonishment, someone had summitted earlier the same day from the Argentina side! So there were two ascents on the same day oddly enough. Despite carrying a 60m rope up there we never ended up using it. Just below the summit though on the west side were some fresh looking chains. Below them was a clean cliff of maybe 3 pitches length so maybe that is a route people have done, I have not found any beta online for it though.
We descended back down the ridge quickly as we wanted to get back to town that night. Just as Itai and I reached the upper notch Bri was able to see us and snap some awesome videos. We downclimbed that sustained 4th class section and made it back to the snow where we could quickly descend. The scree and talus lower down closer to camp slowed us down again though, but we made it to camp with enough daylight to pack up and make the quick hike back down through the forest, getting to the car right as night set in. Unfortunately, since Futaleufu is such a small town the only thing we could find open for food was a tiny food truck serving completos, but it was good enough! Cerro Conico is one I would highly recommend. I have heard the hike in from the Argentina side to the hut is a very pleasant hike, and there does seem to be a standard route somewhere from that side, but again, there is very little info on it at least in English. Perhaps a deep dive in Spanish on the interwebs will produce more.
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Videos above taken by Bri
Cerro Conico from highway 259 in Argentina