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2004
Mugs Stump Award Winners:
Anderson/Grez/Herlihy/Selda—Avellano Towers
Dave
Anderson, Nacho Grez, Steve Herlighy & Jamie Selda
Dear
Mugs Stump Award Committee,
 In
this day and age of high technology even the most remote
corners of the earth can be explored with a few keystrokes
from an environmentally controlled office. Luckily there
are some wild places left and the Avellano Towers of Chile
is such a place. Patagonia has an incredibly harsh climate.
I have previously climbed 10 days in Patagonia, but I had
to put in 14 weeks of cowering to receive those days. However,
it is this same “bad” weather that has prevented
anyone from learning about the Avellano Towers. When the
cartographers flew over this area all they saw were clouds.
On the map the area has no topo lines just a blank white
sections. Located 80 miles south from the town of Coyhaique,
the 2700 foot golden granite walls of the Avellano Towers
have remained hidden until Chilean climber Nacho Grez discovered
them while leading a trek in the area.
 Two
years later Nacho Grez, returned with Jamie Selda, Steve
Herlighy and I myself. The expedition was self-supported.
On March 14 we started ferrying 1000 lbs. of food and gear
into the mountains. We ended up hiking 398 miles during
the trip. Base camp was established near tree line at the
base of the 4000 ft Avellano Massif. The weather was extremely
unstable, even for Patagonia. We experienced rain or snow
at least part of every day we were in the mountains.
We
took full advantage of the few hours of good weather we
did receive. On March 20th the rain stopped for fourteen
hours. Climbing in two separate rope teams, we ascended steep
snow and rock to gain the north col of the Avellano Massif,
then traversed across the west face. At the south ridge we
combined forces and reached the summit of the Avellano Tower
just after sunset. The rest of the night was consumed by
rappelling and down climbing, we reached base camp as the
next storm moved into the valley. We named the route the
Conquistador Ridge IV, 5.10, 80 degrees.
 After nine more days of rain and snow, the clouds lifted
for twenty-three hours allowing Jamie Selda and myself to
attempt a direct line up the 2,500-ft northeast prow of the
tower. We navigated through an extremely cracked up hanging
glacier to reach the base of the route. Unfortunately, the
previous week of storms had encased the granite cracks with
snow and ice, slowing our progress up the face. After climbing
1000 ft up the wall (5.10 A2), we were forced to retreat
as a new storm front blew in.
The temperatures plummeted and the rain turned to snow compelling
us to pack up base camp and hike back to the road head before
the approaching winter season made us permanent residents
in the mountains.
 The Avellano Valley offers a wide variety of climbing objectives,
easy snow walk ups, low fifth class ridge traverses, excellent
free climbing on fine-grained granite, alpine snow/ice routes
and steep big wall objectives. The mountains in this area
are not subject to the extreme winds of other more exposed
climbing areas in Patagonia, but the valley does receive
abundant precipitation
The Avellano Towers expedition received generous support
from the Muggs Stump Award, The National Outdoor Leadership
School and the Mazamas.
Sincerely,
Dave
Anderson
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