Attempting Cerro Dientes del Diablo (3900 m)
Cajon del Maipo, Central Andes, Chile
La cumbre o la muerte!
With this toast and beers in hand, my brasilian friend Gustavo Porto de Mello and
I agreed to try the
ascent of a mountain called "Dientes del Diablo" in the Cajon del Maipo
region in April 2000. With 3900m it is not a high mountain for the Andes but
the route would be more technical than anything I had done so far in South America.
Unfortunately, during this trip I would also feel the effects of a bad food poisoning
I had a week earlier.
At the end it turned out to be: ni cumbre y ni muerte!
(click on the thumbnails to view the images):
Approaching the "Hilton" refugio. The "Dientes del Diablo" in the background.
The sky on fire during sunset.
Cerro Dientes del Diablo. The rising sun
illuminates our goal. The snowy canalleta, which we will follow, is visible on the left,
just coming into sunlight.
Into the canalleta.
Gustavo starting to climb the small rock-step.
Above the rocky step we continued in snow and ice.
Approaching the top of the canalleta.
Arriving at the end of the canalleta one look at the
terrain ahead convinced me to stop here. It would simply
take me too long to reach the summit and get all the way
back. It took me about 5 hours to reach this point.
While I was waiting, Gustavo
bravely tried to continue and attempted the traverse alone.
This picture was taken by Gustavo at his turn-around
point, he found the traverse too tricky to attempt it solo.
I can only agree with him. The peak seen in front is
actually not the main summit of Dientes del Diablo, the
top is beyond the right edge of the image.
During the night a big storm hit the mountains and the
next morning we had to descend through the blowing wind and drifting snow.
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