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Benegas Brothers Find Trouble Reaching Latok
Jun 23, 2004 14: 40 EST
The Benegas brothers are outfitted with HumanEdge Tech's Contact 3.0, supplied to them by North Face. The brothers are on their way to the great Latok climb but have run into a couple snafu's along the way. Here is the latest from Willie and Damian:
"What crazy few days we've had. It's been few days since the last time we sent some news from our adventure. And an adventure indeed it is!
On day 3 of the approach we ran into what looked like a major problem. Mother Nature decided how we could approach Latok base camp. On talking with the local agency, they told us that it was possible to approach the Chonlong glacier from the Biafo glacier through some obscure mountain pass used by local hunters.
This year the weather is not very good and tons of snow has fallen at lower altitudes; we are still waiting to be hit by the Karakoran sun and watch it all melt away, but clouds and rain is a daily thing and the snow is not melting.
So we reached this place and there is no way we will be able to get all of the porters through that pass, so back we went and in 2 days we did what we did in 4, lots of miles on moraines and flat glaciers took us back to the trail head.
The bottom line is, we will need to approach the face from another valley, but it was not all in vain. We walked through an awesome valley, with giant towers, big walls and tons of 18,000ft peaks that don't even have names or first ascents. We also learned from the porters on how to survive on just a lighter, a pot and some salt. There is so much food to eat in these hills!
We will walk one more day and rest for one since we have been walking for 5 days non- stop, planning to reach Base Camp in about 6 days by the Cholong Glacier."
Big walls and Spires in the Karakorums offer some of the most technical and demanding climbs on Earth; extreme mixed routes and many ‘unsolved problems’. Now the Benegas brothers, Willie (Guillermo) and Damian, are off to find the solution to one of the most famous problems. Their objective: to climb the North Ridge of Latok I (7145 m), often dubbed as ‘The Walker Spur of the Karakorum’.
"It is a perfect spur rising from a completely flat glacier. A real beauty. The best thing of opening a new route is the sense of exploration, wondering at each step where you will go next. If there are traces, well, we will just have too many clues! That’s why we are considering changing the place where we will open the route. We’ve been thinking of the possibility of climbing the North face, instead of the North ridge. The problem with the face is that it can be too exposed to falling rocks. We can not know until we get to the foot of the wall. Then we will make our decision."
Damian and Willie (Guillermo) Benegas, born in Argentina and living in the USA, have raised the attention of the climbing community since they were very young, and started opening routes in their homeland, mostly in Patagonia and Aconcagua. Then they extended their action field to the rest of Andes, did severe rock-climbing in big walls such as El Capitan (Yosemite) and soon headed for the Himalayas. They own a guiding company.
Last year they were the first to climb the North Pillar of Nuptse, resulting in a new route opened in alpine style after a non-stop six day long climb, and named ‘Crystal Snake’. "When we were climbing the North Pillar of Nuptse last year, we couldn’t take our eyes off of Everest’s west face. We studied the face under different light, at different hours, and I think there is a route there. Yeah, someday we’ll go there, when we get the money, of course!"
This summer, they are in the Karakoram Range, where they will try to be the first to climb the North Ridge of Latok I.
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