Rappel-Anchor Failure in Patagonia Prompts Impressive Rescue Effort

Helicopter rescues in Argentine Patagonia are exceedingly rare. The famed Chaltén massif has a dedicated volunteer rescue team but no guaranteed emergency response and no chopper to speed dial. And even if it did, the area’s ripping coastal storms would easily pluck most choppers from the sky. So it was both surprising and notable when, on April 5, a small Robinson 44—originally chartered for tourists in the nearby El Calafate—flew past the town of El Chaltén and into the Torre Valley to aid in a rescue.

The day before, two groups of two female climbers were midway through a traverse called La Vuelta del Fitz, which passes beneath Cerro Chaltén’s (Fitz Roy’s) west face and descends a steep ramp of rock and ice below Filo del Hombre Sentado (Sitting Man Ridge). Near the end of that ramp, the first rope team set a two-screw anchor into 70-degree ice and prepared a rappel. When they both weighted the anchor it ripped from the ice, sending them into a roughly 40-meter fall.

By 8:30 p.m., the second rope team had rappelled to where their partners lay, assessed their open fractures, and opted to leave them in a tent while they hiked several hours to the Niponino camp in hopes of finding a climber with a satellite communications device. Members of the Comisión de Auxilio (CAX), El Chaltén’s volunteer rescue service, were notified of the accident around noon the following day.

Caro North, a professional Swiss climber who lives in El Chaltén for half the year, and who has volunteered with CAX since 2014, calls the ensuing rescue unprecedented. “Usually, it is very hard to get a helicopter to come for a rescue—almost never in Patagonia— because there is no dedicated heli in the area,” North explains. However, this time, the Robinson 44’s little engine was able to carry two members of CAX into the Torre Valley. When the pilot feared his load was too heavy, he dropped one volunteer off in Niponino before carrying the second even closer to the accident site. The pilot made several more trips into the Torre Valley ferrying more volunteers and heavy rescue equipment, including stretchers and ropes. It was the first time in the area’s history a helicopter had deposited volunteers by air, saving them at least 10 hours of tedious glacial and moraine hiking.

“It was a combination of factors that made this rescue work: the tourist helicopter that was in the area, and the incredibly stable weather,” says North “The calm wind was crucial as the helicopter was not very powerful. I think if there had been just a little wind, the pilot would have been unable to fly.”

Watch a video of the 40-person rescue effort, courtesy of Caro North:

On April 5, North was relaxing in El Chaltén, tired after a long Patagonian summer. Her season had included an attempt of the Southeast Ridge of Cerro Torre and the first ascent of Apollo 13 (7b+/5.12c; 600m) in the Turbio IV Valley. She and her boyfriend opted to not climb during the weather window surrounding April 4, content instead to relax in town with friends and enjoy the final days before a flight back to Europe later that week.

Even so, when CAX’s Whatsapp groupchat lit up with word of a serious accident, North and 40 other volunteers sprung into action, leaving their families, plans, and any dreams of relaxation behind.

“CAX activates two teams,” North says. “The contact group, who goes first with a superlight bag of first aid gear and tries to get to the injured as fast as they can, and a second group, who follows them with stretchers and ropes and other rescue gear needed to extract the injured.”

North was part of the first group, leaving town at 2:30 p.m., shortly after the helicopter who flew the two first responders into the Torre Valley. That group slowly picked their way across the Torre Glacier, which is littered with car-sized boulders, crevasses, deep pools of water, and has no clear trail to follow. The days are short in Argentina this time of year, so when the sky went dark at 8:30 p.m. they carried on by headlamp.

North’s group reached the two first responders and the injured around 11 p.m. In darkness, they began carrying the stretcher back down the glacier, carefully trying to not roll an ankle or drop into a crevasse.

Technically, the heli pilot and his Robinson 44 might have been able to fly all the way up to the base of Filo del Hombre Sentado to pick up the injured climbers, but it’s understandable why he didn’t risk it. In December 2014, the pilot Pablo Agriz, in the same type of helicopter, flew toward Hombre Sentado to rescue an unroped climber who had fallen into a crevasse. In an undeniable act of both bravery and misplaced optimism, Agriz misjudged the power of his own engine’s lift and fatally crashed into the mountain’s flanks. The helicopter’s wreckage still sits at the base of the ridge, reminding climbers of the potential consequences of calling for a rescue.

A few hours before sunrise, North and her group had descended to Niponino, where they hoped the heli would be able to pick up the injured climbers.

“Waiting was a bit of a mind game,” she says. “Should we just keep hiking? Or do we wait until daylight in hopes the heli can get them? But carrying them out further than Niponino would have been at least another 20 hours [of hiking], I think.”

North notes how fortunate it was that the stable weather continued to hold, and that it was warm enough for the rescuers to sit out the coldest hours of the night—given that most of them didn’t have bivouac gear.

Thankfully, the heli was able to land on the glacier at first light, picking up the injured as well as several rescuers—another first for Chaltén’s rescue team.

“I’m always impressed by the number of volunteers who gather for these rescues,” North reflects. “So many people in town drop what they’re doing to help. Another impressive thing with this rescue was how far away these girls were. This is one of the furthest places you could have an accident, and how lucky they were that the helicopter could take them out.”

North says she hopes this accident underlines the need for a dedicated rescue helicopter in the Chaltén massif—one that does not rely on the bravery and goodwill of private tourist operations but rather of government support. “Volunteers expose themselves to so much risk during each rescue,” she says. “I decided not to go climbing in the mountains during this window because I was too tired… but I ended up going anyway and hiking through the night to help this rescue.” North and so many other Chaltén locals are eager to help—but ideally, when the next accident happens, the responsibility should not just be on them.

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