Days After Cerro Torre, Colin Haley Also Makes First Winter Solo of Aguja Standhardt, Patagonia
Veteran Patagonia climbers know one thing to be true: if the wind isn’t howling, and it’s not nuking snow or rain, you’d better go climbing—it could be months until good weather returns to one of the stormiest places on earth. Colin Haley, arguably the most accomplished Patagonia climber of all time, takes this approach as gospel. And so it was no surprise that after just six days of rest following his first solo-winter ascent of Cerro Torre, the 41-year-old American headed back into the Torre Massif when more good weather rolled in.
This time, Haley was set on the smallest of the three “Torres”: Aguja Standhardt, which he made the first-ever solo of in November 2010 via Exocet (WI5 5.9; 500m). Canadian Marc-André Leclerc made the second solo of Standhardt, and the first free solo, just days after the end of Austral winter, in September 2015, via Exocet’s “sit start” Tomahawk (M7 WI6). Haley says it was the Austrian Tommy Bonapace who initially inspired him to climb Standhardt alone. In April 1994—before forecasts or what we now consider the town of El Chaltén—Bonapace soloed to the top of Exocet’s ice chimney before retreating in a storm. According to the online guide Pataclimb.com, Bonapace “climbed free solo, trailing a 100-meter rope behind him and stopping briefly at belays to smoke a cigarette and haul his pack.”
Haley made an Instagram post summarizing this ascent, where he concluded: “This climb was undoubtedly much easier, and much less special, than my recent climb of Cerro Torre, so it felt a bit anticlimactic.” But though it might pale in comparison to Cerro Torre, Aguja Standhardt remains a truly beautiful mountain, and Exocet one of the most spectacular ice climbs on the planet. As Haley made his return home to Chamonix, I caught up with him via Whatsapp to learn a little more about this ascent.
The interview
Climbing: How were the conditions on Exocet? A lot of brittle ice or snowy mixed sections?
Haley: I would say that conditions on the route were pretty good. The amount of ice in the chimney was definitely less than the first time that I climbed Exocet, but I think the chimney was in pretty normal condition for the modern paradigm. The mixed pitches were actually in quite good condition, with very little snow or rime on them. The biggest difficulties in terms of conditions were that the ice in the chimney was certainly much more brittle than in summertime, and I had a lot of deep trail breaking on the glacier.
I actually think that in the entire Chaltén Massif, Exocet is probably the route whose difficulty is the least augmented by climbing in the winter season. For one, it is a route that is typically climbed entirely in crampons (as opposed to rock shoes), and also it is east-facing, so it receives sun in what is otherwise the coldest part of the day. In fact, one of the biggest problems with climbing Exocet now in mid-summer is that during good weather windows the chimney often starts to run with water by mid morning. One doesn’t have to worry about that issue in winter!
Climbing: On Instagram, you wrote: “After my recent climb of Cerro Torre I felt extremely tired and satisfied, and would’ve happily not gone mountain climbing for a while. In Patagonia, however, opportunities for alpine climbing are rare, and one doesn’t get to choose when they arrive.” Can you explain your motivations a bit more here? Obviously you know how rare good weather is, but still—you’d completed a very difficult lifelong dream less than a week ago. Why specifically did you head back out into the mountains? Or, in other words, why did you feel uncomfortable with the idea of “wasting” good weather?
Haley: Well, my motivations to go climb Standhardt were the same as any time I go try a difficult alpine climb, it’s just that in this case it took a bit more effort to overcome the inertia of chilling. This is nothing new to me, or other highly motivated climbers who have been in Chaltén with good weather windows coming in quick succession. A couple of the most epic climbs I’ve done in the Chaltén Massif, the Torres Traverse in a day and the Wave Effect Direct in a day, were done with just a few days of rest in town between.
Climbing: Where did you camp? And how much weight did [your porter] Maxy Abasto carry? Previously you’ve talked about how portering in Patagonia, especially in winter, feels like it takes away a big part of the solo challenge, and that it’s not an attractive strategic option for you. How has your opinion on that changed?
Haley: I slept the first night near the Nunatak, a little ways beyond Niponino, and I slept the second night on the glacier right near the base of Standhardt’s east pillar. On that first day Maxy carried 18 kilograms and I carried only 10 kilograms. The second day of the approach was much shorter, but involved a lot of trail breaking, and I was then carrying everything myself, so it felt just as tiring.
You’re right that in the past I have been purist about not using porters in Chaltén. I never did so before last summer, and I certainly think that in general it will still be more “my style” to not use porters in Chaltén, even if the biggest reason is just that I can’t afford porters. The reason that I twice hired a porter during this trip is because it seemed like it would actually make a real difference for me—the first time I had arrived in the middle of the weather window, and knew that it would be really advantageous to make it all the way to the top of Filo Rosso [near the start of the technical climbing on Cerro Torre’s Ragni Route] in very limited time. The second time I was just really tired still from Cerro Torre, and wasn’t sure if I was up for carrying 28 kilograms by myself all that way, and still have enough energy left for the challenge of the climb.
In addition to those very practical reasons, I also have done a fair amount of pondering on this question, and my purist viewpoint started to seem a bit illogical. The biggest reason for that is that most climbers, including myself, use gear caches in the Chaltén Massif during a climbing season, to reduce the amount of weight being carried back and forth on the long approaches. If Person A has three months to spend in Patagonia, then he or she can do a big load carry just once at the start of the season, and then carry a light pack for the remainder of his or her trip. If Person B has only 3.5 weeks off from work, it doesn’t seem fair to fault him or her for hiring a porter to climb in the same weather window as Person A, since they both end up carrying a light pack into the mountains. Also, if you are about to hike into Niponino to go climbing, and your friend mentions that they have ropes and rack cached there and offers for you to use them, of course you won’t say no. So if another person doesn’t have such luck from a generous friend, it doesn’t make sense to fault him or her for hiring a porter. In the last Patagonian summer, when Tyler Karow and I planned to go try the Southeast Ridge of Cerro Torre, Tyler’s friend Danny offered to porter for us for free, just for the experience of seeing the Torre Valley, and I definitely wasn’t purist enough to say no to that! But it doesn’t make any sense for it to be “cheating” if you pay for it, but not cheating if it’s free. Basically, I kinda realized that my purist logic had some large holes in it.
In addition, there is the fact that hiring porters to near the base of the mountain is considered completely normal and accepted in pretty much all of the Himayala, even though many mountains in the Himalaya are relatively easily accessible. For example, the approach to the normal route on Ama Dablam is easier than the approach to Cerro Torre in almost every way. The truth, of course, is that porters are “normal” in the Himalaya because manual labor in the Himalaya is affordable for foreign climbers. I think that the biggest downside to normalizing the hiring of porters is it makes a climbing objective a bit easier for those who can afford to hire a porter… but of course something being easier to achieve for those with the financial resources is an injustice that pervades nearly every aspect of human culture.
Climbing: You wrote that during your 2010 solo of Exocet, you “free soloed a lot of the route, including a bunch of the crux ice chimney. Now 15 years older, and a bit wiser, I rope soloed all except the really easy sections.” What specifically encouraged you to rope solo more this year? What prompted this new “wisdom”?
Haley: Personally, I have never considered free soloing to be “better style” than rope soloing, at least when it comes to alpine climbing. Some people do, and I think that is a symptom of a general problem in the climbing community, particularly the North American climbing community, of celebrating risk taking specifically. Personally, I value athleticism, I value intelligence, I value skill and talent, I value dedication, I value perseverance, I value the application of hard-won experience, but I don’t value “boldness,” which is just a euphemism for risk taking.
That definitely does not mean that I am one of those people who is against free soloing! I have been free soloing on a regular basis since I was about 12 years old, and any experienced alpine climber knows that free soloing is a completely integral part of alpine climbing. Like any kind of climbing the risks have to be taken into consideration, and since the consequence of a fall while free soloing is death, it should obviously only be done on terrain where the climber is extremely confident that he or she won’t fall.
If you are trying to climb a mountain by yourself, it is natural to free solo the terrain where you are extremely confident not to fall, and rope solo the terrain where you are less sure. Rope soloing has the advantage of being safer, but the disadvantage of being extremely costly in terms of time and energy. Free soloing has the disadvantage of being less safe, but the advantage of being extremely efficient in terms of time and energy.
When I soloed Standhardt in 2010 I only rope soloed as much as I did because I thought that I wouldn’t have enough time and energy to complete the climb if I rope soloed more of it. This time, having just recently rope soloed nearly all of the Ragni Route, I had a lot more confidence in my ability to endure the greater endurance challenge of rope soloing.
In addition, there is another reason. There is a generally held belief in climbing that free soloing makes more sense while ice climbing than while rock climbing. I think this belief came about in the 1970s because ice screws were so difficult to place that trying to protect ice climbs often seemed not worth the effort. In the modern era, I have realized that I actually feel the opposite: I generally think that free soloing makes more sense on rock than on ice, for a given feeling of climbing difficulty. The reason is that while rock climbing you can easily sense how secure you are or not, so you can free solo very carefully without expending much more energy than you would if you were climbing roped. In ice climbing you certainly get some sense of how solid your ice axe placements are, but it is not nearly as certain of a sense as when grabbing rock holds barehanded. Because of this, when I free solo ice climbs I make my axe placements much deeper than if I were climbing roped. This uses a lot more time and energy, as does removing your axes from those deep placements. In 2010 I free soloed roughly the first half of the crux ice chimney, but I was climbing very slowly, and using a lot of energy to really sink my picks deep in the ice. So, even though rope soloing those pitches this time was overall slower and more energy consuming, at least I got to climb those pitches in a similarly efficient manner than I would’ve belayed by a partner, not having to make super deep axe placements every time.
Climbing: When you wrote: “The most satisfying part of the experience was seeing how relaxed and at ease I felt during the climb, compared to my younger, less-experienced self 15 years ago,” do you have a specific example here to cite? I.e., a pitch where 26-year-old Colin would have felt was quite intense, yet 41-year-old you thought it to be not a big deal?
Haley: I think the climb felt more relaxed in part because I simply am a lot more experienced now than I was then, and have a lot more hard solo ascents under my belt. In addition, starting this climb already tired, I didn’t really have the physical or mental energy to rush, and was kind of forced to adopt a chill mindset from the beginning. I just told myself that the weather wasn’t meant to get imminently bad, and I had a really good headlamp with me, so I didn’t need to stress about time. Lastly, this time I only free soloed the really easy sections, and I’m sure that also contributed to the whole climb feeling more relaxed.
Climbing: Can you describe your rope-solo system?
Haley: Well, let me start off with the disclaimer that I definitely do not consider myself to be a rope soloing expert. It’s something that I do every now and then when a specific objective inspires me enough to put up with all the hassle that it involves!
Before this trip, I’m pretty sure that the last time I did any rope soloing was during my 2023 winter attempt on Cerro Torre. During my six days back in Chamonix before this trip I literally watched a Youtube video of Brent Barghahn explaining his system, and I more-or-less copied it, except that I kept the spare rope in a backpack on my back. I asked around to friends of mine in Chamonix, and my friend Dave Searle luckily had a Grigri+ to lend me, in addition to five of these little plastic things that Brent Barghahn designed to prevent “back-feeding”—they aren’t necessary, but they save a bit of time compared to using elastic prussiks. A couple mornings before flying to Argentina I went to an easy crag in Servoz and rope soloed a few pitches to make sure that the system was working well.
For both Cerro Torre and Standhardt I was climbing on an 80-meter Edelrid “Starling Protect,” which is a burly half rope, advertised as 8.2mm, but I think it is realistically 8.5mm. I wouldn’t have been comfortable using this rope on a predominantly rock route of similar length and difficulty, but for these predominantly ice routes I think it was a reasonable choice. Using an 80-meter rope allowed me to make very long pitches, and thereby save time on the various maneuvers required at each belay.
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