Gastronomic Big Wall Climbing in Patagonia

Tyler Karow, Imanol Amundarian, and Cedar Christensen pulled off a team free ascent of the South African Route on the East face of the Central Tower of Paine in Patagonia, Chile in January 2023. Despite their typical vigilance for going light, they opted to splurge on quite a few luxuries including excess amounts of wine and a mini cast iron oven that they used to bake muffins, empanadas, and pizzas daily while living in portaledges. They spent a total of ten days on the wall after an initial two days of fixing ropes from the ground.

This 4000 foot line was first climbed in 1974 by a South African team and first freed by Sean Villnueva O'Driscoll, Nico Favrese, and Ben Ditto in 2009 at a grade of 5.12c. This was the second free ascent of the route.