Rab-sponsored athlete Pedro Cifuentes has become the first climber to traverse the three Torres Del Paine in Patagonia, solo and unsupported.
Cifuentes faced some of the world’s harshest weather conditions, including frequent storms and high winds, to complete the long, technical and committing climb. It took 29 days on the wall and more than a 1000m of climbing to successfully descended to base camp. Cifuentes tackled the three Torres by ascending the North Tower via Espiritu Libre, the Central Tower via the Bonington-Whillans route and the South Tower by the Aste route.
It wasn’t all plain sailing though. During his climb, he was tent-bound by a fierce storm for eight days. Instead of descending, Pedro waited out the storm in the gully between Central Tower and South Tower. A major challenge was finding enough snow for drinking water while he waited the storm out and rationing his rapidly shrinking food supply. Pedro also came very close to losing his life several times on his descent of the notorious Hoth route as there was a constant danger of rock fall.
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