Page Type:
|
Route |
|---|---|
Lat/Lon:
|
32.064°S / 70.166°W |
Route Type:
|
Mountaineering |
Season:
|
Summer |
|
Time Required:
|
Expedition |
|
Difficulty:
|
D-/D |
|
Grade:
|
V |
|
Overview
On 15th december 2009, Gabriel Fava (Argentina) and Henry Bizot (France) climbed the central summit (6130 m) of La Mesa by a new route, no previous known climbing of the mountain by this route. The route was dedicated to Henry's wife and their 6 boys, and called "Veronica y seis hijos" .La Mesa is a remote mountain of the fascinating range of La Ramada. From the base camp of Rio Colorado valley, we installed 2 altitude camps on the right side of the Italian glacier (the biggest glacier of the area), to approach the base of the mountain.
Getting There
From gendarmerie post of Santa Anna to base camp.From Mendoza, 4 hours driving to reach the gendarmerie post of Santa Anna (2200 m).
Then 2 days walk, 30 km and 1400 m elevation, in the Colorado valley to the base camp (3600 m).
From base camp to camp 1.
One hour walk max to the Upper valley.
Then around 2 to 3 hours walk in a valley, on the right side of Italian glacier (not the one that is near the glacier, but the next one, separated from the first by a ridge).
Find a way to cross the ridge at the end of the valley, then walk on the right side of the glacier about 20 to 30 mn to reach camp 1 (4300 m) on a platform of rocks.
From camp 1 to camp 2.
Continue a 3 hours walk, on slopes of 20°, on the right side of the glacier to reach camp 2 (5000 m). Place camp 2 not too close of La Mesa. Take care of the crevasses on the Italian glacier.
Route Description
Climb the left side of the ridge that is on the right of NE faceWalk in the direction of the face. Climb the first 200 m and 30/40°slope (this slope was already climbed in the 60', during an attempt on La Mesa by Argentinas, who continued well on the left after). Continue on this slope, then cross on the right, in the direction of the ridge. Climb on the left side of the ridge, on 45° snow slopes among rocks, up to a flat place which a good place to stop a little. Continue to climb along the ridge on 50° slopes. Climb the ten last metres 60/65° slope to reach the summit ridge. The central summit is 50 m on the right. On the summit, an argentinan tradition : Gabriel left a paper with some information under a little cairn that we built, but we didn't find any paper of the past.
To go down, we took the Italian route, on the south extremity of La Mesa ridge. To climb down the 50° max first slopes, 2 rappels minimum, or more, depending on the conditions and the tireness.
Essential Gear
External Links
The best period to climb this route should be november/december. In november, it could be cold. From January, the Italian glacier could be crevassed, and impassable.An alternative to reach the base of La Mesa could be : reach camp 2 of the route "Saint Jean de Passy" (the one we opened in 2008 with Anibal Maturano), then cross the ridge by one of the 2 couloirs we took in 2008, go down on the other side, and install a camp 3 on the bottom of La Mesa, close to the North ridge.
During our expedition, the weather was generally sunny in the morning and cloudy in the afternoon, but we had strong gust winds mainly at camp 2 and on the summit.
The most precise and exhaustive documents about La Ramada ascents are the archives of the "Club Andino Mercedario" of San Juan.