It took Slovenia’s Luka Lindic and Luka Krajnc 3 attempts to complete a new direct route on the south pillar of the Aiguille Poincenot in Patagonia. Pot (750 m, A3, 6c) is not one of the team’s greatest successes since they started climbing from the Alps to Cerro Torre and Fitz Roy ranges, but it does mark 20 years of shared mountain experience. Luka Lindic, who has just returned from El Chalten, gives us his account of the story.
From El Chalten on 22 to 26 February, Slovenians Luka Lindic, 35, and Luka Krajnc, 36, completed Pot – the Way – on the south pillar of the aiguille Poincenot (3,002 m), famous peak of the Fitz Roy range (3,405 m).
The route, which takes 18 new pitches from the Col Susat to the exit of the Whillans-Cochrane route from the East side, is direct to the summit. A “total of 25 pitches,” explains Lindic, “with a super-technical middle section in compact granite”: a 750-metre high line that the two Slovenians climbed with 3 bivouacs, but which they were unable to climb free, assessing the difficulties as A3 in aid climbing and 6c in free climbing. “A free ascent should be possible,” adds Lindic, “but we wanted to open the line first. Maybe we’ll come back and try to climb it free”.
Climbers may be interested to know that the team has “left a few pitons and stoppers in place, placed a few bolts in the very compact rock by