Hazaña in Santa Cruz: an American Mountaineer climbed Mount Fitz Roy without protection

CALAFATE.- An epic feat was realized a few days ago in the mountains of El Chalten: a mountaineer climbed alone, without equipment and without help, at an altitude of 1,500 meters through the vertical walls of granite until 39, on the summit of Mount Fitz Roy. And the feat was even bigger: when he reached the top he also went down without the help of ropes. In this way, he became the first to do so in the style known as Free Solitaire. He only used his climbing shoes, his chalk and his immeasurable ability.

That's Jim Reynolds, a 25-year-old American, who works as a lifeguard in Yosemite National Park, USA, who spent three months in El Chaltén preparing for the film. He also forged friends and joined the rescue of mountaineers. This year there was
Four dead in the mountain range. The feat of Fitz Roy, the young man also climbed solo and unprotected two other routes on the needles Saint Exupery and Rafael Juarez.

"Even solo climbing (this is what is called the modalid) is not done alone, thank you very much to all the people who have been part of my trip, recently and over the years. years, great love for the communities of El Chalten, Yosemite, Bishop and Trinidad, "posted on his Facebook profile the days of climbers after the feat in the mountains.

And he defines his pbadion for climbing as an art: "For me, my art is the combination of our humanity and the splendor of raw nature, I do not think that climbing should be selfish, it's to fill my mug with joy, it's so full that it's overflowing into the rest of the world, it's a way to collect the good energy from the mountains and redistribute it to people. "

Reynolds works in the same national park where famous climber Alex Honnold climbed the vertical wall El Capitan, without ropes, at a height of more than 2,300 meters. The exploit was recorded in
Free Solo, which won an Oscar this year in the Best Documentary category. Honnold's feat, considered the largest in the history of free solo climbing, required years of preparation and staged an unknown activity outside the mountain range .

On March 21st, the American climber embarked on the most difficult adventure: he traveled 1,500 meters alone and without help in 15 and a half hours. Cerro Fitz Roy is 3,405 meters high. He did it for the edge called Afanbadieff. It was the first climb of this type.

"It was pretty incredible, really surreal, to be alone at the top of Fitz Roy," said Reynolds, speaking to National Geographic, which was the exclusive story of his epic. "But I knew I could not spend a lot of time there.It was 3:13 pm It took me 6 hours and 38 minutes to get in. The climbing was completed. "

While climbing, Reynolds left traces of chalk on the rocks to identify the way of descent. However, when they descended, some of them were wet and no longer visible, making the descent already complex, even more difficult. It took 15 and a half hours to carry out the feat that he had done alone and had registered via his iPhone.