Region: America - South and Antartica

Dr Andy Cave with James Bracken and Leo Houlding (February 2007)

In 2005 (MEF Ref: 05/05), Houlding, together with Kevin Thaw and climbers from Argentina and USA planned to climb the 1000m Mariposa Wall from the Rio Turbo Valley of Argentina’s Lago Puelo National Park (close to the Chilean border). Unfortunately heavy rains and swollen rivers delayed their approach so much that they had little time left to climb, so this was the inevitable return visit. However, once again they were afflicted by bad weather and delays resulting in a shortage of time plus multiple stings from a meat-eating yellow-jacket bee. As a result, they only managed to reach the lake below the route on Mariposa as their high point, and the available dinghy was not considered sufficiently robust to transfer climbers and all their equipment across such a serious obstacle. Although other objectives were reconnoitred, bad weather and a shortage of time once again meant that no climbing was achieved.