La Presencia de mi Padre

I can trace a major feature of the defining moments of my life – on a map. The feature is known as El Monstruo; the formation of a path to its base, summit and back again has also played a large role in the formation of me.

Needless to say, putting onto page the significance of the trials I encountered along the way is made ever more difficult because I want to represent them with all the gusto that I believe – as deeply as Cochamo’s valleys – it merits.

As you read on, please understand that much care has been taken during these dream-chasing adventures in order to treat the environment and the future generations with the utmost respect. Literally and figuratively, at each turn I checked my moral compass. My goal was to give back something wonderful to the global trekking and climbing community. Though, as I type this, I realize that accomplishments in one realm easily translate as inspiration to other sectors. So in a way, I was really just aiming to give something wonderful back to the world, something that caused happiness to well up like it still does for me when I think about this experience that has left footprints no rain can wash away. One of the coolest parts about being devoted to a project as grande as El Monstruo was that it governed my actions not only while in Patagonia but for the 8-9 months in my motherland. It enveloped my every experience. Every time I went to work, I thought about how each penny I made could be spent on a beer, or instead put towards a bolt on the route, an energy bar that would help me blaze the trail, or one fraction of the flight to get there and back. Every time I went for a run, I envisioned the monster getting closer and taller in front of me.

I did splurge on making a poster of my goal that I looked at before going to bed and immediately after waking up. Even amidst changing life conditions, I remained focused and stabilized – I was on a mission even when it was on the other side of the planet. What I’m trying to convey is that the huge importance of finding the answers to my questions about El Monstruo gave my entire life direction and purpose – a strong connection that kept me even keeled in windy weather far offshore.

That being said, let me now try and show you why I have loved seeing this project from its start through to its completion, through seasons and storms, valleys literal and metaphorical.

Rather than passionately waxing on for hours – or in the written form: pages – I think it most succinct to share the pictures from the trip along with anecdotes. So, without further adieu, here is the anachronistic photo album of the birth of a trail to El Monstruo and the current largest free route in Cochamó, La Presencia de Mi Padre, 1600m, 5.10+. I hope you enjoy! Should you have any questions or comments, I welcome them with enthusiasm.

Nick Foster, my partner for the majority of the 2012-13 season, brings in a wave of bouldering development to Cochamó. Here, he gets the FA of "Fifty Percent" V1 named because it's halfway to El Monstruo from La Junta, usually a 4-5 hour trek for most hikers or climbers with packs.

Above, Foster hops on "Salto Gitano" (Gypsy Jump) V1, a deep water solo boulder problem at the base of El Monstruo. But we did more than bouldering. Most of our time was spent hiking. This is true for every season (2008, 2009, 2010, & 2012). That is, if you count trail engineering as hiking.

The terrain in Cochamo is quickly noted [above] as being easily eroded thanks to being in a rainforest and the La Junta trail's history as a route for cattle trafficking.

My father, Michael Conroy joined me for the 2011-12 season when all of my other plans with climbing partners and recruits fell through. [Above] He joined me not only for the hiking and shuffling of 100's of lbs. of gear, but also for weeks of trail work, tent captivity, and finally 9 pitches of the new route on El Monstruo, the first three of which were done 1 pitch per day in the Patagonia downpour.

Water stops decided natural rest points in the trail where we refilled our containers and continued onward through the winding ways of Valle Trinidad and beyond.

The majority of the Trinidad trail was researched and cut in the 2009-10 season. Once rough and rugged it has now been heavily trampled and thus reinforced, eliminating the need for markings.

The slab crossing of Cerro Laguna, once a part not only of the route Tatonka (5.10b, ~600m) but also of the trail to the Pass and thus El Monstruo has now been traded in for a hiking trail. This is thanks in great part to Nick Foster and Brian Stuenkel who dedicated many mountain man hours in conditions ranging from freezing and snowy to sunny and sticky. As a result, what was once practically inconceivable for adventuring can be done by high schoolers with day packs and bikinis! That is, as long as they don't mind passing by stinky big wall climbers en route to the vistas buenas del paso!

While this roped section has also been circumnavigated by the addition of steep and winding trail, some fixed rope sections are still unavoidable on the other side of the pass - sections of steep rock faces that connect patches of vertical forest.

Once on the crossing from the Pass [El Paso Querido del Caso Perdido], the traverse is stunning, offering an ever expanding view of El Monstruo and the valley it dwells in. As if that isn't sweet and inviting enough, it finishes with a jaw-dropping high-altitude laguna [Laguna Alta Aventura] that few have been to.

Here is the high altitude laguna, Laguna Alta Aventura, with ice still upon it through the beginning of January! Brian Stuenkel and Nick Foster set up their tents! I opted for a night beneath the stars and clouds.

Please be advised, though: This terrain is highly fragile as it is not only exposed to great falls but also feeds the water sources in the valley below. To the point: please be very careful if you do have to defecate, to dig a proper hole. Please camp in the valley below whenever possible, and do not defecate close to the laguna, especially, as it is a water source in and of itself. And: spread the word of this conservation and care effort whenever mentioning such locations. I myself forget to do so, especially with respect to El Monstruo because it's so exciting. But while on El Monstruo, for over 16 days just this last year, we always used WAG bags to transport our human waste off of the wall, since it, too feeds the valley's water where people [we] camp.

Here my father navigates a bouldery and exposed section - of which there are many - of the traverse from the Pass to the high altitude laguna.

Here is the unavoidable spot where we affixed a rope and placed knots in it. During the fringe of the season, I would encourage travelers to be prepared for cold temps and wet conditions. A few times we had to warm our hands in our armpits and other warm areas before being able to feel them enough to grasp the rope for ascension.

Welcome to Cochamó! This is the Cochamó I most love: raw, unaltered, thick bamboo forest that thwarts your every intent to make progress in a specific direction! Experiencing this makes you appreciate donning running shoes and doing trail runs in Cochamó (See below for a chart of time trials in the burgeoning sport of trail running in Cochamó!)

My father Michael with a machete still in sight for the moment!

Here is one of my favorite parts of the trail to El Monstruo (though I know I say this a lot while hiking here): I like to call it Escher Point in honor of Maurits Cornelius for its illusion that it comes from the same direction it appears to be going! I like to think that it more ostensibly feeds itself.

Once more illustrating the point of lush rainforest wonderment, this is the valley of the monster before we put in a trail. Although it still maintains its aura of being untamed, as I hope it forever shall!

Once in the clearing, we realize that what we thought was a grey sky through the trees was actually just El Monstruo looming incredibly high above us! We can't wait to dry out our clothes and gear after setting up a campsite in the pouring rain upon a swampy Earth. Though we're relatively close to the base of El Monstruo as the condor flies, without a trail it was still a few hours - without cutting - to get there! Nowadays, what with the groomed trail and all, the wall may be reached from this position in a mere 12 minute jaunt!

The photos are hopping backwards in time! Dad is perched rather precariously above the old fixed lines in Valle Trinidad, far above the valley floor. While I still enjoy doing these tentative movements for old times' sake, I'm glad for everyone else's life that this is no longer required to reach the pass! Dad and I both did numerous laps back and forth with packs weighing up to and over 70 lbs. through this gauntlet! As did Tate Shepherd in December of 2009!

It's funny looking at the base of El Monstruo from the pass. The campsite is a dot much smaller than a fingernail. A human would be invisible to the naked eye from such a distance. Quite humbling, whether you cover that much distance in 5 hours or in 45 minutes!

One of the more challenging days of these past few years in Cochamó, my father and I decided it would be best to stash a 120-L dry-sealed barrel to protect gear for the year to come. This would allow us to have gear protected and awaiting us for the years to come as well as allow us to hike out lighter and expedite our dispatch timeline. The only hook: I had to carry a 120-L barrel through all of the bouldery miles of terrain from Cochamó town, through La Junta, Valle Trinidad, up to the pass, down through the vertical forest, and to the base of El Monstruo. Never again! But, luckily I enjoy struggling!

Proof again of the enjoyment of struggling!

Ah, the bivy boulder. A safe haven from rain, but also from sun, its chilly demeanor leaves visitors shivering and yet taking advantage of the dry environment, drying their jackets and socks for hours on end by the fire and hanging from bamboo jammed in cracks in the boulder!

Though it does keep dry almost entirely, when heavy rain persists for days and sometimes weeks on end, there are a few drip spots so a protected bivy is suggested (via bivy sac and/or tarp!)

Though slightly unappetizing, the fire pit makes for a great drying rack, and dry, warm socks make a huge difference in Cochamo lifestyle.

Even in the summer, including during sunny, summer days there are reported cases of sleet falling and accumulating both on the peaks and down in the valley. In this case, all about Valle Trinidad's bivy boulder!

Ever wake up to someone chewing their cud outside your tent?

These cows and calves blunder all over La Junta, taking down barbed wire fences and mumbling around sampling the different greens of the valley!

We, on the other hand, stock up in Puerto Montt and Puerto Varas with large quantities of snacks, which we run the numbers on and play logistician. The only thing I hate about this is that I know I'm influencing the culture here by coming in with expedition gear and clothing and money saved up through living frugally for the year in order to spend it in a place where people's wages don't go quite as far. I must be aiding in driving - or maintaining in some cases - high prices. Though it's not as wild in tourist towns since prices are expectedly higher, small towns I feel worse for since they often have even higher prices due to the cost of getting supplies that far away. This is just one reason why each year I bring 100's of energy bars from the good old US of A. I think it's hugely important to think of all of the things you use not just at home, but especially abroad where you stick out like a sore thumb and people look at you as an example of your country. And in poorer places, they look at you almost as a glamour model and go so far as to emulate your actions - especially in the commercial sense. Anyhow, buying in bulk I believe ameliorates a large portion of this moral dilemma and shopping frugally abroad as well - or with a sense not of pure "vacation" or luxurious abundance but of necessity, while making reasonable purchase decisions.

Here, dad and I approach the daily game of "How well can you cook using one small cylindrical stove?!" This time, at the bivy boulder.

When you can't find your knife readily available for opening the rice, just use the nut tool!

Dressing up always makes things better! Here Waldo wakes up after a morning nap in a sleeping bag sleeved in a haul bag and on a backpack!

Right after this photo was taken, I ran back to the base of El Montruo before grabbing a left-behind pack and taking it to catch up with my father en route to La Junta! I can still strongly recollect the exhaustion I felt upon arriving late that night!

Here's the layout of food - lots of parmesan packs, soup packs, flavored water packets, sugar, and salami!

Here, my climbing partner and senior trail developer Brian Stuenkel marches across the melting natural bridge of Laguna Alta Aventura, with its crystalline waters and consequently remarkable reflections!

In the early weeks of the Patagonia summer, Brian and I took a stroll around the high altitude laguna, which is not possible once the snows have melted thanks to a steep water wall and loose talus. Here, Brian is caught in my glass eye running back to Nick Foster and the tents!

What a difference a month makes, huh? Jaimie Rault ponders the depths of these times and these trips in the waters of the laguna, now the hues of Maine tourmaline.

This place begs for panoramas! I hope to put up a few new routes on these walls!

Again, from the oppposite side of the laguna as is usually accessible!

After a four-day attack on El Monstruo, reaching the base of pitch 11, if I recall correctly, I used my toothbrush to measure out the expected remaining pitches, accounting for foreshortening. Photo Nick Foster.

Here is the lump of gear that my father and I hauled up to Trinidad and then on to El Monstruo, this time with some help from our good friend, Jorge Andres Valenzuela.

Here I am taking the fun runout pitch 9 from the huge ledge atop pitch 8 that my father has popularly dubbed "Dulce de Ledge", instead of the Argentinean treat dulce de leche that everybody loves on everything from apples to facturas!

On our last attack on the wall in 2011 during which my father and I opened pitches 4 through 9, we rappelled down in the night, this time in welcome, dry conditions! This involved a memorable instance, however, since there is a crevasse bridged by a lodged boulder that dad - and his lantern (read: headlamp) disappeared into! Never a dull moment!

Inspecting an alternate exposed, slab for pitch 12.

Same as above, although this photo vaguely reveals the sustained and varied offerings of pitches 12 - 18.

One of the cruxes for opening the entire route involved pulling a V5 move and mantling on a sloper and finding out that the battery-operated drill I had swinging on my back during the hard move turned out to house a dead battery. So I reluctantly went through the steps - without stepping - of gently bolting by hand for over 30 minutes so as not to push myself off the thin sloper upon which I rested but did not relax!

Here is the glorious alternate to Pitch 10! The original pitch 10 diverges for its first part on climbers left.

This was a night to remember! A sleepless night with one sleeping bag atop pitch 14 on what we're calling Repisa Cuchara (Spoon Ledge)! From Left: Nate Conroy, Nick Foster, Jaimie Rault. The morning of our fourth day on the wall, we got up from our positions, myself on the edge, and attempted to open up the difficult and damp pitch 15. After making it up to the crux of the pitch, this pitch requiring more bolts than any thus far, we were all so tired we turned back down.

The Canadian Beast, Sean Willis, a champion of souls and positivity rappels down from the same Spoon Ledge on the third 4-day attack on El Monstruo. This time, he rappels to get water from a light waterfall just off to the side. Makes you appreciate water coolers and fountains!

Here Sean is atop Pitch 23, bolting to save my hand, which I ruptured in my first bad bolt, placed from a worn-out state. Another virgin high-altitude laguna comes into view while climbing this awesome route, La Presencia de mi Padre.

Here is a panorama from the wonderfully large and comfortable ledge after Pitch 19!

These next two photos I always look fondly upon for they capture for me bookmarks in the tale of the opening of this trail and route. My father sits [above] at the halfway point between the pass and El Monstruo, a heavy load at his side, snacking before continuing. For all his hard work, cairn engineering, support and voice of reason both during the expedition and the months prior and after, I couldn't help feel his presence and absence the subsequent expedition. I found myself thanking him at every turn and at every improvement and obstacle encountered. Wanting to give something back but feeling it impossible to ever be able to pay him in return, Nick Foster and Jaimie Rault said, as we approached the base of El Monstruo yet again, "You should name the route after him." The prior year dad had said he could "feel the presence of his father", who had recently passed from this world. So it was that at that very moment I was moved to tears and knew exactly what to call this gorgeous behemoth of a gift: La Presencia de mi Padre stands tall at 1600m of climbing, with a sustained grade of 5.10+.

Thanks everyone at home and abroad, on my social team and climbing team and family team. Cheers to more time together and with the mountains! If I had to make a moral to the story, it would be to listen to what is calling you and follow that voice with undying dedication. Go all chips in. That’s how you show it means everything to you. How do you thank a place and people who have given your dream tangibility?

All I can fathom is a continual thank you verbalized by following yet other dreams. This one experience and communal effort has elevated my faith in the power of people to make dreams come true and just as importantly - vice versa.