Report from August 27 & 28, 2025

After skiing Vespignani, Creston x2, and Mosquito, we were feeling stronger and ready for a bigger mission.

The weather forecast looked just about right for a trip to Cerro Madsen, adjacent to the Fitzroy Towers.

Well, it did look good, but just as we were pulling the trigger, the forecast changed and looked miserable for summit day…

5,925′ Cerro Madsen

El Chalten

Argentina, Patagonia

• Summit:  5,925 feet
• Car:  1,476 feet
• Camp:  2,425 feet
• Vertical From Car:  4,449 feet 
• Vertical From Camp:  3,500 feet
• Vertical skied:  2,393 feet (3,093 feet when you include 2nd lap)
  
• Max Pitch:  38?º
• Average Pitch:  35?º
• Aspect:  East Southeast
• Distance: 17 miles round trip
• Hiking Time From Car to Summit:  6 hours & 7 minutes
• Time From Camp to Summit: 4 hours & 4 minutes
• Car to Car Time:  14 hours & 44 minutes
• Recommended Equipment:  camping gear, crampons, ice axe, skins

Greggy had a flight to Bariloche for a wedding on Friday, which put us in a pinch.

We either go for it or repeat something we’d already done.

Initially, we’d planned on two camping nights for this trip, but due to Greggy’s time constraints, we only had one night.

We decided we’d hike in on Wednesday, chill all afternoon, then go to the summit and back to the car in one huge day on Thursday.

Kinda like back when I worked on Mt. Rainier.

Packs were heavy.

We ground through the hike to camp with good spirits.

The packs kinda hurt at first, but our bodies adjusted.

We took 3 breaks and weren’t in a rush.

The views along the trail were magnificent.

Piedras Blancas glacier, the Fitzroy Towers, Cerro Electrico, Cerro Madsen, all of it.

The hike was warm, and I did it in shorts and Greggy stripped down to his skivies.

We rolled into camp after 5 miles of walking with 1,000 vertical feet gained and it took us 3 hours.

We set up our brand new Big Agnes tent and sleeping pads and could not believe how easy the tent was to set up and how comfy the pads were.

We immediately chilled out in the tent for a while and I was flabbergasted.

I haven’t had a new sleeping pad in a while and this thing was by far the most comfy sleeping pad I’ve ever draped myself across.

Sandwiches, cheese, salami, bread, and soup for dinner.

Sunset at 7:12 pm.

Lights out at 8 p.m.

I awoke in the night to drizzle…

Damn.

The day felt lost before I’d even gotten outta bed.

Alarm at 5:30 am.

Still drizzling…

Back to sleep.

Alarm at 6 am.

“Well, shit, we’re here, we’ve been in bed for 10 hours, lets go have a look and at least hike up to the lake.”

We left camp about 7:30 am, grabbed water from the stream, blasted the darkness with headlamps, and moved west.

We were still experiencing PTSD after not putting our boots on soon enough on Cerro Electrico, so we thought we’d just start in boots this time to be conservative.

Too conservative…

We walked on dirt and rock for 45 minutes before we hit ice on the trail.

Yuck.

Crampons on and we cranked up the trail.

The sun was up by the time we hit Laguna de los Tres and the towers were in full view.

Grey skies continued, but above the towers, blue was making its move.

Once our skins were on, we flew up the mountain – except for the prolific photo taking.

There was 1mm of new snow.

Then there was 1cm, then 4cms, then 10 cm, and finally about 30 cm high.

I was spooked about avalanche conditions and dug a lot of hand pits before committing to 4 compression tests.

CTN, CTN, CTN, CT26 – Q3.

The first 3 tests revealed no failure and the final test failed on the 26th tap.

The failure was at the ground on rounding depth hoar and the entire snowpack up high was only 40cms…

These were excellent results and we felt good about stability after this.

The summit view bent our brains.

Glaciers, towers, icefalls, lakes, desert, all of it.

The Fitzroy Tower looked like it could fall over on us.

Honestly, it was intense up there.

The towers demand attention.

Greggy dropped first and layed in the snow with supreme confidence.

I watched his run and my heart sang.

“We are going to be OK. We are gonna be just fine,” My mind echoed.

I’d been scared and anxious about avalanche conditions and more all day.

Madsen’s main face simply falls off the Earth into a snowless chasm.

If anything goes awry up here, you’re done.

I dropped second and enjoyed high-quality, very predictable, classical Patagonian snow.

After 14 ski seasons in Bariloche, Argentina, we knew and loved this snow very well.

Greggy demanded another lap, and I obliged.

The second lap was even better as we skied down lower and I got to go first.

From there, we skied an icy face down to the lake and it skied much better than feared.

Wind had deposited a skiff of soft snow on the ice, making for pleasant turns.

From the lake, it was survival skiing through rocks, bushes, and rotten snow.

We didn’t push it far.

We cut to the trail after a short stint and put the skis back on the pack where they belong in Patagonia.

Down the trail in crampons, then just boots, across the river, filled up the water bottles, and back in camp around 3:30 pm.

We were tired…

Camp packed up quickly thanks to how well-designed the Big Agnes gear is.

We ate a buncha food, drank a liter of water each, and hit the trail with heavy but lighter-than-they-were packs.

5 miles and about 2.5 hours later were back at Malvadisco, our trusty steed, with sore feet and shit-eating grins.

We’d done it.

We’d proved to ourselves that we can do it and we knew we could do it again.

The next 7 weeks are gonna be wild.¡Graciass, Argentina!

Photos in Chronological Order