Build My Own FeedVIDEO: BD athlete Colin Haley wears a helmet camera during a solo ascent of Aguja Guillaumet in Patagonia
Black Diamond athlete Colin Haley is down in Patagonia again—this time for three months. (Now that's a surefire way to score at least one quality weather window!) While he's waiting for that primo 48-72 hour window to open up, he is making short solo jaunts up some of the peaks he has already climbed in the Fitzroy group. His latest speedy solo was up Aguja Guillaumet—notable this time because he wore a helmet cam to document the ascent with video. Below is the POV video and trip report Colin sent us; it's a unique glimpse into what the terrain and weather is like on a Patagonian peak.
Much of my time in Patagonia is spent waiting for a large weather
window to try a difficult objective, and I often let pass many
mediocre but nonetheless climbable days, which are suitable only for
smaller objectives. However, after festering for a while, and with no
properly good weather in sight that could be potentially compromised
by not being well rested, I figured I might as well head up to Aguja
Guillaumet with a mediocre forecast for Dec. 20th. I had already
climbed Guillaumet, one of the easiest summits in the range, three
times before, so to make it more challenging I opted to head out
alone. I chose to attempt the Amy Route because the first half is a
snow, ice and mixed gully, and there was no doubt in the forecast that
it would be far too cold to wear rock shoes.
Thus, I left El Chalten in a taxi to Rio Electrico early in the
morning, and started the approach up to Paso Guillaumet. After
spending a while at Paso Guillamet to eat, drink, and rack up, I
finally walked up the short bit of glacier to the bergschrund, and
started climbing around 10am. The bergshrund was gaping, and required
a bit of tricky climbing up some snow and ice plastered to the right
wall of the couloir. The couloir itself was easy, however, with a bit
of steep snow, easy ice and blocky mixed climbing.
From the notch at the top of the couloir, I took off crampons and
headed up the easy rock ridge above, occasionally taking off my gloves
for harder moves. The crux pitch is a short 5.9 dihedral, which with
rock shoes I would have been happy to free solo, but with boots and
gloves I decided here to use a rudimentary self-belay. Since I knew I
would be rappelling down the same route, I could leave several nuts
and cams on this pitch for my self-belay and retrieve them on the
descent. I re-donned crampons halfway up the last rock pitch because
a wide crack was iced up, and soon was walking up the summit snowfield.
I topped out at about noon, and made quick work of the descent—on
schedule for an afternoon return to El Chalten and a nice, relaxing
day in total... However, at the notch at the top of the couloir I
found an inexperienced climber, by himself, who was very confused as
to the whereabouts of his partner and did not have means to descend—
considering that he had with him only two carabiners, a belay device,
a single 50m rope but no hardware whatsoever. After a lot of
shenanigans looking for his missing partner, we rappelled the couloir
together and began the hike out. His missing partner was soon found,
and no harm done except that I ate dinner much later than I had planned!
—Colin Haley
United States / English 
2 May 2010, 7:44PM
True athlete there!
Seems Colin can do it all when it comes to mountaineering. Make the extremely difficult look accessible. I know better!!!
24 Apr 2010, 1:53PM
Burly. Dreamy. 100% awesome first-person perspective on a great climb on beautiful rock. Following some points in your climbs over the last few years, your climbing seems unstoppable. I'm inspired for sure.
30 Jan 2010, 1:14AM
PLEASE use the helmet cam again. Amazing...post a bit next time your doing something public back in Seattle on blog?
20 Jan 2010, 7:38PM
What a great video.
I'm glad you chose Tool as well. I'm not going to go so far as to say that Tool is a good choice because of some vague insinuation as to their motivation and all of that, but it fits well.
I'm curious if you sped up any of these segments or if it was real time? If it was real time, then you are an animal for sure! You made just one quick and sure movement after another.
Cheers!
19 Jan 2010, 2:37PM
So inspired. Thanks for bringing the earthbound along for your ride on the granite playground in the sky.
16 Jan 2010, 9:46PM
Thanks for the info Colin... well explained and disclaimed :) Really great video. I hope there will be others.
16 Jan 2010, 7:13PM
Very cool.
14 Jan 2010, 2:15PM
That was badass Colin, thanks for making the video! And great job with the editing. Good luck on whatever's next!
10 Jan 2010, 7:39AM
Thanks for the kind words everyone - regardless of if you appreciate Tool's music!
In response to a few of the questions:
The helmet cam I used to shoot this is the "Contour HD" by a Seattle company called "VHoldr."
The rope is the "6mm Alpine Personal Escape Rope," by Esprit Ropes in Toronto. It is an excellent rap/tag line I think. No special core - all nylon. It has a burly sheath. It is quite stiff, which is always a plus in super skinny ropes, because the stiff rap lines tangle less.
The gloves are indeed the Torque Gloves - not super warm, but great dexterity. I had a pair of Punisher gloves in my jacket in case it got colder, but never had to use them.
As for the one pitch where I belayed, it is a rudimentary technique, that in Yosemite is often referred to as "back-looping." The idea is to build a multi-directional anchor at the base of the questionable terrain, thread your rope through this anchor, attach yourself to both strands of the rope (whether with knots, hitches, or devices), and climb up, risking a factor 2 fall onto your anchor. The advantage over a traditional self-belay is that you can simply pull your rope up from above afterwards, rather than having to rappel down and prusik back up. If you are descending the same route that you are climbing (such as I was in this video), then you can clip both strands through intermediate pieces of protection (such as the cams I was placing in this video), because you know that you can retrieve them on your descent, to negate the possibility of taking a factor 2 fall. And just to be clear - this is NOT a safe, or accepted technique for self-belaying - it is a technique that I chose to use on a section of climbing that was only just barely hard enough that I wasn't comfortable free-soloing it. It is still "sketchy," and a guaranteed way to fail your UIAGM alpine exam!
8 Jan 2010, 9:52PM
Probably the sickest video I've seen in a very, very long time...
This guy's a playa fo' real... he in da' game, yo. (lexiconic humor)
8 Jan 2010, 9:38AM
They look like the Torque gloves
7 Jan 2010, 6:51PM
If I'm not mistaken, he's wearing Torque gloves on this route.
7 Jan 2010, 10:01AM
I know this is a stupid question, but does anybody know what gloves Colin is wearing in the video? I really need some like that! They look like they have the Black Diamond logo, but does anybody have more info?
Awesome video by the way. I left my office for a few minutes while watching it!
7 Jan 2010, 8:37AM
this. kicks. butt.
6 Jan 2010, 10:29PM
I would also love to know what rope that was! Wicked cool video, btw...
6 Jan 2010, 6:33PM
Music selection was money. Excellent stuff man!
6 Jan 2010, 9:22AM
Amazing ascent
6 Jan 2010, 6:20AM
Awsome! I'm expecting good dreams tonight!
I was wondering about is self belaying technics.. is he using a simple clove hitch then rap down every pitch to clean the gears? At one point he is building an anchor and the rope seems to slide in the systems..?
5 Jan 2010, 5:57PM
I love the perspective! The section where he mantels the top was sick! Cool vid dude!
5 Jan 2010, 4:00PM
colin. keep it up with the cam. summit shots where money! freak power!
5 Jan 2010, 3:31PM
Man... really cool ! When I grow up I want to be like you ;-) rsrsrsrs
This is the perfect expression of alpine style. Clean, fast and "furious"... rsrsrsr
And I liked the song too !
Best regards and well done !
davi marski - brazil
5 Jan 2010, 12:03PM
great video, great music --- bring it ON!!
5 Jan 2010, 10:39AM
Insane Video !!
perfect video, perfect climb... Go Hard ...
4 Jan 2010, 2:17PM
Exelente video, colin, the best!!!!!!!
3 Jan 2010, 6:44PM
Sam,
When you get your helmet cam, see if you can get a wide angle lens. It would make this cool video, sick. This is a super cool route and I appreciate the reminder of another life. Well done Colin!
3 Jan 2010, 1:22PM
Good times.
1 Jan 2010, 1:21PM
That was great!
1 Jan 2010, 2:10AM
yeah, can you put on some yo yo ma or ravi shankar or something???? serenity now!
oh ya, and i was wondering what food you bring on your route? goji berries??
31 Dec 2009, 9:03PM
Quit scaring your Mum! Bet she'd rather come along than see you soloing young-gun.
Nonetheless, bravo for sharing. Stay warm, keep cool.
31 Dec 2009, 5:26AM
Could you say me which helmet cam he use??
Thanks!
30 Dec 2009, 3:32PM
Nice vid! Strange rope--stiff & small. What is it? Static cord?
Ditto on the crap music. What does urban angst have to do with remote mountains?
30 Dec 2009, 2:14PM
Funny that you would say that about the music, since Tool's ideals oddly fit with those of alpine climbing. Tool is all about exploration of the human experience and human potential. I don't know that Colin is exploring his potential on this route :)...but an interesting tidbit of information about the band, at any rate. Can't wait to get me a helmet cam...
30 Dec 2009, 8:25AM
WOW - what a beautiful line - snow/ice/rock not a big fan of the music but loved the video...