Riders On The Storm

In this Arc'teryx short, Riders On The Storm follows alpinists Ines Papert and Mayan Smith-Gobat as they battle Patagonia’s infamous weather on Torres Central in Chile’s Torres del Paine. Their goal is the brutally steep east face line “Riders on the Storm” (7c, A3), a historic route first climbed in 1991 and still so rarely repeated that their February 6th summit marks only the fifth known ascent. It’s worth watching for the sheer density of challenge packed into a few minutes: delicate, runout face climbing gives way to wide cracks and looming roofs, often glazed with ice, all on a 1300-meter wall where conditions can turn in an instant. Equal parts climbing film and storm-chasing sprint, it captures the mix of precision, toughness, and commitment it takes to move upward when the mountain—and the sky—won’t cooperate.

Arc'teryx · 3:35

On February 6th, Ines Papert and Mayan Smith-Gobat summited Torres Central, in Torres del Paine National Park (Chile) via the extremely difficult east face. 25 years after the first ascent of this historic route, this was only the fifth known successful ascent of ‘Riders on the Storm.’ This region is famous for its unstable weather conditions, making it a very challenging place to climb. ‘Riders on the Storm’ was first climbed by Wolfgang Güllich, Kurt Albert, Bernd Arnold, Peter Dittrich and Norbert Bätz in January 1991 during 15 days of climbing over a five-week period. This stunning line on the sheer 1300m east face of Torres Central line went at 7c, A3. The climbing is very varied and demanding, ranging from delicate and runout face climbing to wide cracks and roofs, which were often entirely iced up. Read more here: https://blog.arcteryx.com/riders-storm by Franz Walter