>>2010703Between the 5th and the 10th of February, Seán Villanueva O'Driscoll completed the “reverse” Fitz Traverse solo, a traverse he christened “The Moonwalk Traverse”. Reality seems to have this way of always surpassing imagination. This is how the unimaginable came to pass.
Seán approached the Fitz Roy chain from the southeast, via Laguna Sucia, sleeping at the cave near the edge of the glacier.
On the 5th he started to climb, carrying a small haulbag and a pack, with ten days of food, a small tent, a light sleeping bag, and of course, a tin-whistle. He used a 60m lead line and a thin haul line. The forecast predicted six and a half days of good weather. He self-belayed and hauled on all but the easier pitches, and climbed everything free (+4000m, 6c 50˚).
He started by climbing Ag. De l’S via the “Cara Este” route, linking into the “Austríaca” on Ag. Saint-Exupéry. While on this climb, rockfall resulted in three core-shots to his lead-line. A devastating hit so early in such a long traverse, but after taping the damage, he decided to continue. His first bivy was on the ridge leading to Ag. Rafael Juárez.
On day two, while traversing towards Rafael, his harness gear loop broke, and he lost a few Camalots. With a damaged rope and less Camalots things were not looking up, but curiosity egged him on. He climbed the upper part of the “Anglo-Americana”, and descended the “Piola-Anker” to reach the base of the south face of Ag. Poincenot. This he climbed via the “Fonrouge-Rosasco”, bivying near the junction with the “Whillans-Cochrane”.
On day three, which was the day of his 40th birthday, he climbed to the summit of Poincenot, and rappelled north via “Invisible Line”. From the col, he tackled Ag. Kakito, climbing a few new pitches to reach the summit from the east. He then descended and traversed to La Brecha arriving soon after midday. Although it was early, he decided to take the rest of the day off.
