Huge New Route Opened on Aguja Poincenot, Patagonia

Slovenians Luka Lindič and Luka Krajnc established an important new route over four days at the end of February: the wildly steep Pot (5.11 A3; 2,500ft) on Aguja Poincenot’s impressive South Face, in Patagonia. This pair had been actively projecting the line for three years.

In 2020, after making the first ascent of Mir (5.11 A3; 2,300ft) on Aguja Saint Exupéry’s South Face, Lindič and Krajnc stood on its airy summit and gazed across to Poincenot, eyeing a similarly plumb line of of exposed, often-overhanging cracks. The upper and lower parts of the route looked possible, following straightforward crack systems, but climbing the blank, featureless middle section seemed less likely. Nevertheless, they took detailed photos from their vantage and descended, inspired.

Back in town, after studying more pictures of the face, Lindič and Krajnc started to believe the line was possible. “But we had to decide if it was worth our time and investment,” Lindič told Climbing. When a rare weather window arrives in Patagonia—a window that might constitute your only chance to climb in the mountains all season—it is easy to settle for assured success on an established line.

The pair decided the line was worth checking out and returned to Patagonia in January 2022. “In the first window we went quite high, to the start of the first traverse,” Lindič said. “But then we went the wrong way and spent many hours climbing half of one pitch.” The feature they followed dead-ended, and, having used up their entire weather window, they bailed back to town. “But we spent lots of time afterwards thinking ‘If only we traversed a bit higher, or went here instead…” Lindič said. “And we started to think that we should invest the next window to try out the other option instead. We decided it was worth it. Even if we don’t get to any summits this season, it is a line worth going back for.”

Another window appeared and the pair spent the first day climbing steep, splitter granite back to their highpoint. To save weight, they had not brought a portaledge—despite planning to climb the overhanging wall over multiple days—and were grateful to settle into a comfortable lay-down bivy. “You never expect luxury on a wall like this,” Lindič said. “It was amazing.” They spent the entire next day on finding an alternate path to the upper crack system: swinging around, finding free-climbing holds, trying to identify the line. They descended at the end of that day with just 60 more feet of technical aid terrain to uncover before breaking through to the upper wall.

Krajnc had to return to Slovenia to tend to personal matters, so Lindič hiked back into the mountains with a friend to retrieve a haul bag full of equipment they’d stashed below the route. They slept at the base of the steep approach gully, in the popular Polacos Camp. That night, a thunderous rockfall shook their camp. Boulders catapulted by their tent. The acrid fumes of fresh rockfall stung their noses. “For a moment I thought we would die here,” Lindič said. They abandoned their gear-retrieval mission and hiked back to town that morning.

While the 2021-22 season was largely successful for Lindič and Krajnc, who managed to push their line high on Poincenot without incident, the season was tainted by death and close calls. Ice fall had killed their friend Korra Pesce while he was descending Cerro Torre, and the Lukas’ approach to Poincenot’s South Face seemed just as lethal. They returned to Patagonia in January 2023 to potentially finish their line, but Lindič couldn’t shake the feeling that he would die hiking up to the wall.

“So we went climbing on the other side of the Torre Valley, on El Mocho, where we climbed two routes,” Lindič said. “Those were the only routes we climbed that season. But from there we could see in the approach gully, and I could see the scars where the rockfall was coming from.” Seeing the source of the rockfall helped Lindič understand the degree of danger he’d be subjecting himself to if he chose to return to Poincenot. Rather than being exposed for the entire two-hour approach, as he’d originally assumed, he realized he could limit himself to just 15 minutes of exposure. “The gully is still a dangerous place, especially when it’s warm,” he says, “but this understanding helped a lot.”

Lindič and Krajnc returned to Patagonia in 2024 for a final bout with the mountain. A short weather window soon arrived and they hiked quickly into the mountains, finding, to their surprise, their haul bag from two years prior still seated exactly where they left it, with all of their cams and ropes in perfect condition. Lindič believed that because of the bag’s exposed perch, any rain or snow that got in the bag would have been wind-blasted dry—though it’s a small miracle the bag wasn’t completely blown off the mountain. They climbed back up to their highpoint and finally cracked the 60 feet of hard aiding to reach the upper weakness. The weather window wasn’t long enough to finish the route so they bailed. Finally, at the end of February, they returned and took it to the summit.

The following interview has been edited for clarity—Ed.

The Interview

Climbing: Why did you decide before going into the mountains this time that it would be your last attempt?

Lindič: Well, it probably wouldn’t be our last try ever, but it would be our last try for some time. After three years we needed a break. We are quite good at staying focused and sticking to our project, especially when everyone else in town is coming back after each weather window with stories of routes that they’ve climbed, and all you can say is, “Well I’ve climbed five new meters!” But Luka and I are quite good at appreciating the small steps of progress. Still, after three years you need some refreshment. Even doing the same approach again and again, and the same opening pitches, felt a bit weird, because mountaineering is also about exploring.

Climbing: Originally, you were exploring the free-climbing potential of the line, but eventually it sounds like you decided to just establish the line by any means. At what point did you make that goal switch?

Lindič: We never went into the route with the sole intention of establishing a free climb. Of course, we are always looking for opportunities to free climb, but we also understand the limitations of the style we choose [no fixed ropes, no portaledge]. Free climbing this line would be quite hard, the face pitches especially. You would need to take your time to really figure out the moves. And it could be like two days of working on just those four pitches, which could mean not finishing the line because of the weather.

But a lot of our aid moves were interspersed with free climbing, so we are quite sure the line is possible to free—for sure in the French eighth grade [5.13b to 5.14c]. It would be very technical and bouldery, not something we could free quickly. It would require a different approach, like a portaledge.

Climbing: What were the aid sections like?

Lindič: A lot of bird beak [pitons]. There were two times on the route that I don’t know what other type of gear would have fit except for beaks. Maybe a RURP, but I think beaks are way better. In those four aid pitches, beaks were the tool. We brought 15 beaks on this last push, and lots of the small ones.

Climbing: What are some of your favorite memories on this line?

Lindič: It sounds cheesy to say, but this last window, because everything worked for us. Those four days on the mountain were amazing; finding a perfect bivy site just when we needed it on such a steep wall, and another great bivy on the summit. We could see our friends’ headlamps descending the Southeast Ridge of Cerro Torre while we were on the summit, and so we knew we would celebrate with them soon in Chaltén.

Climbing: Tell me about the name Pot [“the path” in Slovenian].

Lindič: It’s the same name as the book written by Slovenia’s most-well-known alpine climber, Nejc Zaplotnik. But actually the name was not about the book Pot, it was more spontaneous for us, because it was quite the path for us to finish this route. It took quite some time to finish, and it marks 20 years of Luka and I climbing together. We’ve both also had quite a lot of changes in our personal lives recently, and this route followed us along the twists and turns of our lives, in the last three years especially.

Climbing: Did you like having a route to return to time and again during this period? A constant in your life?

Lindič: For sure. Having something to work for and work towards is really valuable in life. Not just in climbing. But whatever your passion, I think having one really helps to not be depressed and lost. Pot was for sure a bit of a compass for both of us through hard times.

It’s nice to have something like that, even if it seems a bit pointless, because in the end it’s not pointless at all, when it gives you this experience.

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