Climbing Monte Balmaceda requires a few tips, sometimes from good friends and most of the times in how you will read this mountain.
1.be as light as you can.
2. From Puerto Toro you can cross the river of the Serrano Glacier towards North,the forest will be the first crux of the day and will take you in between 4 to 5 hours to reach Laguna Balmaceda above the timberline, we took the path straight up after the second river and left from the big valley that you will see(NNE).
3.Camp on the lagoon first and then on the glacier above the lagoon. You will have to cross a face with a decent angle on the right side of the lagoon, from there and loaded took like 4 hours to get to the glacier in a safety zone out of the avalanches and near of the col of la Gallina.
4. From the camp to the col you can go straight up reading in a good way the crevasse(2 in your way) or you can choose the left side, faster and safety, it took us 1 hour to get to the col of la Gallin),from this point and with good light come down and take a long traverse to the RIGHT side and after down to the beginning of the North Face.
5.We went straight up and left, trying to be as fast as we can mainly because of the ice falling from the east face which captures a lot of sun during the day.
6. After the first 2 slopes take your way to the right, don't go up or you will be in the way to climb another vertical 1200 ft of hard ice if that's the case you will have to come down again.
7. The Ascent has an angle no more I will say of 65 degrees and 2700 ft of difference in level.
Climbers: Eduardo Canales/Francisco Canales/Eduardo Tapia.
May 29, 2019.
Crevasse rescue gear, ice sticks 2, 2 Ice crews for climber and personal devices of ice and rappel, and 60 mt rope for glacier traveling. We suggest taking a deadman for snow.