Italiana

The Italiana is a classic alpine route requiring a diverse skillset of climbing abilities including rock, snow, and maybe some ice. The guidebook description and photos/topos make it look straightforward but expect some tricky route-finding in places and variable conditions like all routes in the Chalten Massif.  

The start of the route follows a left-facing corner system for 5 or 6 pitches. Depending on the conditions and your comfort level you may be able to climb this in alpine boots and there shouldn't be any sections harder than 6a. Continue up snowy ledges for another 60m or so to the bottom of the large triangle of snow that is obvious in the photos. Kick steps straight up the snow to the base of the main headwall and look for a left-facing corner system off to the right. 

You'll want to swap your boots for climbing shoes here if you haven't already. Traverse right into the corner and climb up a thin crack on clean rock for 40m. This is the crux pitch and felt like mid 5.11 (6c/c+) to me. The topo shows this pitch as 7a.

The next pitch is a nice hand crack in a corner but it was soaking wet when we climbed it with some snow and ice in the back of the crack. About a 30m pitch.

The third headwall pitch continues up another hand crack into a short chimney section and some more snow above. Belay at a good stance. 30m.

The next pitch traverses right a little ways before continuing straight up an obvious corner with lots of fixed pins and stoppers. Continue up via the path of least resistance and follow a weakness up a slab to a small stance. Approximately 40m.

The final headwall pitch is a little tricky and also pretty spooky but not too hard. Traverse up and left off the belay in an easy corner. Continue straight up below a very precarious-looking "bridge flake". Traverse straight right on a slab below the bridge and then climb up behind it and traverse back left on top of it! This thing is large and basically being held in place by its own weight. Pretty creepy! 50m-60m

Weave your way up a 100m or so of easy scrambling aiming for the left side of a right angling ramp system. From the top of this ramp, there are two options. Either climb up and traverse straight left to a series of flakes. Climb up the flakes to a loose snowy ledge and then traverse straight back right. Alternatively, climb up and right to a steep corner. Head straight up the corner to a belay ledge. The first option is easiest but has a lot of loose rock. The second option is cleaner and dryer but you might need to pull on gear to get through the hardest moves.

After this, there are once again two options. Continue straight up a steep hard, thin crack shown as A1 on the photo, or traverse right to a nice hand crack that only clocks in at 6a. The choice will be obvious for most parties. After the hand crack traverse back left on an easy ledge to a rap anchor.

From the rap anchor make one hard move over a bulge (there is a nice pin to stand on to assist with this, shhh) and continue up and left on easy terrain to just below the summit.

Another 15m of easy scrambling and you will be on the summit hopefully enjoying the views of Cerro Torre and Poincenot!

Along the way, there are a lot of fixed pins and even old ropes and wooden pegs from the past (probably from the first ascent). These are good indicators that you're probably still on route. Also, try to make a mental note of the various rappel anchors since you'll be using them on your way back down.

From the Swiss Bivy scramble up a few hundred meters of slabby rock to the glacier above. Continue up the glacier towards Mojon Rojo and start angling northwest near the highest rock outcropping. You'll want to rope up around this point before continuing toward Aguja de L'S. As you near Aguja de L'S start heading straight north towards the south face of Aguja Saint Exupery and navigate towards the base of the highest tongue of snow on the right side of the south face. Depending on the conditions you should be standing on a flat section of snow right at the bergshrund. To get to the start of the route traverse straight right to a left-facing corner that angles up and right. DO NOT climb up the steep snow tongue!