Cerro Torre, Patagonia. Just before this Journal west to press, the editor received, thanks to Sr. Rodolfo Benvenuti, of Buenos Aires, an account of the remarkable ascent of the Cerro Torre signed by all surviving members of the Austro-Argentine-Italian expedition: Cesare Maestri, Italian, and César Fava, of Buenos Aires, co-leaders, Augusto and Gianetto Dalbagni and Angelo Vincitorio, Italians living in the Argentine, and Juan Pedro Spikerman, Argentine. Toni Egger, Austrian, was killed on the descent. It was he who made the first ascent of Jirishhanca in Peru. (A.A.J. 1958, pp. 106-108.) Our correspondent, Sr. Vojslav Arko points out that with this ascent the Golden Age of Patagonian mountaineering has ended.

This fantastic ice-frosted granite spire rises above the southern Patagonian Ice-Cap, three miles southwest of Mt. Fitzroy. It rises needle-sharp some 7000 feet above the glaciers to an altitude of 10,263 feet. High winds are constant and bad weather the rule. Its ascent is perhaps the most difficult yet made in the Andes. A summary of the account follows:

From Camp I at 2500 feet on the Laguna Torre and Camp II at 3150 feet on the eastern flank of the Cerro Torre, all members of the expedition established Camp III at 5400 feet. The rest of the ascent up the northeast side was exceedingly difficult. Maestri, Egger, and Fava established Camp IV at 6550 feet, but were trapped there by winds and storm for 14 days, during which time they were completely out of contact with the others of the group. They managed to descend to Camp III in a lull on January 23. On January 28, these three ascended to Camp III in only 3½ hours and continued on up what they called the “dihedral” wall, a face of smooth rock coated with a layer of ice not well anchored to the rock. It took them eight hours to ascend this wall to a notch between a subsidiary ice summit and the main peak, an ascent of only 1150 feet. There they bivouacked before Fava descended, leaving Maestri and Egger to complete the climb. On January 29 the latter two climbed another 1150 feet, spending the night in an ice cave carved out of the cliff where they tied themselves into pitons. They point out that from there the slope fell away to the base of the peak, nearly 6000 feet below, at an average angle of 75°! The next day’s climbing took them only about 800 feet higher to about 9650 feet, where they were again forced to bivouac in an ice cave. The final 600 feet continued over extremely difficult terrain with ice pitches of more than 80°. They reached the summit at 3:30 p.m. on January 31, 1959 after five hours of difficult climbing. High winds continued. That night they returned to the bivouac of the previous night. Although a warm wind on February 1 threatened to strip all the loose snow off the ice they descended to 8850 feet and on February 2 to the notch at 7700 feet. The following day they had descended the “dihedral” wall to 6900 feet when Maestri, on a rappel rope, heard a sliding noise. Returning upwards he saw no trace of Egger, who apparently had been swept off by an avalanche or had had his rappel pitons swept out by one. By nightfall Maestri had found no signs of his companion and collapsed from exhaustion in his tracks. It was thus that he was found by Fava, who was ascending from the 5400-foot camp in support and was able to rescue him.