North Paine Tower, Patagonia. During January, 1960, an expedition of the Centro Andino Buenos Aires climbed in the Paine group, hoping to ascend the Paine Towers, which had attracted their attention during last year’s expedition to the Dickson and Frías glaciers, 30 kilometers to the north. Except for the Italian expedition which on January 17, 1958 reached for the first time the 7900-foot summit of the North Tower (A.A.J., 1958, 11:1, pp. 104-5), its inaccessibility had prevented anyone from paying much attention to that sector of the Paine group. The three towers are situated in a line from southwest to northeast, the highest being the South Tower (8800 feet), followed by the Central Tower (8550 feet), perhaps the most attractive and most difficult of all, and the North Tower with its two summits. All three are composed of compact granite vertical walls, often overhanging and with few cracks. In the last days of 1959, Jorge Peterek, leader (23 years old), Julio Carrera Pereyra, Jorge Insúa and Pedro Cardani (all 19) and José Luis Fonrouge (17), left by plane bound for Río Gallegos in southern Argentina, whence they continued by land into Chile. Finally on January 12, they were able to pitch their Base Camp on Estancia Radic, in the same place as the Italians two years before. Next day the approach began up the Ascención River, which carries the melt waters of the Central Paine glaciers to Nordenskjöld Lake. Five hours away, in a little wood, they set up Camp I. On January 15 in fine weather after reaching the terminal moraines of the Towers Glacier, they had a full and close view of the fantastic towers. For an hour they gazed at their southeast faces. After this examination and knowing that the Italians had climbed the North Tower by the northwest face, they decided to descend and try by the opposite side. On January 16 they left Base Camp and next day, after going around the base of the Towers, they pitched Camp II on a moraine. Though it rained nearly every night, miraculously fair weather continued in the daytime and the feared Patagonian wind did not blow. Knowing it would not last for long, in a council of war they decided to try the North Tower first, for it offered greater possibilities and would not need a bivouac. The Central and South Towers would demand two or three days at least and much fixed rope. If bad weather came, all their plans there would have to be thrown overboard. Early on January 19, with ropes, pitons, food and fuel, they crossed some snow slopes and reached one of the many scree slopes at the foot of the Towers. From there they had a distant view of the huge Continental Icecap, where they could distinguish the Dickson and Frías Glaciers ; much nearer and to the west they saw the ice-crowned summit of Paine Grande or Principal, also climbed by the Italians. At 9 p.m. they reached the foot of the Towers, where on a little terrace, they installed Camp III. The night was cool and the good weather continued. Next day it was cold and it had snowed a little in the night. Leaving the tents at 8 A.M., they found that the climbing began practically at camp, though at first it was not very severe. They soon reached a place which, judging from the Italian piton they found, was on the Italian route to the Bich Col, named after Jean Bich, leader of the Italian guides. There they roped. Peterek and Fonrouge went first; on the second rope were Carrera Pereyra, Insúa and Cardani. At 10:30, after some difficult pitches, they reached Bich Col, between the Central and North Towers. From there on began the hardest part of the ascent: 250 feet classified by the Italians as 6th grade. They attacked the route slowly and reached a roof of about 15 feet which they climbed with stirrups to arrive at a little platform. The rest of the 250 feet was similar: a succession of vertical slabs, overhangs and little ledges. They found another roof where they had to belay standing in stirrups, thus obliging the second rope to make an awkward change of places. In a race against time and sunlight came a succession of rope-lengths over less steep stretches, then again vertical slabs and some snow. At 3:30 p.m. they reached the summit, a big, round, sharp block, where they sat one by one as on a saddle. On the descent they roped down 14 times, mostly in 120-foot stretches. The feared wind caught them as they were descending, waving the rappel ropes furiously. They got to their tents at 9 p.m. The storm forced them to abandon their plans to climb the South Tower. Five days later they left the region, and on January 31, they were back in Buenos Aires.

JoaquÍn Allolio, Centro Andino Buenos Aires