Southern Patagonian Icecap. The ninth Argentine-Slovene Expedition was made up of A. Nikolic, E. Curioni, M. Serrano, Pedro Skvarca and me. Our activity was in two phases. In the first we explored and climbed peaks to the west of the Glacier Upsala. On January 9, 1970 we made the first ascent of three mountains: Cerro Bertachi (c. 8530 feet), Cerro 29 de Octubre (c. 8530 feet) and Cerro Santa Cruz. Serrano and I made the climbs, all on ice and snow, technically easy but far into the icecap and so requiring good weather. In the second phase we had as objective Cerro Norte, which had resisted three earlier attacks. This time my brother Pedro and I climbed to the summit on February 5 after 25 hours of ascent. It is among the most difficult peaks of the region, even including Fitz Roy. We climbed the west face, which rises some 4000 feet and consists of ice and snow couloirs and rock. There were two artificial pitches and the rest was very exposed. We placed some 80 pitons. Toward the bottom there was an additional problem of avalanches. We reached the summit at the beginning of a storm and had to bivouac in a torment during the descent.

Jorge Juan Skvarca, Club Andino Bariloche