The weather in early 1971 was extremely bad in all the southern Andes with nearly constant storms from early December to mid-February. An expedition of the Club Andino Bariloche, Jorge Aikes, Hugo Bella and others attempted Fitz Roy, following first the route opened two years ago by Aikes and Kopcke from the Torre Glacier to the Silla (saddle), in hopes of continuing from there on the Californian route up the southwest ridge. (See AAJ, 1969, 16:2, pp. 263-9.) On March 17 there was an accident in which Hugo Bella was killed just below the Silla.

VOJSLAV ARKO, Club Andino Bariloche