Patagonia, Southern Summer Season of 1986-7. The weather this season was not as good as last year and so few ascents have been made up to now, late February, 1987. On December 7, Slovenes Franc Knez, Silvo Karo and Johan Jeglic finished a new route on the southeast face of Torre Egger. They rated it VII, A3. They fixed rope on the lower 500 meters of the 900-meter face. Afterwards the same three climbed the Mocho (near the Cerro Torre), which I believe had previously been climbed only once, by Australians. There was only one ascent of Cerro Torre, made on January 9, 1987 by Italians including Paolo Vitoli by the Maestri bolt route. Fitz Roy was climbed by seven different groups, Spanish, Austrian, Swiss, Italian, Argentine and South Tirolean. Spaniards A. Trabado and M. Vidal climbed to the summit twice, once by the Californian route and once by the Argentine one. South Tiroleans Reinhard Patschneider and Fritz Kurt climbed the Argentine route on December 20 in 25 hours round-trip. A few days before Christmas, Argentine Sebastián de la Cruz made his third ascent of Fitz Roy, accompanied by Jorge Tarditti. They ascended the Californian route and descended the Argentine route, which de la Cruz had pioneered last year. Another scene of much activity was the Aguja Poincenot. Italians completed the east face. [See below.—Editor.] Other Italians made a new difficult route on the west buttress. Spaniards Fernando Cobo and Maximo Murcia did a new route on the south face. The “normal” Whillans route was climbed by Austrians Hans Bärnthaler and E. Lidl and by Swiss Peter Lüthi and Edi Caviezel. On January 18, 1987 Lüthi and Argentine Paul Cottescu ascended Saint Exupery. [Italians Grassi, Rossi and Pe made climbs listed below—Editor.] Teen-agers from Bariloche, M. Joss and D. Rodríguez, in January climbed Gorra Blanca and Guillaumet.

vojslavlav arko, Club Andino Bariloche, Argentina