Aguja Poincenot, Southeast Buttress. Our expedition was composed of Graziano Bianchi, leader, Andriano Carnati, Alessio Bortoli, Massimo Colombo, Corrado Brustia, Mario Vismara, Bruno Vagletti and me. The base of the southeast buttress of the Aguja Poincenot was reached up the Río Blanco Glacier, which, depending on conditions, presents varying difficulties and great objective dangers. It was necessary to fix rope in sections of the icefall, but the real problem was séracs on the Piedras Blancas Glacier which for a distance of 700 meters discharged without any predictable schedule down over the lower part of the route leading to the base of the buttress. The 200-meter shield at the base of the buttress varied in difficulty depending on the snow. The next 500 meters were of vertical or overhanging rock with no place to stop. The final 300 meters were of steep rock with difficult and discontinuous passages. Our new route ended where it joined the 1962 Anglo-Irish route. The final section on that route gained another 300 meters. We established Base Camp at 780 meters on November 25 and an intermediate camp at the tongue of the glacier at 1550 meters on November 29. We placed Camp I on December 12 a little below the face at 1780 meters, where we dug three snow grottos: two to shelter the tents and one for a kitchen. The first climbing on the wall took place from,December 7 to 11. We were storm-bound in Camp I from December 11 to 13. Climbing was resumed on December 14, interrupted by stormy weather on Christmas day. On December 26 Bortoli, Carnati and Colombo reached the summit. A year before, in the Southern winter of 1985-6, we had climbed 600 meters of the wall.

Aristide Galbusera, Club Alpino Italiano