Southern Summer in the Fitz Roy-Cerro Torre Region, 1988-9. Until now (January 26, 1989), there has been little news except for the accidents which have occurred. On November 4, a rubber boat capsized in the Río de las Vueltas below the Madsen ranch. A park ranger, a fellow called Ruiz and the well- known climber Eduardo Brenner were drowned, though the other three, including the climber Silvia Fitz Patrick, were saved. (Elsewhere in Argentina, two died in an accident in Bariloche, one on Monte Olivia near Ushuaia and one on Aconcagua.) In the south, the weather has been very bad. In November, two Spaniards from Valencia climbed Fitz Roy and Aguja Poincenot by a new route, other Spaniards and two Californians ascended Cerro Torre by the Maestri bolt route and two Italians made the ascent of the Argentine route on Fitz Roy. Before he died, Brenner had been planning to climb Cerro Torre by its west face but he was surprised to find that the ice on the whole face had peeled off and left a rock wall, not the ice face which Bonatti, Ferrari and others had had on the side of Cerro Torre which rises from the Continental Icecap.

Vojslav Arko, Club Andino Bariloche