Fortaleza, Northwest Spur, Paine Group, 1989. Roberto Cazan, Fabio Bristot and I made a new route on the northwest spur of Fortaleza (2754 meters, 9038 feet). We were in the region from October 28 to November 30, 1989, generally with bad weather and strong winds. Aside from Base Camp, we were forced to dig a snow cave, which served as Camp I. On November 22, we three were aided by all the other members of the expedition: Mauro Piccolin, Marco Zago, Sandro Dal Mas, and Signorina Scola Mirella. We fixed rope on 300 meters of the 650 vertical meters of the buttress in very bad weather. On November 26, Bristot, Cazan and I took advantage of a relatively windless day to reach the top. We left Base Camp at eight A.M. on the 25th and climbed uninterruptedly to reach the summit at ten P.M. on November 26, 1989. On the descent we removed almost all the fixed rope.

Bruno De DonÀ, Club Alpino Italiano