Aguja Saint Exupéry, South Buttress, Fitz Roy Region. After the climbs in the Paine Towers, on December 6 Argentine Sebastián de la Cruz and I camped on the glacier right below the Aguja Saint Exupéry. We intended to climb the Metzeltin-Buscaini route on the north buttress but there was so much snow that we turned our attention to the south buttress. Finally, on December 10, the weather improved and we first climbed an easy 200-meter-high couloir. Then the rock began. The route ascends some perfect, vertical dihedrals, in which we found some pitons and bolts. At nine P.M., we reached the summit, having climbed 15 pitches. We descended the same way. The climb took us a total of 24 hours round-trip. The major difficulties were caused by the great accumulation of snow. The route was first climbed in 1987 by Austrians Hans Bämthaler and Ewald Lidl.

Jon Lazkano, Guipuzcoa, Spain