Aguja Guillaumet, West Face and Northeast Buttress, 1993. My father Erich Gatt and I arrived in Patagonia in mid February, 1993 and were greeted by friends who had been there for two months and had been unable to reach a single summit because of bad weather. We had only ten days to climb. On our first day, we carried our whole equipment to the foot of the west face of the Aguja Guillaumet. On the next, we climbed the first nine pitches on the west face directly upward toward the main summit. It was more difficult than we had foreseen. We had originally thought we could do the climb in a day and our bivouac gear was scanty. On the next morning, February 22, the climbing was a bit easier and the Patagonian weather gods were kind. We followed giant cracks, slabs and edges to right under the final nose. An ice-coated, overhanging chimney drove us back and to the right. We reached the summit at three P.M. under gathering cirrus clouds. We started down the French route and then rappelled the Argentine route on the northwest buttress. In pale moonlight, we staggered back to the Los Troncos Camp before the rain started. Typical Patagonian weather continued until the weather seemed to break. At four A.M. on February 27, we set out and three hours later stood below the northeast buttress of Guillaumet. Our route ascended between the 1981 Argentine Brenner-Moschioni and the 1968 French Amy-Vidailhet routes. The cracks were filled with ice, which added to the sport. After a vertical ascent of 240 meters, we stood on the north summit of Guillaumet. Our attempt to climb Fitz Roy over the Punta Goretta (via Casarotto) failed because of lack of time.

Stefan Gatt, Österreichischer Alpenverein