Torre del Norte, Giorgio Giannaccini. We left Italy on January 8 and arrived in Campamento Torres on January 14. On January 21, after two carries to high camp, we started to climb, but high stratified clouds, cold and taut wind blocked our progress. During the night the weather became subsequently worse so that, in the morning, the faces were snow- clad; our materials and clothes were soaked, and we were forced to descend to camp. We prepared new loads and with the good weather left again. We climbed for four hard pitches; the following day we went on up the dihedrals that characterize the central part of the face, freeclimbing and using aid. We reached the final chimney and from this, across a final narrow hole and easy foothold, we made it to the top. At this point (10:30 p.m.) we had 20 minutes of light left, so we readied a bivouac just beneath the top. We would go down the following morning.

The route is in the middle of the face between L'Ultima Esperanza (Piola-Sprungli, 1992) and Capachin Tortola (Plaza-Calvo-Luro, 1992).The ascent required 21 hours of real climbing split up over two and a half days. Three members of the expedition (Giancarlo Polacci, Sestiluigi Borghesi, and Alessandro Angelini) reached the top. We named the route Giorgio Giannaccini for a friend of ours who fell in the mountains in December, 1990.

Giancarlo Polacci, Italy