Cerro Torre, Compressor Route, and Fitz Roy, West Face, Attempt. On February 11, British legal alien Kevin Thaw and I climbed the Compressor route from the Norwegian Camp, making the trip in 27 hours. Earlier, we had attempted a new route on the west face of Fitz Roy, following approximately the same line as Joe Josephson and Jack Tackle. (The west face has one route, a 57-pitch 5.10 free climb put up over two seasons by a Czech team in 1985-86.) We climbed approximately two-thirds of the wall, in two days, before being turned back by a storm. Several teams now have attempted to climb this huge face alpine style, with no success.

Mark Synnott