Fitz Roy, Supercanaleta. Max Berger, Jérome Blanc-Gras, and I made a winter ascent of Supercanaleta on Fitz Roy on August 9. Ours was the third or fourth winter ascent, the first reported winter ascent having been made by Argentine climbers.

Conditions were okay. We climbed everything with ice axes and crampons, even pitches indicated on the topo as rock. Our dry-tooling experience allowed us to go faster. We climbed the route in just over 26 hours. We didn’t sleep, taking only two hour-long breaks during the 46-hour round trip. Because it was too cold to sleep, we didn’t have sleeping bags or a tent, just bivouac bags. We tried the route once before the successful ascent but were stopped by bad weather after a 1,000 meters. We reached the summit at 2:30 a.m., with a full moon and no wind, just very cold temperatures (about -30°C). It is a very beautiful route, varied and continuous, with hard parts all along the climb. To see photos of the Supercanaleta go to http://www.mountain-ski.com/photo/expedition/2001super-couloir/

Erwan Le Lann, France