The Care Bear Traverse; Fitz Roy Rescue Ends

Two weeks after opening a new line on Aguja Mermoz in the Fitz Roy Massif with Sean Villanueva O’Driscoll, Matteo Della Bordella and Leo Gheza have completed the “Care Bear Traverse.”

Freddie Wilkinson and Dana Drummond established the traverse in 2008. It involves climbing a beautiful skyline: Aguja Guillaumet, Mermoz, Goretta Pillar, and Fitz Roy, across each summit.

Della Bordella and Gheza completed the traverse in two-and-a-half days, climbing more than 2,000m up and down.

“Even if we had lots of food, ropes in perfect shape, and some energy left, we opted to descend because of predicted bad weather. We got back to El Chalten on the evening of the third day,” Della Bordella said.

Matteo Della Bordella and Leo Gheza on the traverse.

Matteo Della Bordella and Leo Gheza on the traverse. Photo: Leo Gheza

 

Fitz Roy rescue operation ends

Rescuers have called off the search operation for two Basque climbers hit by an avalanche while descending Fitz Roy. On January 19, Amaia Agirre, 31, and Iker Bilbao, 29, were buried by an avalanche of wet snow and dragged into a crevasse. Agirre and Bilbao are declared dead.

Photos showing where the avalanche took place.

Where the avalanche took place. Photo: Eneko Pou

 

Authorities asked climbers descending the same route on Fitz Roy to check the crevasse for any sign of life. Immediately after the accident, the third member of Agirre and Bilbao’s team, who had not been caught by the avalanche, spent an hour searching for them, with no luck.

A rescue team was not sent up to the crevasse because of the very high avalanche risk.

Amaia Agirre and Iker Bilbao.

Amaia Agirre and Iker Bilbao.

Kris Annapurna

KrisAnnapurna is a writer with ExplorersWeb.

Kris has been writing about history and tales in alpinism, news, mountaineering, and news updates in the Himalaya, Karakoram, etc., for the past year with ExplorersWeb. Prior to that, Kris worked as a real estate agent, interpreter, and translator in criminal law. Now based in Madrid, Spain, she was born and raised in Hungary.