Basque climbers Amaia Agirre and Iker Bilbao are missing and feared dead after being caught in an avalanche while descending from Fitz Roy, Desnivel reports.
The climbers, part of a three-person team, had just made it down from Fitz Roy’s Afanassieff route. At around 10 am local time, they were on an avalanche-prone section at the base of the mountain when a wet slide swept Bilbao and Agirre (a member of Spain women’s alpinist team) inside a crevasse.
The third member of their team, Josu Linaza, was unharmed and called for help. However, the rescue organization at El Chalten considered conditions too dangerous to approach the site. It said that there is no hope of finding the missing climbers alive.
Mountaineering sources in Spain told Desnivel that they are trying to gather further information from other teams that also descended from the Fitz Roy massif yesterday.
