The search for the Italian climber Korra Fishwho was hit by an avalanche while descending from the Hill Tower next to the Argentine Thomas Aguilothis Sunday was concluded, due to the zero chances of survival and the insecurity for the rescuers due to the harsh weather in the area of El Chalten.
According to Télam sources from the office of the Los Glaciares National Park North Zone, The rescuers who went searching for Pesce this Saturday returned “in very bad conditions.”, very tired. They went up and it was snowing.”
“The search was terminated because there are no safe conditions for the rescuers due to the harsh weather. They located where the Italian should be, it is called the English Box and it is very high. The chances of survival are minimal,” the source said. who participated in the operation.
The search group was made up of 55 peoplefrom the El Chaltén relief commission, Argentine Army, with a helicopter, and brigade members from National Parks
Aguiló and Pesce had reached the summit and were beginning their descent when the avalanche surprised them on Friday in the middle of the night.
The two mountaineers, with a long history as climbers, had already climbed Cerro Torre on other occasions, one of the most extreme peaks in South America, with a height of 3,133 meters and located in the Southern Ice Fields.
In fact, both were part of a team that managed to repeat “Psycho Vertical”, a feat that had been done in 1986 by two Slovenian climbers and that no one had repeated until 2016.
From National Parks they indicated that Aguiló was in an area of very difficult access. Therefore, the rescuers they had to lower him on a stretcher until they were able to go to the meeting point called Niponino.
Only then, and after 30 hours since the avalanche covered him, Aguiló was able to be put on an Argentine Army helicopter to be evacuated and transferred to a hospital in El Calafate.
This was confirmed to Télam by sources from National Parks and the Samic high-complexity hospital in El Calafate, where they indicated that the climber is stable and out of danger despite his injuries.
The accident suffered by the mountaineers is the second to occur in El Chaltén in less than a month. On January 6, another avalanche of snow and rocks on the Aguja La Guillaumet hill (2,750 meters) swept away the German Robert Grasegger, who died there. His wife, Anna Truntschig, was rescued and transferred.
Aguiló was born in Bariloche but has lived in El Chaltén since 2006 and is one of the athletes who are sponsored by the Patagonia brand. He climbed Cerro Fitz Roy eleven times and Torre twice, and has his own mountain guide company with two other partners, Patagonia Ascent.
Pesce, 41, was born in Novara, Italy, and lives in Chamonix, France. His feats as a mountaineer, which include the Himalayas, are told in the Alps and in Patagonia, where he had managed to repeat, together with Aguiló, the Psycho Vertical, a legendary ascent route to Torre Egger, in El Chaltén.
