two spanish climbers disappeared after being buried by an avalanche at the foot of Cerro Fitz Roy, near El Chaltén, in the province of Santa Cruz, while the third member of the group was able to save himself and ask for help, information this Saturday to Télam brigade members of the area and sources of the local Aeroclub.
Rescue teams have not yet managed to organize the search due to weather conditions and changes in the area, the sources added.
The climbers were identified as Iker Bilbao (29 years old), a native of Vizcaya, and Amaia Agirre (31), from Urnieta, both towns in the autonomous community of the Basque Country.
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“The alert came at dawn from Josu Linaza (31, a native of Igorre), who is still in the area and the news is not very hopeful. The El Chaltén Relief Commission informs us that security conditions do not currently exist for ransom due to how unstable the mountain is right now and it does not convey expectations of finding them alive,” he explained from the Aragonese Mountaineering Federation, of which Agirre was a part.
According to what was reported by the brigade members in the area, “the search for the climbers will not start until the weather conditions improve.”
For her part, the head doctor of the El Chaltén Aid Commission (Cax), Carolina Codó, indicated that “I can’t even send anyone to look for the bodies because it would be subjecting them to enormous danger” until the temperatures drop, in statements to the newspaper El País.
At the base of the mountain
The accident occurred when the three members of the team descended from Mount Fitz Roy and at the base of it were surprised by an avalanche of stones, ice and snow that dragged the two young men for at least 60 meters to a crack in a glacier. according to what Linaza recounted, which he modified to lower.
Linaza walked around the area for about an hour to try to find her companions, but she couldn’t even spot them.
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Agirre was a doctor, a member of the Spanish Federation of Mountain Sports and Climbing (Fedme), while Bilbao was a climber and worked as a firefighter in the Llodio park (Álava).
His colleagues from the Basque Country also said goodbye with regret: “Our colleague and friend Iker Bilbao from the Aiara park (Laudio) has disappeared in an avalanche in Patagonia. We join the concern and sentiment of family and friends,” they wrote in Instagram, where they clarified: “Unfortunately he has been reported as missing.”
The experienced climbers had managed to reach Fitz Roy via the Afanassieff route and were rappelling back, as learned from Linaza’s account.
The Fitz Roy, at the top of the Argentine mountain of the same name, It has a height of 3,405 meters, It is located to the east of the South Patagonian ice field on the border between Argentina and Chile and its attraction brings together climbers from all over the world who arrive in El Chaltén, the Santa Cruz town known as the National Capital of Trekking.
Telam / MCP
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