THE PREPARATION OF ANDALUCIA-ANTARCTICA 2004 CONTINUES

The Andalucía-Antarctica 2004 expedition accomplishes their second phase of preparation and after having climbed the highest peaks of the Atlas sierra, in Morocco, last month, they crowned with success the summit of Marmolada, the highest summit on the Dolomites (Italy) with 3,344 meters.

The climbers from Sevilla, J. Antonio Huisa and Pedro López, members of the Seven Summits Sport Club (Club Deportivo Siete Cumbres), and members of this expedition, sponsored by Consejería de Turismo, Comercio y Deporte, successfully ascended Marmolada after seven days and after having a lot of weather difficulties.

The expedition, besides the adverse weather conditions, had to face technical problems on the final leg of the climb.  In the beginning Huisa and López had the intention of going by the Vias Ferratas, which are very vertical with steel cables installed, which would let them climb and go down in just one day the difference of 1,800 meters from the Malga Ciapela up to the summit, but they found a lot of snow that had buried 60% of the way.

Verticality, joined to the snow and ice, slowed down the advance and made the Andalucian climbers quit when they were just 200 meters from the summit to go down to the Pian de Fiaconni shelter, at 2,650 meters of altitude.  "The night caught us on the way down, and the temperature went down so fast that we thought the worst.  At last we could get to the shelter around 2:00, exhausted because of the 18 hours of march and tension".

Two days later, although weather was still bad, and spite of the snow which would make progress difficult and with zero visibility, Huisa and López made their last effort and could make it to the summit to place Andalucía's flag on the highest point.  The achievement of the summit in such adverse conditions and this unexpected technical difficulty had been an important step in the preparation of the Andalucía- Antarctica 2004 expedition. 

Translated from Spanish by Jorge Rivera

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