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'Pass the Pitons' Pete
Big Wall climber
like Ontario, Canada, eh?
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Dang. Ol' Cesare's gettin' a bit feisty in those interviews, eh? He doesn't like Rolo much, does he? The interviewer got him pretty het up, at which point he pretty much said he didn't reach the top.
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sandstone conglomerate
climber
sharon conglomerate central
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Excellent topic! more photos please. Any other articles floating around out there?
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Michael Kennedy
Social climber
Carbondale, Colorado
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Here are two of my favorites:
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Phantom Fugitive
Trad climber
Misery
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Taken one month ago, from Vivac Polacos
-jer collins
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WBraun
climber
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Cerro Torre has been climbed in 9 hours now.
Hubers probably can put it too 1 1/2 hours if they trained.
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'Pass the Pitons' Pete
Big Wall climber
like Ontario, Canada, eh?
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"Cerro Torre has been climbed in 9 hours now."
Using Cesare's bolts.
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Porkchop_express
Trad climber
the base of the Shawangunk Ridge
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What an awesome thread. The amount of passion, forethought and history that is involved with a place like this definitely makes me want to tread (lightly) on such hallowed ground. It certainly adds depth and meaning to our pursuit of climbing that there is so much value placed on how ascents are done. Someday I hope to be ready to measure myself against this mountain. Very moving.
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donini
Trad climber
Ouray, Colorado
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Topic Author's Reply - Apr 7, 2009 - 10:14am PT
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I think that you shouldn't linger too much on your own post, so this will be my last comment. My feelings about the historic events on Cerro Torre are clear, but, in the end, I to feel sorry for Maestri. We will never understand the deep emotions that drive him. I don't doubt that he has come to the point where he firmly believes his story. To be in your 70's and to be so defined by such a polarzing event must be extraordinarily difficult. He accomplished a lot in his life but he will always be defined by the events on Cerro Torre. I will always firmly believe that he lied, but I will never begin to understand the complex workings of place, time and psyche that were at work. I don't believe that he will ever recant, but I do hope that he finds a measure of peace.
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Toker Villain
Big Wall climber
Toquerville, Utah
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It will forever remain an example for those who attempt to plumb the depths of climbers' motivations.
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sandstone conglomerate
climber
sharon conglomerate central
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Beautiful from all angles...how can you look at it and not be inspired to climb? All that rock must have driven Maestri a little crazy...
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eeyonkee
Trad climber
Golden, CO
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This is a great human interest story (Maestri's). The best on SuperTopo so far, IMHO. I remember (vaguely, as always) an Ascent fiction article from maybe late '70s - early '80's, about a guy who lied about some famous FA - in a similar manner, apparently, to Maestri's - and the consequences this lie played out in his life. I loved that story. This is Greek Tragedy.
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Toker Villain
Big Wall climber
Toquerville, Utah
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Like Water And Like Wind, I believe.
Not long after reading it my partner from the FA of Monkeyfinger was last seen heading into the Winds. (The protagonist eats a jar of sleeping pills at the bottom of a crevasse.)
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eeyonkee
Trad climber
Golden, CO
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Dave Roberts! Like Water And Like Wind! Ding, ding ding! What do we have for them, Johnny? Thanks for remembering that.
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healyje
Trad climber
Portland, Oregon
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Jim, thanks for the thread, it's good to hear from someone who's been on the line. Your description of the the littering of pro and gear up to the dump and then nothing, along with the reversed descriptions of the following two sections of the line seem to utterly and conclusively close the door on any discussion of what may or may not have happened higher on the route.
I also think this discussion and collective investigation and introspection is in no way pointless. The compressor bolts either are all being, or at some point will all need to be, replaced and that represents another judgment call. I'm sure there are no shortage of folks, including locals and guides, who will argue for preserving the line by rebolting it as and whenever needed as there are those who would prefer to see it erased or at the very least let nature take its course. In this respect it is a matter of current affairs and in no way simply one of history and the past.
P.S. SteveG - amazing just how utterly timeless that cartoon has become and able to describe exactly what went on today at any number of crags around the globe.
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Largo
Sport climber
Venice, Ca
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"What I did was the most important endeavor in the world."
That's a troubling statement for many reasons. It's sort of a riddle, sad and baffling, but also strangely curious, like CM himself, and the whole damn saga.
Had Cerro Torre and Maestri been in Plutarch's Lives, Shakespeare would have had a field day with it.
JL
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Jaybro
Social climber
wuz real!
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And why not? Man, those photos!
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gregfromvermont
climber
Yosemite
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I climbed the Compressor Route last year....
This is my first real ST post. I check in on you guys once in a while but this one really caught my attention..I figured some first hand comments about the route and the mountain might be interesting. It is also my first written TR of Cerro Torre.
Max Hasson and I climbed it on about Jan. 12th, 2008. Like Werner said, we did it in 9 1/2 hrs.
I thought it was a great climb. Absolutely awesome. I don't care if it was desecrated, I had a blast. It was one of the coolest things I've done. I never did one of those Petzl cable routes in France, but it's definitely not a 'via ferrata'. It's real. Hanging around on the Torres no matter how you get up there is no joke. I've seen 2 dead guys frozen in the ice in my 2 years down there.
Here's a quick run down of the route. We did it in 4 blocks. We brought 10 cams, 3 screws, pins, and 2 tools.
The most difficult parts could have been the '1000m of mixed climbing' they call the approach. On my first go, Christmas Eve 2007, my first partner Joel and I hiked un-roped all the way up the side glacier to the Torres and then soloed 800m of the '1000m mixed' at about 70 degrees in 3 hrs or so. We had started the day late and we were the 4th party on the route. I short-fixed the first ten pitches passing all the partys. Then we bailed because of falling ice. Once we bailed everyone else bailed too.
When Max and I left high camp a month later the conditions were different. We quickly had to rope up because of crevasse dangers not far from camp. I had to pitch out all 1000m of mixed and was disappointed to reach the shoulder at 8AM, 8 hrs after leaving camp. Some Argentine friends who were just coming out of there snow cave after bailing the days before, encouraged us to go up anyway. I'm glad they did, because I was up the first 10 pitches of rock and snow in less than 2hrs short fixing them all.(That is after I got some French guys rope down that was stuck from their rappels.)
Max took over and cruised more rock pitches in my climbing shoes calling the 5.10+ light, while I simul climbed or jugged behind. We were across the Monumental Traverse(4 pitches of bolts)in no time. When we reached the Ice Towers block, I short fixed all those pitches too. One screw per pitch. Max's next block, which was our last, was the headwall. The head wall and the Monumental Traverse are where most all of the bolts are on the whole mountain. It is also extremely featured. Maestri had even bolted detached flakes that were just thick enough for the bolts. (The bolts by the way were more like pitons. They are a cross between a lost arrow and a snarg. Just drill and pound them in.) Max short fixed all the way making some difficult dry tooling moves to gain the compressor stance. He actually dry tooled the compressor itself. Then I climbed the mushroom, threw down the axes for Max and belayed him up. It was about 5pm. We high fived, he smoked a cigarette, I lowered him back down the mushroom and then down climbed it to start the rappels.
A few comments:
John Long- I'm not saying it's too late for you but, yeah you should have done it. It was rad. You would have liked it.
Jello and Anguish- In my mere 17 weeks in Patagonia I have seen the conditions change back and forth fast. That rime ice comes and goes fast. Regarding the North Face route, I think Maestri said some thing like 'we were climbing on air'. That's what it would have been like. Or maybe climbing up vertical pillows... I also climbed the Supercanaleta on Fitz Roy the year before and the hardest pitches weren't the 5.10 or supposed WI5. They were some 5.7/5.8 OW chimney pitches right at the top that were covered in rime 2 feet thick. The cracks were plastered shut. Steve Su and I got benighted up there because those 2 pitches climbed at M5 or so. If Maestri and Egger did climb that stuff they must have been super bad asses!! Or maybe it was styrofoam the whole way. Who knows. As a climber and dreamer just like Maestri, I of course want to believe him.....I don't know how they would have made belays in that stuff though....
Fast changing ice conditions might account for there being no Maestri bolts above where the compressor was left on the SE face route too.
Recently there was also some publicized drama down in Patagonia about a plan to chop the route. When the climbers all got together to 'discuss' the route's fate, a vote was cast. It was 20 to 1 in favor of leaving it alone. All the Argentinos and South Americans voted to keep it. They like it the way it is.
Greg Loniewski
Yosemite West
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TwistedCrank
climber
Ideeho-dee-do-dah-day
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Was Maestri a thief in addition to being a liar and a rapist? Did he steal the Torre from the realm of superalpine badassedness?
I'm just askin'
I for one am not a position to judge because even the via feratta is way out of my league. Or maybe I'm just not that interested in casting my fate into the Patagonian winds - as Bridwell so eloquently put it.
WRT to the Roberts Ascent fiction I recall heaving read it and thinking that in the alpine realm the truth is often more interesting that fiction. It certainly stirs more debate.
Roberts is still one of my favorite outdoor writers despite some of the baggage he carries.
I still have the Cerro Torre poster in picked up in Buenos Aires way back in my youth. It's a cool peak.
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