Cerro Torre, A Mountain Consecrated - The Resurrection of th

Cesare Maestri didn't care when he went crazy on the Cerro Torre.

K&K is the karmic reaction to Cesare Maestri.

Spinning wheels got go round .....

Piton Ron


Anyway Bird might have considered Maestri a pussy but Jim's views have morphed substantially over the years to say the least.
It would be great if he weighed in now.

Even though he hated the act, the route itself was a crowning achievement for a guy previously known as head kahuna of C4.

And what of the chopping now?

Tahoe climber wrote:
I still think it's interesting that the Italians (and other anti-chop posters) don't offer a peep about their opinions of removing the bolts in the context of Maestri starting the job himself.
He removed some of the bolts himself, while on the way down from his second near ascent, did he not?
In the absence of any statement from him thus far, I find his action very telling - practically an open invitation to anyone to finish the job, and representing a coming back to sanity after a brief sojourn. I think he realized that it was a mess and a mistake, and began trying to fix it, but didn't have the time, energy or motivation to fix it entirely.

Now, instead of letting his [Maestri's] partners join him at the high point, he [Maestri] had a sudden impulse. "[A] devilish plan comes into my mind: I'll take out all the bolts and leave the climb as clean as we found it. I'll break them all, so that whoever tries to repeat our route won't even be able to benefit from the holes we've drilled." On rappel, Maestri chopped some twenty of his bolts; he disabled the compressor, and "toss[ed] down the face anything that might be helpful to others: pitons, carabiners, ropes."

On 16 January 2012, American Hayden Kennedy and Canadian Jason Kruk made a self-defined "fair-means"

If any person has the right to talk about fair means on Torre it is David Lama with his fantastic free climb. After this action the climb of the KKK became just another aid climb of Torre.

I absolutely agree ... and it's a pity that his achievement was overshadowed by the KKK action ...Lama accomplishment is amazing ...

Lama's achievement, like Maestri, is overshadowed only by his own previous [bad] choices on the route.

I have without a doubt accepted the consequences from my critics and agreed with Red Bull that for the next attempt on this project other tactics will be used, and no additional bolts will be placed for the production. This decision will have consequences on the quality of the production, but I am happy that Red Bull is with me in this resolution. If it turns out that the film project is no longer possible, and the production abandoned, I will not change my plan—to attempt to free Cerro Torre