Cerro Torre, A Mountain Consecrated - The Resurrection of th

So Enzolino by the extension of your logic of precedence can i show up in the Dolomites and haul a gas compressor to bolt a directisima ladder on any wall I want and leave the machinery hanging if I want?

Alpinist has received confirmation that Hayden Kennedy and Jason Kruk did indeed chop over a hundred bolts off of the Compressor Route. One hundred and two bolts from the route were confiscated by local police. Police detained the two climbers after "a group of forty people [who] went to lynch the Canadian climber Jason Kruk in the parlor of Miguel Burgos..." Kennedy and Kruk are currently in the mountains with friends. They will prepare a press report in the coming days.

In the meantime, Planetmountain.com has reported that David Lama, a climber familiar with Cerro Torre controversies, has successfully free climbed the Compressor Route. Details about Lama's ascent remain scarce though it is known that a film team climbed Cerro Torre via the Ragni Route prior to Lama's free climb.

Can anyone tell me where the Ragni route is? my head is starting to spin

Earlier this week the team of Hayden Kennedy and Jason Kruk chopped the historically significant and controversial Compressor Route on Cerro Torre leading some climbers to characterize the situation as the Kennedy-Kruk-Kontroversy (KKK). While few climbers believe that Cesare Maesti’s Compressor route embodies the current ideals for alpine climbing, most were reticent about erasing the route. The reaction in the climbing community is understandably divided. The anti-bolt fans whose position has been fuelled for years by Rolando Garibotti’s chopping campaign are positive, but others are concerned about the seemingly cavalier attitude of ignoring the historical significance of the climb and the results of a 2007 vote held in the nearby town of El Chalten that concluded the route should not be chopped.

Many have said that Kennedy and Kruk didn’t have the right to remove such a historically significant route without wider consultation - especially since many of the locals feel the route should stay. Some argue that Kennedy and Kruk have not climbed the full Compressor Route but rather a more logical variation where they used four bolts placed by other parties and one placed by Kruk last year during his attempt on the wall. Reports also suggest that the team used the bolted belays from Maestri’s route.

Reports also suggest that when Kennedy and Kruk got back to camp they were confronted by a group of local climbers demanding an explanation for their actions. During this time the police arrived and confiscated the chopped bolts and took them to the police station to take a statement.

Pay homage? Where did you get that? I repeatedly have said, "for better or for worse," that right or wrong was not my issue here.

My point is that "they took it upon themselves," to use your phrase. This is the "direct action" I spoke about and to which the vanguard had always practiced." All the yammering and judgments after the fact are perhaps important in a general, policy-defining kind of way, but the vangard is not expected to define their intentions through other's opinions, which are none of their business. That's just the way they roll, and we're powerless over that.

Another thing is that the vaugard, if authentic, always pushes the bar up - not sideways or down.