Cerro Torre - peak of controversy
Two British Guides approaching another, on the compressor.
Iconic Patagonian summit attracts a mountain of media attention
Cerro Torre is a real mountaineer's mountain: steep, innaccessible and elusive, it has rarely been climbed to the summit. Of the few British ascents, a significant proportion have been made, in good style and pure ethics, by British Mountain Guides. Thus Cerro Torre has a special place in our hearts and aspirations - but a chequered history. British Guide and summitteer, Steve Long, wrote in his account of climbing Cerro Torre:
Cesare Maestri suffered international condemnation for the style with which he subdued the magnificent SE Pillar of Cerro Torre in 1970. Ironically the climb was conceived as retaliation against a rising tide of disbelief in his first ascent claim of 1959, for which no corroborating evidence has ever been found
Once more, this iconic Patagonian summit is back in the media and at the centre of controversy again. Jack Geldard reports in UKClimbing that:
David Lama, the young and talented Austrian climber, was the subject of a large amount of criticism last year after his bungled attempt at free climbing the Compressor Route on Cerro Torre, Patagonia. Now Lama is back in Patagonia and has once again attracted negative attention; he has told some local climbers he is attempting the route again, and he is taking a bolt kit and may rap-bolt some sections of the route.
This has caused an eruption of media attention and opinion. Perhaps the most thorough coverage of the debate can be found in Colin Haley's blog "Skagit Alpinism" which follows the full story as it unravels. The good news is that, in the latest reports, David Lama has succumbed to pressure from the world wide climbing commuity, and plans to proceed with admirable intentions. Cerro Torre returns to being an elusive summit once more.
