Cerro Torre - Subsequent Ascents

Subsequent Ascents

In 1977, the first Alpine style ascent was completed by Dave Carman, John Bragg and Jay Wilson of the USA. They took a week to summit Cerro Torre, which had taken the Italian group two months to summit. In 1980 the New Zealander, Bill Denz, attempted the first solo of the Compressor Route. Over a five month period he made 13 concerted attempts but was driven back by storms on every occasion. On his last attempt in November 1980 he got to with 60 metres of the summit.

In January 2008, Rolando Garibotti and Colin Haley made the first complete traverse of the entire massif, climbing Aguja Standhardt, Punta Herron, Torre Egger and Cerro Torre together. They rate their route at Grade VI 5.11 A1 WI6 Mushroom Ice 6, with 2,200 m (7,200 ft) total vertical gain. This had been "one of the world's most iconic, unclimbed lines", first attempted by Ermanno Salvaterra.

In 2010, Austrian Climber David Lama was held responsible for around 30 new bolts and hundreds of meters of fixed rope added to the Compressor Route on the mountain (due to bad weather conditions, much of the gear was left on the mountain and later removed by local climbers). Whilst the bolts were drilled by Austrian guide, Heli Putz, and not by Lama himself, it was done as part of his trip sponsored by Red Bull and many climbers regard Lama and Red Bull as responsible. Many of the bolts were drilled next to cracks, which are usually used by climbers for protection on the route. This has caused a large controversy in certain climbers' circles, as his actions are unethical according to climbing purists. Although Lama was not aware of the sheer number bolts that were drilled, he took full responsibility for the actions. In the upcoming years, he publicly regretted what happened.

On 16 January 2012, American Hayden Kennedy and Canadian Jason Kruk made a self-defined "fair-means" ascent of the controversial Compressor Route even if they actually used some of Maestri's bolts, removing many of the bolts during their descent. Colin Haley, who watched the ascent from Norwegos, estimated the climb took them thirteen hours from their bivy on the shoulder to the summit. "The speed with which they navigated virgin ground on the upper headwall is certainly testament to Hayden's great skills on rock," Colin reported. There has been much discussion concerning the removal of bolts from the compressor route by Kennedy and Kruk.

In contrast to the first free ascent of David Lama (January 2012, together with Peter Ortner), Kennedy and Kruk used bolts (although not Maestri's) during their self-defined 'fair' means ascent. Lama estimated the difficulties of his free ascent (which followed a new line cirumventing the bolt traverse and in the upper headwall) as grade X- (hard 8a but mentally highly demanding; e.g., climbing on loose flakes, long runouts). Lama stated that a free repetition of the original Compressor route is virtually impossible (particularly the rock of the last pitches comprise no climbable structures).