Monday, February 6, 2012

Cerro Torre and the Mountain as a Work of Art


Outside Magazine does a decent summary here with lots of links.

Maestri's Compressor from











Scott said...

Damn Peter, you nailed it.

Before I started climbing, I was briefly into backpacking and made several solo trips out to Big Bend. With each trip I made a point to learn more about the area that I was spending so much time alone in and learned about the human history of what is regarded as the last frontier to be settled in the United States.

When Big Bend is framed in these terms, I think the notion that the NPS felt it necessary to attempt to remove all signs of modern human settlement was short sighted, as the very settlement itself, regardless of what it may look like now, are historically significant and valuable to the human narrative's role in the history of the area.

At first, when I read about the bolt removal, I was for it. But when Mario Conti weighed in, it reminded me of Big Bend and the time I'd spent there, and the signs of history there, some ugly, some hauntingly beautiful. And then realized the impact the bolt removal has on the Patagonia's history.

But at the same time, this just adds more to the narrative. People do love drama.

Anonymous said...


I would say the opposite is true:

The bolts, like bolts anywhere, are entirely utilitarian, their purpose being to enable or abet passage.

Remember that the Compressor Route was the most popular route on the mountain, and had enjoyed this status since its inception.

Peter Beal said...

"Cesare Maestri drilled the many long bolt ladders not to connect natural features but to avoid them, tackling blank rock that he could overcome at a 15-bolt-per-hour pace with his compressor and drill, altering Cerro Torre’s natural challenges in a way unseen on any other mountain of such magnificence. Most of the 400 bolts he placed are unnecessary by anybody’s standards, even those from back in 1970 when he placed them. Maestri acknowledged as much when, referring to the upper headwall, he wrote in a 1971 Mountain magazine article that, “We could have climbed many sections with normal pins, but we had left them at the bergschrund 3,000 feet lower, so we had no alternative but to drill.”

Granted that Garibotti is not an unbiased observer but photographs make clear that a substantial number of the bolts were not placed with efficiency or utility in mind.

See the photo at:

Eman said...

What we have is two climbers who did what they wanted just because it's what they wanted.


That's 75%.

I wonder if these two guys would do the same thing to Dawn Wall in Yosemite. The not such a different scenario.

Also, by fair means in this case means they didn't even follow the line where the bolts were, they climbed a various on the existing line, then chopped the original line.

This wasn't their call to make. All they did, like the David Lama Situation awhile back, is create more negative press about climbers and the attitude/ego we have.