During the same period in early December, only one team climbed the Compressor Route on Cerro Torre's southeast ridge, following the controversial bolt ladders installed by Cesar Maestri in a 1970 attempt on the mountain. To Rolando Garibotti, a historian of Patagonian climbing, the many recent ascents of the all-natural west face mark a historic shift. In a summary quoted on Colin Haley's blog, Garibotti wrote, “It appears that the climbing community has finally come to understand that an ascent of the Compressor Route is not really an ascent of Cerro Torre. It is as if overnight everyone stopped climbing Everest with oxygen, fixed rope, and Sherpa support.”
Read the full report by Dougald MacDonald at Climbing.com
Comments