UKC

Ever wondered how climbers get past the summit ice mushrooms of Cerro Torre?

Overhanging monsters of fluffy, unprotected rime-ice that have stopped many teams in their tracks.

Rolando Garibotti explains;

"The last mushroom, 200 feet of looming vertical cotton candy above. Ale took a stab at it, but retreated drenched and tired. Erman went next and managed a few more feet. I had led most of the lower 4000 feet of our climb and had hoped to skirt the mushroom terror, but in spite of myself, I offered to lead. Initially I charged ahead a bit too enthusiastically, but after two or three moves I realized that I was going nowhere. I stopped and breathed deeply, eventually finding calm. It took me nearly two hours to finish the lead"

Read More (with inspirational photographs): http://www.ukclimbing.com/articles/page.php?id=835

In reply to Jack Geldard - Assistant Editor:

Awesome photo.

In reply to blueshound: Agreed thats a brilliant shot

In reply to Jack Geldard - Assistant Editor:

Great imformative article. Is the picture at the bottom entitled "Reproduced with the kind permission of Black Diamond Equipment, Ltd." advertising or just randomly dropped in for no reason? Surely the kind permission comes in the form of a large cheque...?

In reply to petellis:


I suspect you got it the wrong way around, rather the article was reproduced with the permission of BD, and their "price" for doing so was an ad at the bottom of the page - which seems like a good deal for us readers.

In reply to Jack Geldard - Assistant Editor: That top mushroom picture is amazing!

In reply to Jack Geldard - Assistant Editor:

Nice article. I also enjoyed Andy Kirkpatrick's article about Garibotti on his own Psychovertical site.

Davie