UKC

UKC interviews Austrian climber David Lama on Cerro Torre, Peak Grit, his big plans for Pakistan and more.

Earlier this year Lama free climbed the infamous Compressor Route on Patagonia's Cerro Torre, but only after some controversy...

Read more at http://www.ukclimbing.com/articles/page.php?id=5147

Am I the only one to see a bit of "the fox and the grapes" dynamics from David when it comes to comps and maybe even cragging? He didn't exactly blow anybody out of the water when he was competing...

Still, impressive mountaineering achievements given the young age...

In reply to Franz the Stampede:

I thought placed pretty high in the senior comps whilst still a junior, in fact I thought he won some rounds of the WC

In reply to Franz the Stampede:

8b+ at 12, Junior World Champion, 2 X Euro Youth Cup Winner, 2nd place on his debut in the seniors, won the next two rounds. Euro boulder champion, Austrian lead and boulder champion, 4th and 5th Arco Rockmasters..........

Basically as you say, a completely talentless comp climber.

In reply to jimtitt:

- Never climbed 9a or harder
- Never won a world-level seasonal or one-off event in senior

Great sport and comp climber, but not top tier. He's no Fischhuber, Eiter, Ernst or Ramonet.

In reply to Franz the Stampede:


I think he is the only person to free the Compressor Route on Patagonia's Cerro Torre.

If you are talking league tables (not that we do in climbing ; o ) that may just put him in first place, at least this year.

In reply to Mick Ryan - UKC and UKH:

What is the point in mentioning his mountaineering achievements when I was specifically talking about comps?

The Italian version of Wikipedia has very complete profiles when it comes to comps history of many climbers.

Have a look at these (no need to understand the lingo) and you'll see what I mean. Again, strong comp climber, but no top tier.

http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexandre_Chabot
http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angela_Eiter
http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ram%C3%B3n_Juli%C3%A1n_Puigblanque
http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Lama

In reply to Franz the Stampede:
The interview is about mountaineering. Wittering on about comps is irrelevant in that context.

In reply to Franz the Stampede:

Besides not mentioning that he is still the youngest World Cup winner of all times among the men and the only one to have won both Lead and Boulder Worldcups during his rookie year, he stopped focusing on comps years ago
to go his own way.

Leaving the comps to do alpine stuff if you have his talent and capabilities... - I can totally understand.

In reply to UKC Articles:

My respect for the guy went up enormously when he publicly acknowledged what a f*ck-up the Cerro Torre bolting fiasco was. He was still very young at the time.

Here he is interviewed by Reinhold Messner - in German but google might be able to make something semi-intelligible out of it

http://www.faz.net/aktuell/sport/mehr-sport/im-gespraech-david-lama-und-rei...

In reply to Franz the Stampede:
Firstly neither the article of his website say anything besides the fact that he has competed at the top level, so I'm not sure where you are finding cognitive dissonance. He did have one very good year:

2008:
1st place Overall World Cup
(Lead & Boulder)
1st place World Cup Reunion (FRA) Bouldering (beating Fischuber)
1st place World Cup Fiera (ITA) Bouldering (beating Fischuber, McColl, Gelmanov, etc.)
1st place World Cup Imst (AUT) Lead (Beating Ramonet, Scubert Mzarek, etc.)

In reply to AlanLittle: Do you think that interview paints him in a good light? I respect that honesty and ambition, but he hardly comes across as that modest ueber-friendly chap most people seem to like these days.

In reply to Franco Cookson:

I agree with Franco and I didn't find him to be particularly apologetic of the Cerro Torre mess. To me he came across as rather arrogant, can't help the feeling he talks down on competitions...

His first free ascent of Cerro Torre is undoubtedly a milestone in the history of THAT particular mountain and probably Patagonian mountaineering too. But honestly, he himself has climbed harder stuff in alpine (albeit not mixed) environment such as Voie Petit (8b) and Bellavista (8c, or was it Panaroma?)...

I stand by my position regarding competitions, I thought the track record of other athlete spoke for itself but nevermind...

In reply to Franz the Stampede: I didn't mean to slag him off there. He picked me up once when I was hitching and he seemed like a helpful and knowledgable chap, I just don't think that article is a very good example of that.

Ultimately, I think most climbers are pretty similar, but some just hide their egos a bit better. A more arrogant climber is often just a more honest person.

In reply to Franz the Stampede:


Comparing the difficulty of Voie Petit, Bellavista and Panaroma (by the way, he climbed them all within a single day) with the free ascent of Cerro Torre makes absolutely no sense.

I also had the chance to meet David in Arco some time ago and -just like Franco- he seemed like a really nice dude to me. And his perceptions on alpine climbing and on competitions that are displayed through the UKC interview totally make sense to me.

In reply to UKC Articles:

It's language like
"I couldn't care less about the Olympics; I don't give much about this platform."
"at the moment I don't see a single reason why I should"

And criticism such as:
"I still climb in the gym to train, but I'm not sure if I'll ever fit into the world of rules and regulations again that the World Cup currently represents for me."
Wow, can we have a competition without rules? Would he care to detail how that would work?

In reply to Franz the Stampede: If you had quoted that whole paragraph it would be obvious that he was talking about personal motivation. He's not slagging off competition climbing (which you seem to care a lot about!), he just explains why it's not for him any more.