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Cerro Torre’s Compressor Route Climbed, and Chopped

Posted by Jarred Cobb

Earlier this week, reports came in that Hayden Kennedy and Jason Kruk made the first “fair means” ascent of the southeast ridge of Cerro Torre in Patagonia. Details are scarce, but what we do know is that the achievement is truly groundbreaking. The Compressor route was established by Italian Cesare Maestri in 1970, who controversially placed some 360 bolts  with a 200 pound gas-powered compressor that was hauled up most of the mountain. Kennedy and Kruk bypassed all of Maestri’s bolt laddders, save for a few they used for belaying.
And, that’s not it. Rolando Garibotti, the esteemed Patagonia expert reports in a SuperTopo post that: “During the descent they chopped a good portion of the Compressor route, including the entire headwall and one of the pitches below. The Compressor route is no more.” That news has sparked a firestorm of controversy throughout the climbing world–some, including Garibotti, argue that Kennedy and Kruk returned the mountain to its original state, while others lament the loss of the bolts and the alteration of a route established more than 40 years ago.
In that same SuperTopo thread, Steve Schneider, who has made four separate expeditions to Cerro Torre, writes: “that’s fukin bullshite that they chopped the compressor route. i can just envision expeditions arriving now, intent on the compressor, only to get their dreams dished by these radical purist…i don’t give a fuk about what and how they climbed it, they fuked a historical route that was put up way before they were born. kids have no clue. to hayden, i hope these are the last bolts that you will ever chop. you been to patagonia and argentina like what, 2 or 3 times?”
For those unfamiliar with the controversy surrounding the Compressor route, here’s a bit of background. Cesari Maestri and Toni Egger claimed the first ascent in 1959, a perilous climb that ended with Egger dead. Questioned by the entire climbing community and without sufficient evidence to back up the claim, Maestri returned to Patagonia in 1970. In Metri della Nostra Vita, he writes that his purpose was to “return [to Cerro Torre] and attack [his detractors'] routes, the routes they were not able to climb. I will humiliate them, and they will have to feel ashamed of having doubted me and having insulted the memory of my fallen partner.” Maestri made it to within 35 meters of the actual summit, but still claimed that he made it to the top, saying ”it’s just a lump of ice, not really part of the mountain; it will blow away one of these days.” Maestri placed hundreds of bolts on the way up and left his gas compressor secured to the mountain on his way down.
The first complete ascent of the route was achieved by Steve Brewer and Jim Bridwell in 1979, but the ascent used Maestri’s bolts, leaving the Compressor one of the greatest unsolved climbing problems in the world. In 1999, Italians Ermanno Salvaterra and Mauro Mabboni came close to completing the first ascent by “fair means,” completely bypassing over 200 of Maestri’s bolts.
Then, in 2007, Americans Zach Smith and Josh Wharton got to within four pitches of the top via the Salvaterra-Mabboni variation. Smith and Wharton intended to chop some of the bolts, and when word reached base camp, Steve Schneider disassembled their tent and threatened to throw their gear in a crevasse. Schneider ended up in the hospital after an altercation with another climber. A meeting of Patagonian and international climbers was held in the nearby town El Chalten to discuss chopping the bolts. They voted 40-10 to leave them up, although many in attendance had never touched Cerro Torre.
Jason Kruk and Chris Geisler, both from Canada, came even closer to completing the Compressor in February of last year. And that brings us to this week. Hayden Kennedy, the son of Alpinist Magazine’s Editor in Chief Michael Kennedy, has been establishing himself as a strong climber in recent years. This ascent and subsequent chopping of Maestri’s bolts brings Hayden out from underneath the shadow of his father. Reactions to this first “fair means” ascent vary from one extreme to the other: praise and admiration or threats and accusations.
I dream of one day setting foot in Patagonia, but until then will reserve my judgement on whether the “de-compressing” of the route is right or wrong. The Patagonian guides who make money taking foreigners up the Compressor with the aid of Maestri’s bolts will suffer, and not having the bolts there will limit the number of people who can reach the top. At the same time, I’m a firm believer that our mountains are one of the last untouched places on the planet. We as climbers and mountaineers need to show respect by not altering the natural environment as much as we can. The Cerro Torre was here before us and will be here long after we go.
Rolando Garibotti is the only Patagonian that I’ve seen writing about Kruk and Kennedy’s controversial ascent, so I’ll end with his words: “Yesterday evening, walking out of the Cerro Torre valley for the hundredth and some time, I turned around many times to look up at a mountain, an incredibly beautiful peak, one that I could finally see as it truly is.”

For a topo of the Compressor go here.
Sources: Alpinist, SuperTopo, PATAclimb.com

Author: Jarred Cobb Jarred is a climber, activist and contributor to Climberism. He is a native of New Hampshire and got hooked after a trad climb in the White Mountains a few years back. Jarred lives in Burlington, VT with his girlfriend and dog, and, when not climbing, can be found drinking beer and watching hockey. He has a morbid fear of umbrellas and his favorite band is Boyz II Men.