Cerro Torre, the beautiful and challenging signature peak of the Torres region of Patagonia, is no stranger to controversy. The claimed first ascent in 1959 by Italian Cesare Maestri and Austrian Toni Egger, who died during the climb, is one of mountaineering’s most enduring cause celebres, is now largely disbelieved due to the lack of any relics of passage above a large gear stash low on the East Face.

Perhaps driven by the rising doubts about his ascent Maestri returned in 1970 with fellow Italians Ezio Alimonta and Carlo Claus. This time he brought a petrol powered compressor, a drill and hundreds of bolts. His target was the mountain’s South East ridge which had been attempted 2 years earlier by an all star team included Argentine Jose Fonrouge and Brits Martin Boyson, Mick Burke, Pete Crew and Dougal Haston who had reached roughly half height. Maestri’s effort was undoubtedly one of great determination first spending 2 months in the Patagonian winter before returning in the 1970/71 summer season.

In all 360 plus bolts were used to push the route close to the summit of Cerro Torre. Maestri refused to climb the final summit ice mushroom which he felt wasn’t a permanent part of the mountain and when the route received it’s second ascent in 1978 by American’s Steve Brewer and Jim Bridwell they felt he probably hadn’t reached the end of the rock either.

Cerro Torre with the line of the SE Ridge ©Ian Parnell 

Since that time the search for a ‘by fair means’ ascent of the South East ridge has been one of Cerro Torre’s most coveted prizes, generating almost as much energy as the debate about what to do with Maestri’s bolts. Interestingly whilst that debate has gone on, the Compressor Route has become by far the most popular route to summit (perhaps unsurprisingly with the copious fixed gear offering a rapid ascent and descent).

After strong attempts by Italian and in recent years American and Canadian teams the first ‘by fair means’ ascent of the South East Ridge fell to 21-year-old American Hayden Kennedy and 24-year-old Canadian Jason Kruk on January 15^th. Starting at 2.30 in the morning the pair spent 13 hours overcoming difficulties up to 5.11 and A2. A remarkably quick effort, on a route that had challenged so many teams over the years. On the summit the team made a decision, which would catapult their climb into one of the most hotly debated events in recent climbing history, when they decided to remove many of Maestri’s bolts during their descent.

In a statement issued via Alpinist.com on the 26^th January Kruk stated ‘Truthfully, during our climb and the days preceding it, Hayden and I talked nothing of removing the bolts.’ In the statement Kruk justifies their actions - ‘There has been a lot of talk over the years about chopping the Compressor bolts. Undoubtably, it is a lot easier to talk about it than to actually do it and deal with the consequences. After a lengthy introspection on the summit, we knew the act needed to be initiated by one party, without consensus. The tribes will always remain too polarized to reach a common ground.’ In all about a 125 of the old drive in compression bolts were chopped including the whole of the headwall as well as a pitch below.

As word of their ascent and eventful descent got out the reaction amongst the climbing world has been vociferous both for and against. Support for Kennedy and Kruk’s actions has come from such heavy weight names as the Argentine Carlos Comesana (whose first ascent of the Supercanaleta on Fitzroy in 1965 is legendary), Italians Ermmano Salvaterra (one of Patagonia’s leading activists whose numerous new routes include El Arca de los Vientos, seen by many as the solution to the ground claimed by Maestri in 1959) and Reinhold Messner (who surely needs little introduction) and the British climber and filmmaker Leo Dickinson (who attempted the mountain shortly after Maestri’s 1970 visit).

There has been plenty of criticism, however, particularly as a meeting held in Chalten in 2007 saw 30 out of 40 climber’s vote in favour of Maestri’s bolts remaining in place. Alongside this lack of consultation some are questioning Kennedy and Kruk’s definition of a ‘by fair means’ ascent as during their climb Kennedy and Kruk used five bolts previously placed on the variants to the Compressor Route (four placed by Ermmano Salvaterra during an attempt in 1999 and one by Chris Geisler during an attempt in 2011 with Kruk.)

In Kruk’s statement he addresses these concerns ‘Fair means does not mean no bolts. Reasonable use of bolts has been a long-accepted practice in this mountain range. Often, steep, blank granite would be folly without the sparing using of this type of protection. We clipped four bolts placed by Salvaterra on his variation - two in a belay and two for protection. At that point on the route, Hayden was short-fixing with a 35 meter loop of slack, surely a death-fall anyways. He could have clearly skipped them, but that's not the point. These bolts were placed in blank granite, by hand, on otherwise un-protectable terrain. Higher we used the bolt placed by Chris on our attempt last year. Five bolts for four hundred seemed like a pretty good trade to us. We also used two of Maestri's original belays on the headwall. These were in spots in close-proximity to other natural anchor options. Believe us, we know how to build gear anchors. The fact that we were planning on leaving these bolts in anyways, meant it was too silly not to use them on the ascent. Our ultimate goal was respect for the mountain. The headwall rappels could have been chopped and replaced by nuts and pitons. However, considering that on a beautiful and popular line there will inevitably be rappel anchors in place, it seemed more logical to leave the established anchors, rather than remove them, and let the anchors slowly degrade into the 5 and 6-piece rappel anchors of tattered cord that are found on other popular routes in the range.’

As if Cerro Torre hadn’t seen enough ground breaking events for one week five days after Kennedy and Kruk summitted Cerro Torre the Austrians David Lama and Peter Ortner managed to make a free ascent of the peak at the sport grade of 8a, also using variations to the Compressor Route. (climbmagazine.com will have a full report on this shortly) Towards the end of his statement Kruk refers to Lama’s impressive ascent ‘A bunch of people climbed the Compressor Route and had fun, but now it's a new era for Cerro Torre. Days after our ascent, young, talented Austrian alpinists, David Lama and Peter Ortner free-climbed their own variation on the Southeast Ridge. This news was greatly inspirational to Hayden and I, and is further proof that the bolts were unnecessary.’

It will be interesting to see if this really is a new era for one of the world’s great mountains. One thing is certain it is unlikely to be the end of what has already been an extraordinary story.

Look out for Climb 86 when we'll have an extended Patagonia report.

For Kruk's full statement see www.alpinist.com