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\nAustrian climber \u00a0David Lama\u00a0 (Innsbruck, August 4, 1990) has accomplished his dream: the free ascent the via Maestri on the south east ridge of Cerro Torre, on 20 and 21 January 2012,\u00a0in 24 hours of climbing,\u00a0partnered by Peter Ortner. The ambitious project has strongly committed\u00a0the young talented climber\u00a0 for 3 seasons, and\u00a0also raised some sharp critics to his style when he\u00a0protected some dangerous\u00a0sections of the route\u00a0by adding\u00a0some bolts.
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\nNow with this great result – reached having to face the most challenging section of the\u00a0route\u00a0 free of bolts,\u00a0chopped a few days before by the Americans Kennedy and Kruk – David Lama has\u00a0given anotherproof\u00a0of his immense talent and uncommon courage. The crux was done at the 2nd attempt , and it seems that the difficulties are \u00a0around 8a.
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\nThis is the report\u00a0of \u00a0David Lama in Facebook page\u00a0
\n\u201cI can’t believe it\u2026 For more than three years I was driven by the idea of freeclimbing the Compressor route on Cerro Torre and now this dream has become true!
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\nMy partner Peter Ortner and I started on January 19th from El Chalten and hiked in to Niponino, our first camp. The next morning we climbed up to the Col de la Paciencia, rested there for a few hours and then started our attempt at around 1pm.
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\nWe climbed to the start of the Bolt Traverse, but instead of turning right, we went straight up on the technically difficult arete, a few meters left of the Salvaterra crack. I took a couple of falls, until I figured out the right sequence and then was able to send the pitch on my second try from the belay. A few pitches higher we reached the Iced Towers, where we picked a small ledge into an icefield to bivi.
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\nEarly the next morning we climbed to the start of the headwall. The fact that Hayden and Jason had chopped Maestri\u2019s bolts a couple of days ago made my endeavour even more challenging, especially mentally as the protection was poor and I had to do long run outs. Climbing on hollow and loose flakes we followed the original Compressor route for three pitches. About 20 meters below the compressor we traversed to the right and then reached a system of cracks and corners that lead us to the summit. Climbing the route in alpine style took us 24 hours from the Col.
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\nTo me this first free ascent of the south east ridge of Cerro Torre is the end to the probably greatest adventure I experienced in my life so far. I\u2019m especially proud having it done without adding any bolts. I learned a lot during the past years and climbing in this amazing mountain range has simply been great. Realizing dreams \u2013 it couldn\u2019t be any better!\u201d
\n\u00a0Facebook\u00a0David Lama <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 Austrian climber \u00a0David Lama\u00a0 (Innsbruck, August 4, 1990) has accomplished his dream: the free ascent the via Maestri on the south east ridge of Cerro Torre, on 20…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8066],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-50758","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-boulder"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n