Considerable opposition by Patagonian activists to David Lama's proposed style while attempting to make a free ascent of the Compressor Route on Cerro Torre, has led the young Austrian to re-think his tactics.
One year ago Lama created huge controversy, when his film crew, which included climbers and guides, fixed 700m of rope on Maestri's Compressor Route up the South East Face, and placed around 36 bolts on the established route, next to existing anchors and perfect granite cracks.
Bad weather prevented the team getting above the bolt traverse. The abandoned ropes and most of the bolts were later removed by other climbers, after Lama's team had left the region.
This season Lama has returned to complete his project but with a much improved style. Climbing with Peter Ortner, Lama will be filmed by one cameraman climbing above the pair with two guides. He has promised they will neither fix rope on, nor add bolts to, the established route (and will remove the few still remaining from last year).
Lama did bring a small bolt kit with him, so that if he was forced to create variations to the existing route, he could hand-drill protection if it proved necessary. This seems acceptable under the situation, as free climbing the entire Maestri line up the headwall is thought by many to be infeasible.
However, his ethics failed drastically in the way he planned to bolt. In a much publicised conversation with noted American Colin Haley, Lama declared that
he would first reach the summit via the Compressor Route and then rap-bolt a separate line of weakness on the headwall.
When fellow American Zack Smith said to Lama, "You know that people will be very upset if you place your bolts on rappel", Lama's now infamous response was "I can take it."
Internet forums have been rife, with some contributors advocating a complete boycott of Lama's sponsors. Mammut made a relatively vague response, saying they 'allowed their athletes a great deal of responsibility, granting them their freedom by having as little direct influence as possible on their projects'.
Mammut have a long-term engagement with Lama, noting that 'any actions he has taken while climbing have never been hasty decisions that have compromised the ethics of mountain sports', and that there is no way Cerro Torre would 'be damaged and drilled for no reason'.
A few days ago Lama and Ortner made their first attempt but found ice in most of the cracks and only reached last year's high point. On return Lama announced that while he still hasn't seen the headwall, as far as possible he would like to make his free attempt along the Compressor Route, and would not be rap-bolting. Should variations to the original line be necessary for a free ascent, he would be trying them on lead.
Just before this Haley wrote, "my hope is that the climbing community will express to David Lama an opinion about rap-bolting on Cerro Torre, and that it will cause him to reconsider his tactics. In an ideal world the personal attacks on Lama will cease, and simultaneously he will decide, OK, what the hell, I'll try to do it on lead."
It seems as if Haley's ideal world exists after all.
Those wishing to read in more depth on this topic and gain an informed opinion by one of Patagonia's current leading activists should visit Colin Haley's blog.
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