In Depth on Climbing’s Biggest Bolt Controversy
By Steve Casimiro, Adventure Journal on January 30th, 2012
The “most explosive mountaineering controversy in the last decade” gets substantive, in-depth coverage from National Geographic Adventure: Two weeks ago, Hayden Kennedy and Jason Kruk climbing Patagonia’s Cerro Torre for the first time by “fair means” and then on their descent chopped off 120 expansion bolts that had been placed in 1970 by Italian Cesare Maestri. The Italian’s placement of 400 bolts was considered a sacrilege (as was bolting the gas compressor he used to drill the holes), but the bolts on the “Compressor Route” were considered by many to be an important part of climbing history. Predictably, Kennedy and Kruk’s action was both lauded and vilified — but among some of the world’s top alpinists, like Reinhold Messner, Rolo Garibotti, and Conrad Anker, it was resoundingly praised. Via NGA.
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