David Lama Talks About Freeing The Compressor Route
By Steve Casimiro, Adventure Journal on February 8th, 2012
After freeing one of the greatest spires in the world (and becoming the first to do so), Austrian David Lama sat down for an interview on what it was like to scale Patagonia’s Cerro Torre without aid, a monumental achievement (that included one section where he was 60 feet above his last protection). “The crux pitch is the one which avoids the Bolt Travese. I first reckoned it’s circa 8a (5.13b), but the more I think about it, the harder it seems to become. Perhaps one day someone will attempt to repeat the route free up to the summit, that way we’ll get a second opinion. But in truth the grade of the crux pitch doesn’t really reflect the real difficulties of a free ascent on the Torre - to do this you need to be able to do much more than simply climb 8a…” Via Planet Mountain.
For more stories like this, including a feature story on Cerro Torre, visit Adventure Journal.
