Cerro Torre-FA Alpine Style Brewer & Bridwell Climbing 1980

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Steve Grossman

Trad climber
Seattle, WA
Topic Author's Original Post - Dec 7, 2009 - 12:42am PT
A classic account of the first alpine style ascent of Cerro Torre by Steve Brewer and Jim Bridwell from Climbing Jan/Feb 1980. The culmination of an amazing series of attempts on this most enigmatic of summits. A major highpoint for the Bird.





gunsmoke

Trad climber
Clackamas, Oregon
Dec 7, 2009 - 12:49am PT
This was probably the Bird's greatest climb. They were, perhaps, only the second team to actually stand on the summit.
Steve Grossman

Trad climber
Seattle, WA
Topic Author's Reply - Dec 7, 2009 - 12:52am PT
FA means first ascent...
slabbo

Trad climber
fort garland, colo
Dec 7, 2009 - 09:18am PT
I was introduced to Bridwell by Al Rubin while he was doing the slide show thing for this climb and a route in the Kichatnas with the late Dr Embick. It was totally cool meeting him , especially since the Birds hair at the time was as he decribed "disco".
Was this really 30 years ago ?????

john
Slabby D

Trad climber
B'ham WA
Dec 7, 2009 - 12:10pm PT
15 pitons, 15 nuts

It amazes me, the rack climbers use to find completely adequate. What do people need now? Probably 20 nuts and 20 cams?
ionlyski

Trad climber
Kalispell, Montana
Dec 7, 2009 - 12:14pm PT
Yeah, what do you mean Gunsmoke? They stood on virgin snow. There is no doubt.

You are right though. It was at least, one of his greatest climbs, from my armchair point of view.

Arne
TwistedCrank

climber
Ideeho-dee-do-dah-day boom-chicka-boom-chicka-boom
Dec 7, 2009 - 12:53pm PT
The Bird changes the game.

How many times did that happen?
bvb

Social climber
flagstaff arizona
Dec 7, 2009 - 01:03pm PT
this tale is told so simply that you have to use some imagination to fully comprehend what actually went down. they banged off what was at the time the world's most inaccesible summit in a couple of days using a skeleton rack of borrowed equipment. they'd just met. they descended in epic conditions. the whole thing is still a little mind-blowing to me, 30 years later.
WBraun

climber
Dec 7, 2009 - 01:11pm PT
As I remember Brewer gave Jim hepatitis, Jim didn't know that Brewer had it until he got it.

The whole way up there, they're sharing water bottles and food.

When we were in Africa a lot of the local natives where we were had tuberculosis. So we all kept our water bottles away from them.

One day we come back to camp and one of the sherpas is drinking out of Bridwell's water bottle and a moment later we turn and see Jim chugging out of his bottle. We yell over at him that the sherpa just contaminated his water.

He spews all the water out and hucks the bottle off into the desert and starts to go raving mad while we watch and laugh our ass off.
TwistedCrank

climber
Ideeho-dee-do-dah-day boom-chicka-boom-chicka-boom
Dec 8, 2009 - 05:50am PT
Someone once told me it was John Bacher and Mike Graham . That was many moons ago. At least for Bacher that seemed really out of character so I've always been dubious of that report.
norm larson

climber
wilson, wyoming
Dec 8, 2009 - 07:17am PT
Though an obvious momentous ascent of the Torre and not to deny there accomplishment in any way this was NOT the first ascent of Cerro Torre. It had been climbed twice before from the west face.
donini

Trad climber
Ouray, Colorado
Dec 8, 2009 - 09:03am PT
Right you are Norm, and you were supporting the team (Bragg, Wilson, Carmen) that did the second, and first alpine style, ascent of Cerro Torre.

Steve Grossman

Trad climber
Seattle, WA
Topic Author's Reply - Dec 8, 2009 - 11:37am PT
Thanks for the clarification. Who did the actual FA via the West Face then and how did they go about it?
WBraun

climber
Dec 8, 2009 - 11:40am PT
Someone once told me it was John Bacher and Mike Graham


They originally went with Bridwell, and a series of events unfolded where they returned to the states and Bridwell was left to find another partner.
ionlyski

Trad climber
Kalispell, Montana
Dec 8, 2009 - 11:43am PT
OK, maybe i goofed. My armchair memory suffers. I'm going to have to back and re-read the history again. Alpinist had a great issue

Arne
Steve Grossman

Trad climber
Seattle, WA
Topic Author's Reply - Dec 8, 2009 - 12:23pm PT
The best part about these historical threads is the knowledgeable contributions by those STers that were directly involved in the events under discussion or know the particulars.

GunSmith wasn't entirely accurate either.
ionlyski

Trad climber
Kalispell, Montana
Dec 8, 2009 - 01:01pm PT
Yeah, but still sorry, Gunsmoke.
gunsmoke

Trad climber
Clackamas, Oregon
Dec 8, 2009 - 01:43pm PT
ionlyski, no prob. As Grossman alludes to, Supertopo has an incredible wealth of collective, first-hand knowledge which gives us all more latitude to say it how we remember it.
slabbo

Trad climber
fort garland, colo
Dec 8, 2009 - 03:16pm PT
Was not the f/a of the West face by the Lecco Spiders in '74 ?
Jingy

Social climber
Flatland, Ca
Dec 8, 2009 - 03:40pm PT
Wonder if that coupon is still redeemable....

I'd like to be able to climb inverted/overhung roof cracks like a machine!!!!

(like the guy in the pic on the coupon!!!)
norm larson

climber
wilson, wyoming
Dec 8, 2009 - 06:50pm PT
Carlo Mauri's team did the first ascent of the West face in 74. Up the Tunnel valley over Paso del Viento to the icecap to reach it. Funny how little is known of this first ascent of Cerro Torre. Someone should research it and write it up.
donini

Trad climber
Ouray, Colorado
Dec 8, 2009 - 06:59pm PT
The leader of the Lecco Spiders team was Casimiro Ferrari. He fell in love with Patagonia and bought an estancia on the eastern shore of Lago Viedma from which he had a view of Fitzroy and the Torres. He fell ill with cancer and moved back to Italy for treatment where he died at the age of 62.
D-Rail

Trad climber
Calaveras
Dec 8, 2009 - 08:21pm PT
What an awesome climb... I have seen that photo of Jim triumphant on the summit many times, but it is great to hear the details of how it all came together for them. The fall while rappelling sounds like it might have been one of nine lives... Is the ice pitch Brewer talks about leading to avoid the initial bolt ladder still used?
Thanks for the great stories Steve.
shipoopoi

Big Wall climber
oakland
Dec 8, 2009 - 08:59pm PT
i saw bird's slideshow on this when it was still fresh in his head at the brazilian room in berkeley when i was a youngster. i remember him saying that all the climbs he had ever done, including the moose's tooth, lead up to this most excellent send. the slideshow was completely enGROSSing. shipoopoi
Steve Grossman

Trad climber
Seattle, WA
Topic Author's Reply - Dec 10, 2009 - 12:01am PT
Need a little color...


Ascent 73.
slabbo

Trad climber
fort garland, colo
Dec 10, 2009 - 10:57am PT
Damn Steve, I have that issue as well. Must have stolen it from Al Rubin !
Steve Grossman

Trad climber
Seattle, WA
Topic Author's Reply - Jan 5, 2010 - 08:31pm PT
Big frosty Bird Bump!
Gagner

climber
Boulder
Jan 5, 2010 - 10:05pm PT
One of the most horrendous descents I have done is after Scott Cole, Walt Shipley and I did the Compressor route in '87. We bivied once on the route, before the start of the 50 meter traverse, sitting up in bivy sacks (no sleeping bags, except for Walt)on a small ledge we chopped out of the ice. The next morning we were frigid, so got going early, but you could already see the weather changing. We topped out in a full on gale, which luckily comes from the other side of the mountain. All I remember is saying, let's get the F*** out of here. Of course the wind eddies around the peak. We topped out at about 5:30pm and immediately started rapping. Between the wind, darkness, and traversing nature of the route it was a horrendous descent. We hung the ropes probably three times and had to re-climb back up to free it. Rapping with the ends in our jackets to try to keep them from getting hung up. I wore the front points on my Footfangs down to nothing. We got back to the Col around 9:30 in the morning - bivied for about an hour then kept going before the full brunt of the storm hit. I swear though, walking back on the dry glaciers there with heavy packs and trying to compensate for the wind is almost equally difficult.

Paul
guest

climber
Jan 6, 2010 - 09:37pm PT
a couple of people asked for clarification as to who did the FA of Cerro Torre. Indeed it was the Lecco Spiders team, led by the great Casimiro Ferrari, via the West Face in 1974. This route gets called various names -- the West Face, the Ferrari Route, and the Ragni di Lecco route (guess that's Italian for "Lecco Spiders"). Anyway, those guys were the first to stand on Cerro Torre's summit: Daniele Chiappa, Mario Conti, Casimiro Ferrari, and Pino Negri. Amazing route, and even more amazing effort considering the day and the seemingly impossible notion of climbing such an inhospitable spire.
-- Kelly Cordes (don't know how to change my user name from "guest")
David Wilson

climber
CA
Jan 20, 2010 - 08:57pm PT
we stowed a rope at the italian col on fitzroy in 1985. i mean we stowed a rope, it was down in the rocks, carefully shoved between rocks into a totally protected position. we retreated shortly thereafter due to weather. on our return that rope was gone - no sign. the clear message was the winds of patagonia are limited only by imagination - a sentiment that colored our whole trip thereafter.
hobo_dan

Social climber
Minnesota
Jan 20, 2010 - 09:52pm PT
Armchair memory time. I think I remember reading that it was John Bachar and Mike Graham. When they got down there Bridwell was prepared for the bad weather- He had supposedly brought a huge supply of LSD to compensate for the boredom. I thought that that freaked the other two out and they left.
I'm not sure if this was a campfire story or if I read it somewhere FWIW
Regardless, it is a great adventure story.
'Pass the Pitons' Pete

Big Wall climber
like Ontario, Canada, eh?
Jan 20, 2010 - 11:08pm PT
"I followed desperately, then resumed leading on ice, keeping one piece of protection between us as we moved together. Jim had never climbed steep ice but there was no time for lessons."

Too funny! What a great send.

Steve Grossman

Trad climber
Seattle, WA
Topic Author's Reply - Apr 18, 2010 - 12:45pm PT
Brewer Bump!
rolo

climber
May 3, 2010 - 07:31am PT
Somewhat unrelated to this thread, but the very route that Jim and Steve finished back in 79 just recently got a facelift, the bad kind. In spite of spending close to three months in Chalten, the much publicized free attempt on the Compressor route by David Lama had no positive results (two attempts to the bolt traverse). However it did have some negative results. Lama's film team fixed 700 meters of rope from the glacier to the bolt traverse. The ropes were left for months until three Argentine guides recovered them, although they had to abandon a haul bag full of them above the bergschrund. The worst of it all was that to place those 700 meters of rope the film team placed more than 60 bolts. This in an section of the climb where not even Maestri had placed a single bolt back in 71, and where natural protection abounds. Somehow the 450 bolts that are already on the route were not sufficient for Lama's film team crew.

In 1985 Fulvio Mariani made one of the best climbing movies of all time when he filmed “Cumbre”, documenting Marco Pedrini’s solo ascent of Cerro Torre. They did so fixing 3 ropes, and nothing more, without placing a single piece of fixed pro. Obviously, as Lama and his entourage prove, there has been a big regression since then.

One has to wonder what the Swiss or the French would say if the same was done in one of their most iconic peaks in the Alps by a team of foreigners.

cheers
rolo
philo

Trad climber
Somewhere halfway over the rainbow
May 3, 2010 - 08:34am PT
Rolo, it's been a while, how are you? Thanks for bringing this travesty to our attention. I for one am disturbed by the resurgence of the Machievellian mind set in "modern" climbers.
donini

Trad climber
Ouray, Colorado
May 3, 2010 - 09:33am PT
Rolo it's a damn shame that "modern hype climbing" is alive and well. What good is freeing Cerro Torre if the tactics are so reminiscent of the Maestri fiasco? Too many climbers, mostly Euros, are treating this magnificent region like it is a local sport climbing area. Needless bolts are being placed to "comfortize" routes and ropes are being fixed so that moves can be worked out. Perhaps Messner's timeless article "The Murder of the Impossible" should be required reading for aspirant alpinists.
crøtch

climber
May 3, 2010 - 11:12am PT
bump
Shouldah

climber
May 4, 2010 - 09:51am PT
in case Rolo's post didnt already make you throw up...

http://www.redbull.com/cs/Satellite/en_INT/Article/A-Snowballs-Chance-in-Hell-021242793048040?refmod=ContentFeed&refmodpos=A1
donini

Trad climber
Ouray, Colorado
May 4, 2010 - 10:00am PT
It's interesting that in Patagonia the quest to "free climb" has led to an excessive use of bolts and fixed ropes. Lama's debacle and routes by Kurt Albert, Arnold (Royal Flush) and others stand out.
ground_up

Trad climber
mt. hood /baja
May 4, 2010 - 08:04pm PT
Bump
donini

Trad climber
Ouray, Colorado
May 4, 2010 - 08:41pm PT
This thread will get 300 posts if it's bumped 300 times. Climbing on the Taco Stand is an encapsulated world where the sun rises and sets on Yosemite Valley.
Mimi

climber
May 4, 2010 - 09:45pm PT
Jim, this is why you must continue to keep it real around here.

Paul, I received a letter from Walt after he returned from your climb. I had just left Yosemite and wished I could be there to hear him talk about the trip in person. You guys got a bellyfull! LOL!
marty(r)

climber
beneath the valley of ultravegans
Jun 1, 2010 - 08:01pm PT
This thread needs legs...and some photos. The first is mine, from January of this year:


The next one is from Vertical, Argentina´s answer to Alpinist. If you look carefully I´m pretty sure you can see the famed compressor!

(photo by Claudio Suter)

I know Mark Synott has posted here at least once before. He and Kevin Thaw climbed this a few years back as did Donini and Greg Couch, if I´m not mistaken. And of course Walt, but he´s not around to share the tale.

More stories, please!
marty(r)

climber
beneath the valley of ultravegans
Jun 1, 2010 - 08:36pm PT
One last photo (also from Vertical.) This one is of the ¨Great Traverse¨ though I´m not certain that that pitch is on the Compressor Route. (Someone with real experience please chime in!) The party--Santiago Scavolini and Luis Molina--were moving fast and, from what I could gather from the article (it´s in Spanish and I´m still learning)were looking for a big banana shaped feature but never found it.

(photo by Santiago Scavolini)

Note the bolts. Any idea what kind they are?

Also note the feature down and left. If I´m not mistaken that´s the feature that Sean Leary, Renan Ozturk, and Cedar Wright climbed a few seasons back, making a remarkable film, ¨Patagonia Promise¨, in the process. I caugt it at the Banff-fest in Puerto Natales and a link to a clip is below:

http://natgeoadventure.tv/Post.aspx?Id=24671

I think the film could have just as easily been named, ¨Choose Life¨, and for good reason.

More context. Please.
bmacd

climber
Relic Hominid
Jun 2, 2010 - 01:34am PT
bumpa
marv

Mountain climber
Bay Area
Jun 2, 2010 - 08:53pm PT
could any patagonia vets recommend a travel book that would nicely outline the logistics (airports, buses, permits and fees) for traveling to Chalten and onward to the climbing camps? my public library has a Moon guidebook, but it's missing key info
Dr.Sprock

Boulder climber
Sprocketville
Jun 2, 2010 - 09:52pm PT
i overheard the Bird talkin aboud swinging back and forth on a rap to break loose all the deadly javelin like stalagmites hanging from the cliff, i bet he was talkin about the Cerro Torre.

who bought that book written in Italian at he Bridwellfest?

it was the false account written by what's his name.
BBA

climber
OF
Jun 4, 2010 - 10:34pm PT
A bit about Steve Brewer is at this link

http://www.markrichey.com/who_we_are/mountaineering.cfm

The 1979 AAC Journal has a write up by Brewer about Peru.

Based on web info, I think he lives or lived in Chile.
Steve Grossman

Trad climber
Seattle, WA
Topic Author's Reply - Jun 12, 2010 - 01:51pm PT
This is the Casimiro Ferrari account of the first ascent of Cerro Torre by the Lecco Spiders from Mountain 38 September 1974.

Leo Dickinson cover photo of the East Face.




donini

Trad climber
Ouray, Colorado
Jun 12, 2010 - 02:05pm PT
Without question (well, I'm sure some would question) the first ascent of Cerro Torre. Interestingly, this route remains the most legitimate of the two usual ways to the summit.
Steve Grossman

Trad climber
Seattle, WA
Topic Author's Reply - Jun 27, 2010 - 10:44am PT
Bona fide bump!
colin henderson

climber
Jun 27, 2010 - 05:27pm PT
FAO Marv -

I wrote a guidebook a few years back on Los Glaciares National Park. It *should* have all the information you're looking for regards logistics - it includes climber's camps and routes to main climbs.

(Credit due to Rolando Garibotti, for lots of history beta, and Gregory Crouch for his superb book 'Enduring Patagonia', which started my fascination with Patagonia and the Chalten peaks (Greg, if you're reading this, I'm currently on what could possibly be my 8th read!).

Guidebook info and pictures is here - including a climbing history of Fitzroy, Torre, Egger, Standhardt, etc.;
http://www.colinhenderson.co.uk/

Also a (trekking) article with photos here;
http://www.ukclimbing.com/articles/page.php?id=756


Happy to answer any travel Qs if I can.

Hope this helps,

Colin

marv

Mountain climber
Bay Area
Oct 30, 2010 - 04:54pm PT
fukking awesome
marv

Mountain climber
Bay Area
Dec 24, 2010 - 01:50am PT
what-the-hell?-this-is-the-best-of-the-best bump
Steve Grossman

Trad climber
Seattle, WA
Topic Author's Reply - Mar 7, 2012 - 03:58pm PT
B & B Bump!
Steve Grossman

Trad climber
Seattle, WA
Topic Author's Reply - Mar 10, 2013 - 06:48pm PT
Cerro bump...
Don Paul

Big Wall climber
Colombia, South America
Mar 10, 2013 - 07:16pm PT
The article says that at the top, the ice mushroom was only 6 ft of overhanging snow, and the last part of climb was no big deal. Now it looks like a really big deal.
adikted

Boulder climber
Tahooooeeeee
Mar 10, 2013 - 11:05pm PT
Such an amazing peak....... To witness it in person is incredible..
ms55401

Trad climber
minneapolis, mn
Mar 10, 2013 - 11:29pm PT
kind of confused here -- was the first alpine ascent of CT in 1974 or 1980? if not 1974, why not? fixed ropes?
Gregory Crouch

Social climber
Walnut Creek, California
Mar 11, 2013 - 12:17am PT
First ascent of Cerro Torre was the Lecco Spiders via the west face led by Ferrari in 1974. And yes, fixed ropes, done expedition style.

First alpine style ascent of Cerro Torre was John Bragg, Jay Wilson and Dave Carman, also via the west face, in 1977. Bragg has a great story about holing up in a natural ice cave below the helmet, listening to the howl of the Patagonian organs.

(if I'm remembering the years correctly (without checking))

Bragg, Wilson, Carman was also the second ascent of the mountain.
Steve Grossman

Trad climber
Seattle, WA
Topic Author's Reply - Mar 11, 2013 - 10:26am PT
My thread title could certainly be more clear and accurate but I can't change that at this point..
madbolter1

Big Wall climber
Denver, CO
Mar 12, 2013 - 04:31am PT
My thread title could certainly be more clear and accurate but I can't change that at this point..

ROFL....

"Clarity and accuracy" have as a necessary prerequisite actual knowledge.

(And some basic intellectual honesty.)

But, you know, carry on. You are, after all, the "historian." And, as any contemporary historian knows, facts are not to be too seriously sought after, being the chimeras that they are.

At least the original articles themselves contain useful and interesting information, even if often wrapped in your "unclear and inaccurate" and sometimes flat-out wrong "take" on them. So, you perform a useful service in spite of yourself. LOL

In this case, bump for a thread about Patagonia, which is genuinely bad-ass and worth hearing about, despite the packaging.
Steve Grossman

Trad climber
Seattle, WA
Topic Author's Reply - Mar 12, 2013 - 10:45am PT
Honesty certainly isn't one of your strengths, Richard.
madbolter1

Big Wall climber
Denver, CO
Mar 12, 2013 - 12:00pm PT
ROFL....

Facts are what they are. In your case, pesky little things that flee far away when you are (supposedly) searching diligently for them, yet that show up in the darndest places to smack you upside the head when you least expect them.

Often publicly.

No apology for your condescending pontificating of earlier upthread?

No?

Pffffttt
squishy

Mountain climber
Mar 12, 2013 - 12:44pm PT
You're a real dickhead, huh madbolter?
Blakey

Trad climber
Sierra Vista
Mar 12, 2013 - 12:48pm PT
I posted this up a while ago,it didn't recieve much attention then.

It compliments this nicely.

Steve

http://www.supertopo.com/climbing/thread.php?topic_id=2019746&msg=2019746#msg2019746
Steve Grossman

Trad climber
Seattle, WA
Topic Author's Reply - Mar 12, 2013 - 12:56pm PT
Great article Blakey.

Missed it first time around.
Don Paul

Big Wall climber
Colombia, South America
Mar 12, 2013 - 01:01pm PT
Last night I had this revelation, like I had finally realized something I'd been missing all along. I should climb Cerro Torre. I got really excited about it then got on the internet at work to check it out. Probably the hardest summit in the world, hmmm ... Bivies are ledges you have to chop into 90 degree ice. Never did that before. Everybody seems to have to weather out a storm with no tent. Weird. Runout 5.11 face with technical loose rock sections for aid, at the top is a huge thing like a dandilion made out of snow, that you have to chop a tunnel into. Bizarre. Well, there's no doubt it's too hard for me and always will be. I might have been able to clip those compressor bolts just for the experience of being up there, but even with global warming its not happening.

Cerro Torre Trip Report
AP

Trad climber
Calgary
Mar 12, 2013 - 01:02pm PT
Bridwell and Brewer's ascent shows that the big advances are made in the mind as much as the body. What vision!
Reilly

Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
Mar 12, 2013 - 01:45pm PT
Sideways bump...

If you stay at the Latitude 49 B&B in El Chalten (just around the corner from
the pizza joint) you have all these cool pics and articles on the walls!
The owner's dad was on the Ferrari expedition. I didn't get a chance to
meet him and dad has passed. I'm sure Rolo knows him.




I forget which 'Spider' is/was the owner's papa.
madbolter1

Big Wall climber
Denver, CO
Mar 12, 2013 - 02:28pm PT
Very cool post, Reilly.
Reilly

Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
Mar 12, 2013 - 02:49pm PT
I really like this one:


The Italian paper trumpets Maestri while the caption reads:

"His supposed first ascent of Cerro Torre has never been authenticated"

I don't know exactly who worded the caption.

Don Paul

Big Wall climber
Colombia, South America
Mar 12, 2013 - 02:51pm PT
Is it fair to compare Maestri to Warren Harding?
orle

climber
Mar 12, 2013 - 03:16pm PT
fair to compare? sure why not. is this the right place for a maestri vs harding comparison? maybe not.
madbolter1

Big Wall climber
Denver, CO
Mar 12, 2013 - 04:33pm PT
That is a really interesting disconnect. Makes you wonder what people knew at that time, or at least suspected, about him. Or is it a cultural thing to express a bit of doubt that way? I'm certainly clueless but find it fascinating.
AP

Trad climber
Calgary
Mar 12, 2013 - 06:10pm PT
Harding would not have quit at the ice. He would have tried to summit.
I'm sure Harding was more fun to be around
Gregory Crouch

Social climber
Walnut Creek, California
Mar 12, 2013 - 06:29pm PT
Very interesting that newspaper cover... what year was that published? I can't make out the date in the enlargement.
Reilly

Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
Mar 13, 2013 - 12:55am PT
Greg, I'm sure that paper was out soon after the climb. I looked at my
original file and can't make it out - it was a really lousy copy.


The caption reads "Rumbo a la cumbre del San Lorenzo en 1943"


Gregory Crouch

Social climber
Walnut Creek, California
Mar 13, 2013 - 09:41am PT
Reilly, are those framed pics hanging on a Chalten wall? Someone told me about a restaurant down there with a bunch of old ones.

And love your pic of the Torre! what a hill.
Reilly

Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
Mar 13, 2013 - 11:07am PT
As I said on the last page they are on the walls of the Latitude 49 B&B
owned by the son of one of the Lecco Spiders. As I recall most of the pics
are in the common area so you could just walk in there and check them out.
The son is rarely there, as his wife runs the place, so I never got to speak
to him.

It doesn't seem like there was much of a 'mushroom' in Feb 2011, does it?
Steve Grossman

Trad climber
Seattle, WA
Topic Author's Reply - Mar 13, 2013 - 11:24am PT
It will fall off someday... LOL
Gregory Crouch

Social climber
Walnut Creek, California
Mar 13, 2013 - 11:52am PT
Ah ha! Silly me for not reading the thread more carefully.

I remember stories of some years in the late 80s and early 90s when there was a big ramp and you could just walk up that thing -- I think it was Ermano Salvaterra who told me -- but then it fell off. The two times I was up there there was a pretty big "eave" overhanging the summit plateau and I never did get up those last few meters. Oh well. Reason to go back, perhaps, although i doubt I'll ever motivate for it or get in the required condition again. And I'm okay with always looking up at the last little bit of that perfect mountain. I think. ;-)
nmmcquiston

Mountain climber
New jersey
Jul 4, 2013 - 09:35am PT
Hi,

I‘m doing reserach for a climbing film and have located Jim Bridwell, but does anyone by some random chance happen to know how or where to locate Steve Brewer?

Any leads greatly appreciated!!
Thanks!
Blakey

Trad climber
Sierra Vista
Nov 12, 2013 - 01:37pm PT
Bump

ron gomez

Trad climber
fallbrook,ca
Nov 12, 2013 - 01:50pm PT
Those 5 photos were the only photos taken on the route. They forgot the other camera in camp with all the film, the one they had only had 5 shots remaining in it. Jim has some great stories of that route, you all should take a road trip with us, the stories I hear are are priceless....I gotta get a setup where ALL of our conversations could be recorded. Of course loads of editing, but he is a great story teller and the more questions I ask the deeper the stories go! Wish I could just turn on a digital camera on the dash and drive.
Peace
Rudder

Trad climber
Costa Mesa, CA
Nov 12, 2013 - 04:02pm PT
this tale is told so simply that you have to use some imagination to fully comprehend what actually went down. they banged off what was at the time the world's most inaccesible summit in a couple of days using a skeleton rack of borrowed equipment. they'd just met. they descended in epic conditions. the whole thing is still a little mind-blowing to me, 30 years later.

Ditto that!
Steve Grossman

Trad climber
Seattle, WA
Topic Author's Reply - Jan 14, 2018 - 06:30pm PT
Star Spangled Bird Bump...
Scole

Trad climber
Zapopan
Jan 17, 2018 - 09:46am PT
I have to agree with a lot of what has been said on this thread. Bridwell and Brewer's 2nd ascent of the Compressor Rt. was a major event. Regardless of what your feeling is, or was, on the viability of the route, Cerro Torre is not for the faint hearted. When I climbed it in 1987, the first half of the route was bolt free. I believe we did 14 pitches before seeing the first bolt.

In the 1970's and 1980's, the weather in Patagonia was different that we have now due to global warming. On my first trip to Patagonia, we were told that the Fitz-Roy group had 360 days a year of storm, and 5 questionable days. On that trip (1983) we waited 42 days for a break in the weather longer than 24 hours.

24 hrs may be sufficient to summit Cerro Torre at the standard of climbing today, but 30 years ago speed ascents were not common. Equipment was heavier,climbers slower, and the Patagonian giants were still considered among the worlds most difficult summits. There was no internet to provide hourly weather updates, instead you used an altimeter to forecast your own weather.There was no bridge over the Rio Poincenot, and Chalten would not exist for another 10 years. When the road ended you were faced with a serious ford, which required many trips to ferry gear across before you could even begin to think about climbing.

The idea of high standard free climbing on the major peaks never even occurred to anyone until years later, after dozens of ascents had eliminated the unknown, climbing equipment and standards had improved, and the weather had changed providing more opportunity for free attempts. What is possible in 2018, was not within the realms of possibility in the 1980's.

Bridwell's rebolting of the last 20m was a logical act. At the time the Torre had seen very few ascents. There was a 2000m climb sitting there which was missing the final 20m. Like The Wall of the Early Morning Light, many people objected to the style of the FA, but once you have done the climb you realize that, although it could have been done better, there was some fine climbing on the route. I found the Compressor Route to be more enjoyable than expected. We did some spectacular climbing, and reached one of the most incredible summits in the world.

I have recently been watching the David Lama movie Cerro Torre on netflix. The film is a perfect example of the hubris in modern climbing where past accomplishments are negated by the more pure methods of today, like adding 60 bolts to an established climb which already had more than enough bolts in the interest of filming a self aggrandizing film about correcting the errors of the past.

Taken one step further, the chopping of the route did not erase the past, and the supposed "fair means" used were used where convenient, and ignored where not. The Compressor Route has become the standard descent route from Cerro Torre: As such, the original anchor bolts are the descent anchors, which have been used many times. Any true "fair means" ascent is tainted by the use of any of the existing hardware, even a single piece, so I don't buy the "mountain consecrated" argument. Most Argentine climbers were pissed.

The mountain has suffered enough. Patagonia is still a wild place to climb, even the hotels at the base,internet cafes and an international climbing scene have not completely changed the fact that you need to sack up if you want to summit anything big there.
Steve Grossman

Trad climber
Seattle, WA
Topic Author's Reply - Jan 17, 2018 - 02:11pm PT
Great post Scott!
mikeyschaefer

climber
Sport-o-land
Jan 17, 2018 - 08:38pm PT
One correction Scott. The compressor route is not the standard descent off of Cerro Torre these days. I'd say by a large factor the West Face is ascended and descended more often. Most people would be onsighting the compressor rappels after climbing the west face and that would surely be an exciting mission!
rottingjohnny

Sport climber
Sands Motel , Las Vegas
Jan 17, 2018 - 08:54pm PT
Yeah...Good job Scott...!!
Scole

Trad climber
Zapopan
Jan 18, 2018 - 07:57am PT
[quote]Most people would be onsighting the compressor rappels after climbing the west face and that would surely be an exciting mission![quote]

Apparently things have changed since the compressor route has been erased. I should have said that at one time the compressor rappels were the standard descent route, as most people climbed the compressor. Needless to say any route requiring 25 to 30 rappels would be an exciting mission. Like Paul Gagner posted near the beginning of this thread, rappelling the compressor rt at night during a major storm was among the most horrendous descents I have ever done, and we had just climbed the route
Brian in SLC

Social climber
Salt Lake City, UT
Jan 18, 2018 - 12:26pm PT

Steve Grossman

Trad climber
Seattle, WA
Topic Author's Reply - Mar 18, 2018 - 09:59am PT
Bird legacy bump...
amockalypsenow

Trad climber
Los Angeles
Feb 16, 2019 - 07:55pm PT
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysF9wx4X08A]
gimmeslack

Trad climber
VA
Feb 17, 2019 - 03:15am PT
What happened to Brewer?
hacky47

Trad climber
goldhill
Feb 17, 2019 - 10:42am PT
the late great Al Rouse passed on the invitation to climb the rte with Jim....cool history
Fat Dad

Trad climber
Los Angeles, CA
Feb 17, 2019 - 12:46pm PT
Nice bump. These threads appear to give most of the credit to the Bird for the climb, but it seems like the ascent was a result of the meeting of two partners who complemented each other perfectly.

I didn't know Bridwell but saw him several times over the years, mostly in Joshua Tree. Despite the history on this thread, he wasn't above claiming that he made the first ascent. I was in Josh about 20 yrs. ago with my wife and her climbing girlfriend from Argentina. Bird walks up to me and asks about the girlfriend, where she's from, etc., and I say she's single. Sensing his opening, he walks up to her and tells her how much he loves Argentina and how many first ascents he's made in Patagonia, including the FIRST ascent of Cerro Torre. I roll my eyes but say nothing. Sadly for him, she had no idea who he was, had never heard of Cerro Torre, and replied only by saying "that's nice".
bbbeans

Trad climber
Feb 18, 2019 - 07:58am PT
Thanks for sharing the "Jim Bridwell's Last Interview". Captivating stuff. What an adventurer.
WBraun

climber
Feb 18, 2019 - 08:28am PT
I know Jim went there with Bachar and Gramici to do a complete new independent line.

The line was deemed unsafe by Bachar due to unstable conditions there and John backed out.

There were arguments and Gramici and Bachar left Patagonia.

Thus with no partner, Jim found Brewer and shifted over to the compressor route .....



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