Found some old Maestri pitons and bolts in Patagonia. Help!

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Messages 1 - 16 of total 16 in this topic

the_dude

Mountain climber

anchorage, alaska

Topic Author's Original Post - Feb 6, 2016 - 04:00pm PT

We found a cache of old gear on the Torre Glacier below Niponino a while ago. It is very clear that part of this gear cache was from Cesare Maestri (since his name is on the big piton), but the strange bolts are different from those put up on the Compressor Route.

The Forrest Mjolnar hammer would not have been around during his 1959 attempt on Cerro Torre. All that I can figure out is that perhaps Donini found some of this gear during his first ascent of Torre Egger (which followed Maestri's line to the Col of Conquest) and there is a purported Maestri gear cache somewhere near the Triangular Snowfield.

I think part of this gear may belong to the Donini group, while some was definitely Maestri's.

Has anyone seen these bolts before? They are truly unique, but hold no marking to designate country or ownership.

I don't know what happened to it, it was left in Patagonia. Cool find regardless!

Flip Flop

climber

Earth Planet, Universe

Feb 6, 2016 - 04:03pm PT

Cool

mucci

Trad climber

The pitch of Bagalaar above you

Feb 6, 2016 - 04:04pm PT

Those bolts look exactly like the hundreds that were pulled on the compressor route just rusted.

Sweet score!

the_dude

Mountain climber

anchorage, alaska

Topic Author's Reply - Feb 6, 2016 - 04:06pm PT

They are different than the compressor bolts. I initially thought they were the same, but they are definitely different.

mucci

Trad climber

The pitch of Bagalaar above you

Feb 6, 2016 - 04:15pm PT

Lead cores?

Compression bolt right?.

Man, were they just laying around in plain view?

Timmc

climber

Feb 6, 2016 - 04:21pm PT

Cool, I just found a Maestri piton and that weird bolt thing too, but above Nipanino and just above the nunatuk.
My girlfriend found a really long one on the moraine
I would be interested in any info too

the_dude

Mountain climber

anchorage, alaska

Topic Author's Reply - Feb 6, 2016 - 04:50pm PT

Compressor Route bolts...you can see they are slightly different.

Toker Villain

Big Wall climber

Toquerville, Utah

Feb 6, 2016 - 06:52pm PT

I believe that the long things in the first photo are Cassin ice pitons.

A very cool find.

grover

climber

Castlegar BC

Feb 6, 2016 - 09:08pm PT

Agreed, a very cool find indeed, thanks for posting up.

Neat looking expansion bolt(?)

They are similar in shape to the Cassin bolts that were chopped from the Compressor route.

I dig these threads.

Edited to add: those expansion/compression bolts look mighty square, no?
Sheesh! Talk about putting a square peg in a round hole !
Just sayin.

Hoots

climber

Mammoth Lakes, CA

Feb 7, 2016 - 08:45am PT

The last time I was up in the Torre Valley we found some other stuff, ice axe head (with broken off wooden shaft), and a bunch of squared off timber that had been ejected out of the ice some distance from Niponino. Left the axe, though that would have been a really cool piece of history to have pulled out.

Ian Parsons

climber

UK, England

Feb 7, 2016 - 09:21am PT

Like the Cassin bolts used on the Compressor Route, the "wedge insert" bolt shown was a typical European design of the time - probably from either Salewa or Stubai; those without the wedge were generally very slightly tapered to give a tight interference fit in a hole drilled in hard rock - Chamonix granite, Cerro Torre, etc - while the wedge design gave an expanding fit and was intended for softer rocks like Dolomite limestone. No doubt in practice both types would have been used in a variety of rock types.

The longer ice screw racked next to the old ring ice piton - if the eye is indeed the bit that I think it is - looks like the Clog model; I think they were the first to use the type of eye that resembles a longish bolt hanger. These were around in about 1972/3, but I'm not sure that they go back as far as the first ascent of the Compressor Route. Might Donini have had some? I think Chouinard tubes had just appeared at that time, which would seem more likely. A British team tried to repeat the Compressor Route in the early 1970s, so maybe it came from them.