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Salvaterra, Garibotti and Beltrami climb new route on Cerro Torre

On 13/11/2005 Ermanno Salvaterra, Alessandro Beltrami and Rolando Garibotti reached the summit of Cerro Torre vie their new route 'El Arca de los Vientos' (The Arc of Winds), Patagonia.

PlanetMountain.com

November 2005

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Cerro Torre, El Arca de los Vientos: Cerro Torre seen from Laguna Torre

archivio Ermanno Salvaterra

Patagonia 2005, Salvaterra, Garibotti, Beltrami

Cumbre! Cumbre! Ermanno Salvaterra and Alessandro Beltrami from Italy and Rolando Garibotti from Argentina reached the summit of Cerro Torre on Sunday 13 November via a new route. The news of their ascent like wildfire, and although the summit was certain, details have only now been published on the official expedition site.

Emanno describes the new line: "Our route follows a way up along the initial dihedral that Egger, Fava and Maestri climbed in 1959. From the highest point they reached, we proceeded to Collado de la Conquista along rock walls to the left of the American route as far as Torre Egger. At that point, we turned right, climbing the north-west face for a distance of several pitches, until we got to the north ridge. From there we shifted onto the north face, climbing straight up 20 or so meters from the ridge. At the end of the north face we reached the west rock spur and followed it to the summit. In all, we did 37 pitches to cover 1,200 meters of wall." The route is called "El Arca de los Vientos" (The Arc of Winds) and is dedicated to to the late mountaineers Pepe Chaverri and Teo Plaza.

The ascent went as follows: after having retreated 300m from the summit a few days earlier due to the Patagonian storms, the trio set off from El Chalten on 11 November and climbed the first five pitches in the dihedral. They fixed ropes and descend to the snow cave where on 12 November at 3.45 am they jumared the fixed ropes and continued upwards. Climbing in alpine style they reached Col of Conquest at noon and their previous highpoint at 16.30 where they bivouacked, but not before having climbed a further two pitches. Ermanno describes the bivvy as follows. "The place is utterly out of this world. The Egger is facing us, Mount Fitz Roy is to the right and Hielo Continental to the left. The cold is pretty biting, the sky unbelievably starry. The night passes quickly and we manage to get some sleep."

Weather conditions on 13 November were promising. After the 8.00 am start : "the face is almost vertical and quite difficult. With another two pitches on the rock, climbing amid ice crusts, we succeed in jumping away from the north face. With another pitch we reach the Lecco Spiders Route." Noon holds surprises: "At this point Torre Egger is far below us, yet we still can't see the Torre's summit. We initiate a series of very challenging pitches which we take turns trying to climb. The ice is flimsy and at times we'e forced to create a passage for ourselves before finding snow or ice with any substance to it. We've got only two stakes with us and seeing as the ice-screws don't hold the pros it's almost as if they weren't there. We know that more than half of the rope parties which have climbed the western route, the Lecco Spiders Route, gave up aiming for the summit precisely in this spot. We mustn't surrender, no matter what." Conditions began to worsen but finally they reached the incredible ice mushroom: "We do the pitch bit by bit, each of us climbing part of the way. It's gotten bitterly cold but at 11.15 p.m. we're on the top of Cerro Torre." Joy overcomes them and they remember how, exactly a year previously Ermanno Salvaterra, Alessandro Feltrami, together with Giacomo Rossetti, stood on the summit after climbing their “Quinque anni ad paradisum”.

The trio bivvied beneath the mushroom just a few meters from the summit and began their long descent at 4.00am. Dodging rock falls they reached the safety of their ice cave: "When we arrive at the truna we start realizing what we managed to achieve. We're totally beat, can barely walk, our hands ache and Ale's and Erman's feet are in pitiful condition. We're satisfied with our feat and even to us it seems like a dream."

The next day they were back in El Chalten, and on Sunday Ermanno and Alessandro should return to Italy. Without a doubt we'll find out more about the question which Ermanno and Rolando asked themselves,: will we find traces of Maestri and Egger?