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or a competition, it’s a philosophy, a way of life.” The exceptional tal-
ent David Lama shares the same thoughts: “Sport climbing is all about
winning, whereas mountaineering is all about the summit.”
The 26-year-old Tyrolean has been climbing for pretty much his whole
life. At the age of 7, he participated in his first competition and be-
came second. Ever since, everything he touched turned to gold – except
for one project that was instructive in many ways: The failed attempt
of conquering the Cerro Torre in Patagonia using the wrong strategy.
For the earlier mentioned Italian climber Cesare Maestri, the attempt
of conquering this mountain ended way more tragically than Lama’s
failed mission. In 1959, Maestri‘s partner Toni Egger died along the
way. Maestri returned from the mountain claiming victory but lack-
ing proof. Egger had supposedly tak-
en summit photos, but Maestri said
they’d been lost when he was swept to
his death by an avalanche on the way
down. He perpetrated what’s wide-
ly seen as one of the greatest hoaxes
in alpinism history. Maestri returned
to Patagonia in 1970 armed with a
petrol-powered compressor drill. He
finally conquered the mountain but
left hundreds of bolts and the com-
pressor itself in his wake, upsetting
conservationists. Fast forward a few
decades and Cerro Torre has become
the ultimate challenge in free climb-
ing once again.
„In the beginning of alpinism, alpin-
ists didn’t think about the methods
they used to conquer a mountain
and if they were legitimate. The on-
ly thing that mattered was the con-
quest itself. It was only much lat-
er that awareness and the idea of a
“fair play” in the struggle with and
against the mountain developed.
Each step made in alpinist science stimulates this debate again,”
writes Peter Grupp in his book Faszination Berg. Die Geschichte des
Alpinismus. The author explains this delicate ethical discussion with
the fact that “Unlike any other sport, generally binding basic rules
reinforced by sanctions have never existed in climbing.“
Turning points
“My life was defined by rules and regulations. Then I entered the world
of mountain climbing – a world in which everything revolves around
your attitude towards the mountain. In 2009, I had no connection to
the mountain,” remembers David Lama. When he chose the Cerro Torre
as his project in 2010, his team used a power drill to sink some 30 ex-
pansion bolts into the stone - in addition to the 400 or so that were
already there - and then strung up 2,100 feet of fixed line for a cam-
era crew. Due to bad weather conditions, Lama was forced to abandon
his own attempt, along with all of the
equipment and ropes - an act that oth-
er climbers considered littering. Lama’s
transformation into a real alpinist start-
ed at that point and made him stronger
and wiser. So he came back, and again.
In 2012, there he was, ready to make
a third attempt. However, he was con-
fronted with totally different conditions:
Overnight, two mountain climbers had
removed the bolts that Maestri once had
placed along his route. So the original
Compressor route didn’t exist anymore.
David Lama, who was in Patagonia at
that time, reacted calmly to the news.
So let’s do it without bolts. “Back then,
I had no idea what impacts that would
have on the Alpine world, the mountain
itself and the people there,” says Lama. By removing the bolts, the al-
pinists had intended to give back to the mountain part of its dignity,
but at the same time, they had made it impossible for others to con-
quer the mountain. Well, not for everyone. David Lama and Peter Ortner
did it. Using only mobile devices to secure the route, they free-climbed
the mountain: It was the third attempt, and nobody would have thought
that they would succeed.
“A lot of my projects are considered “impossible” – so failing a couple
of times is part of the challenge. And failing is also a big part of the
learning process. It encourages you to try harder. We always have to
ask ourselves ‘Why not trying…?’ and sometimes we find an answer to
that quite fast and sometimes we don’t,” says Lama. And sometimes it
is simply about the right timing, the development and knowing that
one day you will be back to conquer the chosen mountain – because
you believe in it.