With his recent ascent of Aguja Standhardt, Stefan Siegrist has become the first to climb all three major summits of the Cerro Torre Group in winter.
Together with Thomas Senf and Ralf Weber, the Swiss alpinist left Niponimo, where the team had left gear after a previous unsuccessful attempt, and climbed to the Standhardt Col.
Fresh snow from a recent storm, and high winds, made this journey time-consuming and, in parts, avalanche prone, but the three eventually gained access to the snow/ice ramp that slashes across the east face. Here, they set up a bivouac.
Next day they continued up the ramp and into the crux chimney system of Exocet, the route followed on Standhardt's first ascent and the most popular line on the mountain today.
At 6:30pm they stood on top the summit mushroom, having climbed through a stiff wind and temperatures down to -20°C.
That night they bivouacked just below the summit under a full moon. It took several hours to cut a big enough ledge in the ice, but Siegrist described the experience, "his most impressive and most beautiful bivouac ever".
The following day they rappelled the route and by nightfall were safely off the glacier.
This summit, the most northerly of the Torre Group, was named after the German photographer, Ernst Standhardt
The conspicuous ramp that slashes across it east face, and taken in part by Exocet, was followed to its end in 1977 by Brian Hall and John Whittle. These two then moved onto the south face and climbed to a point just 20m below the summit, where they were stopped by the final, overhanging mushroom.
Standhardt had to wait until 1988 before someone would stand on top the summit. In January that year Americans Jim Bridwell, Greg Smith and Jay Smith climbed Exocet (500m, WI5+ F5+), which features a four-pitch vertical icefall in an enclosed chimney system on the east face, leading to the easier north ridge.
A route on the south face was not completed to the summit until late last year, by Jorge Ackerman and Colin Haley.
Siegrist made a winter ascent of Cerro Torre in July 1999. With American Greg Crouch, and David Fasel and Thomas Ulrich from Switzerland, he climbed the Ragni Route on the west face (Daniele Chiappa - Mario Conti - Casimiro Ferrari - Pino Negri, 600m, 90°, M4), stopping on the summit plateau at the bottom of the six-metre-high final mushroom.
In August 2010, with Dani Arnold and Thomas Senf, he made the first winter ascent of Torre Egger.
These three started up the line on the east face claimed to have been climbed in 1980 by Bruno di Dona and Giulano Giongo, then above the hanging glacier slanted left onto the crest of the east pillar, joining it at the prominent snowfield at half-height. From there they continued to the summit of Egger via the upper section of Titanic (Maurizio Giarolli - Elio Orlandi, 1987).
The Torre Group has four summits: Cerro Torre; Torre Egger; Punta Herron, a subsidiary summit of Egger; and Aguja Standhardt. It is believed that Siegrist, Senf and Weber hoped to continue from Standhardt to Herron, but the strength of the wind put them off.
Fierce wind forced Jorge Ackermann and Michi Lerjen to abandon an attempt on the east face of Fitz Roy at around the same time. They had to retreat after around 15 pitches.
Also visiting the range this winter will be Dani Arnold, who with two partners hopes to attempt El Arco de los Vientos, the 2005 Beltrami-Garibotti-Salvaterra route on the north face of Cerro Torre via the Col de la Conquista.
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