Aguja Standhardt, Punta Herron, Torre Egger and Cerro Torre

Torres Traverse

1600m 6b+ A1 WI6 MI6

Rolando Garibotti and Colin Haley, January 2008.

Description. There are several alternatives to accomplish this traverse. The way it was climbed in 2008 involved climbing Exocet on Standhardt (500m 5 WI6), rappeling to the col dei Sogni (5 raps), climbing Spigolo dei Bimbi on Herron -with some variations due to frost- (350m 6b MI5), rappeling to the col de Lux (1 rap), climbing the Huber-Schnarf route on Torre Egger –again with some variations due to frost- (200m 6b MI3), rappeling west of the American Torre Egger route to the Egger-Torre col (6 raps), climbing El Arca de los Vientos to the west ridge (500m 6b+ A1 MI3) and climbing the last 100 meters via the Ragni route (MI6), to then descend via the SE ridge (20 raps aprox). In previous attempts this traverse had been tried climbing Exocet, but also Festerville or Otra vez on Standhardt. Options on Cerro Torre could also include a more direct line up the north face. Difficulty wise all the options are roughly similar, but will vary greatly depending on conditions.

History. Italian Andrea Sarchi is widely credited with the original idea, sometime in the mid 1980s. Italians Maurizio Giarolli, Elio Orlandi, Ermanno Salvaterra and Sarchi carried out the first attempts in the late 1980s. In 1991 Salvaterra, together with Adriano Cavallaro and Ferruccio Vidi managed to climb past Standhardt to the top of Punta Herron. They bivied three times, once at the base of the Standhardt summit mushroom and twice at the col dei Sogni, on the way up and on the way down. Theirs was quite possibly the first ascent of Punta Herron.

Over the following 15 years the traverse saw a few attempts, but none went as far as Salvaterra had managed to go. In 2005, German Thomas Huber and Swiss Andi Schnarf climbed Standhardt via Festerville, then continued on reaching the summit of Herron and descending to the col de Lux where they bivied. The following morning they climbed to the top of Egger and descended via Titanic. A week earlier they had narrowly missed an Egger ascent with Slovene Rok Zalokar, when they climbed Bimbi from the Standhardt east face ramp.

In late 2006, after having climbed Cerro Torre from the north via a new route, El Arca de los Vientos Salvaterra, together with Alessandro Beltrami and Garibotti made an attempt on the traverse but did not manage to climb beyond the col dei Sogni. In late 2007 Garibotti, climbing with American Hans Johnstone climbed Standhardt via Festerville to an “early” bivy at the col de Sogni due to bad weather. The next day they climbed over Herrron and Egger to bivy on NW face of Cerro Torre. On day three they climbed 6 pitches up El Arca, but were stopped by a huge mushroom on dead vertical ground. They retreated down the American Torre Egger route. During those same few days and climbing a few hours behind Garibotti and Johnstone, Salvaterra together with Beltrami, Mirko Masè, and Fabio Salvadei climbed Otra vez on Standhardt and bivied below the summit, climbing to the top of Egger on their second day to then, on day three descend to the Egger-Torre col and retreat via the American Egger route.

In late January 2008 Garibotti and Haley completed the traverse. On their first day they climbed in bad weather, climbing Exocet and reaching the summit Standhardt at noon (12PM). They continued on climbing Bimbi to bivy at the base of the Herron mushrooms, loosing much time due to bad weather and frost on the rock. The next day they climbed over Herron and Egger to bivy 4 pitches up the NW face of Cerro Torre, stopping early because of unusually warm weather. On day three they climbed to the base of Torre’s summit mushroom and managed to climbed 15 meters before deciding to bivy once more. On day four they climbed over Torre to descend the SE ridge, reaching the glacier before sunset.

Approach. De Agostini to Niponino to Standhardt col.

Pro. Doubles to #3 (doubles on all tcus are very important), one #4 (you can get away without it- the first ascent party took doubles to #2 and a single #3), stoppers, 8 to 10 icescrews if you plan to climb Exocet, 4 to 6 if you dont, mushroom kit (one or two stuff sacks to make a "deadman", wings and one or two pickets), 3 to 5 pitons.

Descent. Via the SE ridge or Ragni route.

Photos (click to enlarge)

Torre Egger and Aguja Standhardt

southeast face

Aguja Standhardt

south face

Punta Herron north face

Punta Herron south face

Torre Egger north face

Torre Egger south face

Cerro Torre northwest face

Cerro Torre north face

Cerro Torre west face