A short history of Cerro Torre, the most controversial mountain (2012)

Those two guys removed an established easement. Sure one can argue that it should never have been installed in the first place, but it was and apparently it became widely used. They had no business taking it down.

Re: A short history of Cerro Torre, the most controversial mountain (2012)

#5

Post by matheusmoreira » Mon, Jun 15, 2026, 4:19 AM UTC

> police arrested them and confiscated 102 bolts

That stood out to me... I understand that rock climbing is Serious Business to its practitioners and people on internet forums, but these two guys actually got arrested for removing those bolts, which is a whole new level of serious.

Was it really some kind of crime to do that? What happened to those guys after that?

Re: A short history of Cerro Torre, the most controversial mountain (2012)

#6

Post by Yossarrian22 » Mon, Jun 15, 2026, 4:26 AM UTC

matheusmoreira wrote: post #5

> police arrested them and confiscated 102 bolts That stood out to me... I understand that rock climbing is Serious Business to its practitioners and people on internet forums, but these two guys actually got arrested for removing those bolts, which is a whole new level of serious. Was it really some kind of crime to do that? What happened to those guys after that?

I can't find many details, but I had heard Hayden's name before, he sadly died of suicide after losing his partner in an avalanche ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hayden_Kennedy_(climber) ). Jason Kruk appears to still be climbing to this day, so neither appeared to wind up in significant legal trouble after rightly or wrongly damaging a tourist destination.

Re: A short history of Cerro Torre, the most controversial mountain (2012)

#7

Post by chabes » Mon, Jun 15, 2026, 4:27 AM UTC

The mountain should have never been bolted in the first place.

The debate that it is an established route and thus should be left up comes from a place of entitlement.

If you can’t climb the mountain, what are you even doing there? There are plenty of mountains in the area that can be climbed instead.

Same can be said about the Dawn Wall of El Cap. Harding should have never bolted it. Removing his bolt ladder was the ethical move by Robbins.

Re: A short history of Cerro Torre, the most controversial mountain (2012)

#8

Post by snowwrestler » Mon, Jun 15, 2026, 4:33 AM UTC

matheusmoreira wrote: post #5

> police arrested them and confiscated 102 bolts That stood out to me... I understand that rock climbing is Serious Business to its practitioners and people on internet forums, but these two guys actually got arrested for removing those bolts, which is a whole new level of serious. Was it really some kind of crime to do that? What happened to those guys after that?

I think you’ll be sad if you look up Hayden Kennedy.

No serious legal consequences to them from this climb, though, and the route remains clean. There was a wonderful film in this year’s Mountains On Stage film tour called Patagonian Chimeras, about a team of women who climbed the new variation by fair means.

Re: A short history of Cerro Torre, the most controversial mountain (2012)

#9

Post by ofrzeta » Mon, Jun 15, 2026, 5:00 AM UTC

chabes wrote: post #7

The mountain should have never been bolted in the first place. The debate that it is an established route and thus should be left up comes from a place of entitlement. If you can’t climb the mountain, what are you even doing there? There are plenty of mountains in the area that can be climbed instead. Same can be said about the Dawn Wall of El Cap. Harding should have never bolted it. Removing his bolt ladder was the…

What kind of ethics is it to decide that these walls must be free climbed? If you want to do that, fine, go ahead and ignore the bolts.

Re: A short history of Cerro Torre, the most controversial mountain (2012)

#10

Post by jandrewrogers » Mon, Jun 15, 2026, 5:46 AM UTC

One of the things I appreciate about the Andes Mountains is that in this age of social media ruining everything most areas are still pretty wild. You don’t see long queues of people waiting to take selfies. You may not see other people at all. They are second in height to the Himalaya but in most other ways are more interesting.

I feel like the governments there low-key try to keep it that way.