Lincoln Else
Former climbing ranger of Yosemite, and now a San Francisco-based videographer who helped film David Lama’s historic first free ascent of the Southeast Ridge of Cerro Torre for the Red Bull Media House. Summitted Cerro Torre via the West Ridge in order to rap down the Southeast Ridge’s headwall to film the upper pitches.
What was your role on the film crew? How did that come about? Is this your first time to CT with the film crew?
I was hired by Red Bull to document David free climbing on the Cerro Torre headwall—shooting stills and video footage for a documentary film. I got involved only a few weeks before filming was scheduled to begin, hired based on my work as a director of photography and my climbing experience. This was my first time working with David and the Red Bull team.
You climbed the West Face to reach the summit, and then you rapped down the Compressor Route to film. Tell me about your ascent.
Yes, after the bolts were removed from the Headwall section of the Compressor Route, Markus Pucher, Toni Ponholzer, and I climbed the West Face of Cerro Torre to access the summit. We climbed in alpine-style as a party of three, carrying bivy gear and a relatively light rack. I also carried camera equipment, shooting stills and video footage on the route.
We bivied on the summit while David and Peter bivied on the ice towers. The next morning, I rapped off the bolts at the top of the headwall and met David for the last few pitches of the route up to the actual summit, shooting throughout. David climbed without any interference or direction from me. Given the difficulty of the climbing, the limited protection, and the unforgiving alpine environment, no moves were re-climbed and no images staged. This was pure verite documentary shooting.
On that note, as someone who was lucky enough to watch David free climb the Cerro Torre Headwall, I can honestly say it was some of the most incredible climbing I have ever seen, let alone filmed.
Can you describe how David Lama and others on your team felt upon hearing that the CR was chopped? Did that affect the psyche/plans/etc. and if so, how?
You should speak to David to get his thoughts on the bolt removal, though I know that it did not change his intended route at all. Obviously, the removal did indeed change our filming plans. Without the option to climb the CR quickly, ahead of David and Peter, we made the decision to climb the West Face instead, bivying on the summit. The psyche of the camera team was solid and great throughout, excited about the prospect of two teams climbing Cerro Torre from two directions to meet on the Headwall. Speaking myself, as a climber, I was of course psyched beyond belief to climb the West Face with two amazing, accomplished partners.
How was word about the chopping spread in El Chalten?
Toni, Markus, and I were in Nipo Nino when Jason and Hayden came down from their climb. There were only a dozen or so of us in camp that day (almost all of whom I already knew from Yosemite and elsewhere), so news of their first ascent and the bolt removal was quickly known to all.
Shortly thereafter, a rescue attempt switched everyone’s priorities: carrying ropes, food, and bivy gear up the approach to St. Exupery, where Rolo Garibotti and Colin Haley had been flown by the Red Bull helicopter in an attempt to rescue an injured climber [that would be Carlyle Norman, who eventually died on Saint Exupery—AB]. That rescue attempt was called off due to weather the next morning. I then hiked out to Chalten that day, joining Rolo, Colin, and others for the last few miles to Chatlen. How the news spread in town, I have no idea, but I imagine it was quick, arriving from various people at once.
Tell me about the rescue.
Yes, the first attempted rescue was for Carlyle. Tragic, most definitely. Intense and somber scene in Nipo during those two days.
And yes, while rapping down the Compressor Route, we encountered a Czech team of four at the beginning of the bolt traverse. We informed them that the bolts had been removed from the headwall, and they decided to descend after us. Apparently that evening one member of their party took a fall near the Media Luna on the glacier and broke his lower leg. His partners showed up in Nipo the next morning, and those of us in camp (three of us from the film project, and about a half dozen other climbers) organized a rescue: flying the Chalten doctor up to the patient’s location, moving him down to the glacier below, and then flying him down to Chalten that afternoon.
Words to sum up the season?
All of us here in Chalten feel lucky to witnessed some of climbing history playing out in person. Truly amazing time in an amazing place.
There are probably more mundane than metaphysical reasons in some people’s opposition to the removal of the bolts. The route has been made harder (i don´t know how much harder) and maybe there are local guides that won´t be able to take customers to it. That´s an impact in their economy that probably Hayden and Jason did not have in mind when doing what they did. If people got that angry probably it is because restoring the route to its original condition would remove it’s legend or it´s “touristic” appeal.
Not that i could call myself a climber, least an alpinist but this subject touches me quite, cause i think they really had no right to do what they did. Maestri did wrong for sure. But the damage, to the mountain, has not been repaired and some people has felt it as an affront and i can see why. Climbing is about freedom, and imposing your views to others is not what i understand as freedom. Of course, someone could go back up there and replace the bolts but then all this nonsense would never end.