Cerro Torre, Compressor route

September, 19. Simone's report:

Nothing to do. Too much snow

Our expedition is finished. We are under two meters of fresh snow. We gave it our best shot and waited for good weather. Karl Gabl (my friend from Insbruck-Austria who always gave me the weatherforecast) told us that good weather was coming so we started again. Saturday night at 3:30 a.m. we approached the Cerro Torre face but the snow was deep. It was the first time we didn't cross the frozen lake because it was not completely frozen...and we heard some "cracks" advising us to avoid the suicide mission....
We skied and climbed for twelve hours with nice weather conditions but with massive amounts of snow. When we took off the skis and started to climb in the deep sections before the Cerro Torre shoulder, the fresh snow got deeper and deeper. The rope we placed the week before were unrecoverable. Massive avalanches came down and we attempted to "swim" in the snow dreaming to reach our equipment located at 2,450m. Finally, in our exhaustion we realized that it was impossible to advance higher. We climbed for one more hour but understood that we had no equipment to make a bivy. We have to be realistic and understand it is winter here in Patagonia...

By the afternoon, we made the decision to end the climb. Cerro Torre, an incredible mountain, remains unclimbed this season. We will return to realize the dream. In our final push we activated on the mountain for sixteen hours without eating and drinking. The 2005 season has been intense for me with three expeditions. Shisha Pangma in winter, Batura II in Pakistan and Cerro Torre in winter. Now is the time to rest, spend time with my family and make plans for 2006. I have many slideshows, articles to write and my second book to publish. I must meet with my sponsors, work on the products, cataloges, photos, renew my web site, analyze my film footage and think about realizing a new movie. Training hard daily on rock and ice is a given.

I want to thank all of you who followed my adventures and especially explorersweb.com as they always believe in the spirit of adventure and publish my expedition reports. I wish all of you a wonderful autumn season full of smiling days and fulfilled dreams.

P.S. Because of the snow conditions we were unable to reach our equipment at the base of the route. In our cache located five meters below the big crevasse at the base of the route can be found more than enough equipment to realize the mountain. If someone is to find this equipment you can certainly use but we hope that you will leave it there for us as we plan to return to the route and climb as well. Cheers!!

September, 5. Simone Moro report:

Everything is ready now-.
But how big has been the effort to get to the base of the rocky pillar of the compressore route. We spent 3 days from the Base Camp to touch the rock of the route. Deep snow, 2 camps, cold and extremly heavy packs!!!! Over 40 kg each!!! It had been as an Himalayan effort and we were only at 1500/2000 meters of altitude. Fortunately, the first day on the glacier also Joby and Alessandro helped us but over that point everything had been carried by me and Camos. Yesterday at 3:00 p.m. we left the point we reached at 2450m and started to come down to get 3 - 4 days rest. From the glacier Hielo Continental clouds were approaching us and we were tired and worried because we didn't find the crevasse where to establish the camp and save our life in case of a storm... This is the only problem that remained unsolved to us and in the next days I will contact some friends asking to indicate exactly on the photo where the crevasse is.... During the 3 day of climbing we had an airplane flying over us, for 2 hours to film the action. Joby Ogwyn was on it and the shots have been incredible. I also took the airplane two days before to start the climb to watch the mountains, take photos and study the conditions and itinerary we have to follow. The weather was nice for 4 continue days... and this time is usually enough to complete the full climb in the normal season but in winter with so deep snow and only 2 climbers it is completly different...

Now we have all the equipment in the base of the pillar and 3 ropes on the most verical sections before the deposit. We will take rest and then leave from base camp at 700 m. We will start at midnight to go directy to the deposit at 2450m. We will shovel to find the crevasse ( I hope we will find, we must) and in the next day early morning start for the rocky climb of the compressor route as fast as we can. I hope that the weather will be as in the last 4 days, thanking God....

Ciao Simone