The Tower: A Chronicle of Climbing and Controversy on Cerro Torre

Being a climber and guide for nearly 40 years and having followed the discussion around Cerro Torre's first ascent since the 70's, I did not expect Kelly Cordes to unearth anything that I was not aware of regarding the history of Cerro Torre. It was with great delight and admiration for the author that I found a number of new, key wrinkles to this story of one of the planet's most iconic peaks. Cordes' research is simply superb. His friendships with key, modern day alpinists as well as his own personal (and impressive) climbing experience on Cerro Torre put him in the unique position of being an ideal writer to look at this story from 1959 to the present. His book fully covers the Maestri attempts of 1959 and 1970, as well as careful attention to important key ascents of the peak, including the first fair means ascent of the Southeast Ridge by Kennedy and Kruk and the first free ascent by David Lama, both in 2012.There is so much I enjoyed about this book, but what really stands out is Cordes' authentic and gifted voice as a writer. Beautifully written and professionally researched, the reader feels as though Kelly is sitting across the room discussing an issue that has captured the interest of climbers and arm chair mountaineers for decades. Even though what he uncovers in his research further adds nails to a very well nailed coffin, one can hear the human compassion for Maestri and others caught up in what is certainly one of the greatest shams in climbing history, Maestri's claim that he and Toni Egger summited in 1959. Cordes' sympathy for what the prevaricators' lives must be like, just makes his final position all the more worthy of respect.I have read nearly all of the great books written or translated in English on the topic of mountaineering and alpinism. The Tower deserves to share the shelf with The White Spider, Webster's Snow in the Kingdom, Hornbein's Everest: The West Ridge, Messner's The Crystal Horizon and others.

The Tower is a gripping, thorough, well-researched and well-written history of attempts on the world's hardest mountain, lavishly illustrated. I recommend buying the hardback rather than the Kindle version; the bigger photos look better, and you'll want to keep flipping back to the route topos. The photos of rime tunnels are jaw-dropping. I like the narrative style, which jumps around a bit to give you more familiarity with specific routes or other themes rather than following a strict chronology. One very minor complaint: The bolt traverse on the Compressor route plays an important role in the story, but none of the many photos explicitly show this feature.One somewhat bigger complaint: I got a little tired of the Maestri-bashing, particularly with repeated variations of the phrase, "until Maestri came along with his compressor." Kelly Cordes obviously thinks the compressor was a bad idea, but this becomes clear from the journalism without the need for sarcasm. Furthermore, Maestri is double-damned for lying about his first ascent and clinging to the notion that to question his word is to question the entire history of mountaineering. Cordes admirably covers the topic of standard of proof. Still, it would have been nice to hear more good things about Maestri. Did he really do over a thousand first ascents? Apart from national pride, is there a good reason why some people are so fanatically loyal to him? Too bad Walter Bonatti didn't get the benefit of some of that national pride.My hardback accidentally included repeats of the first 20 pages of color photos after the index, so I cut some out and stuck them on the wall. Very inspiring.

I got hooked on stories about climbing mountains quite recently - I found a copy of Everest The West Ridge, by Thomas Hornbein, at my local public library, with beautiful color photos, and have read a half dozen more in the part few months. This one sounded interesting, and it was - but not as much as I expected.This is about a fantastic peak in Patagonia, and an equally fantastic climb of that peak, that may or may not have happened in 1959. The author is quite convinced it never happened, and seems determined to wring a confession out of a now-elderly Italian climber who says it did happen. Now, I'm in favor of TRUTH as much as the next guy - but does this one question really matter enough to send several years of your life investigating?As a reader of this book, you learn a lot about mountain climbing, advances in equipment and techniques, some fantastic characters, etc. But I'm not sure I would have enjoyed it any less - maybe I would have enjoyed it MORE - without the in-depth analysis of the climb that never happened. It did not lift my spirits the way the other climbing books I read, did. But maybe that was not the author's intent.

In 1959, an Italian climber, Cesare Maestri, announced a first ascent of Cerro Torre, a then-obscure but magnificent mountain in Chile's remote Patagonia region. His Austrian partner, Toni Egger, died on the mountain. In the years since, Cerro Torre has become a climbing icon, while doubts have grown about the validity of Maestri's claim. Mountaineer and writer Kelly Cordes has the gripping narrative in "The Tower."The author mixes past and present narratives on the mountain to present a controversial but fairly convincing case for the truth about Cerre Torre's first ascent. Along the way, there are some hair-raising climbing accounts, some fascinating insights into the international climbing community, and an exploration of Patagonia. The narrative is backed by some awesome color and black and white imagery, maps, and diagrams of climbs. This is a page-turner of a read. Well recommended.

Great book. Awesome story and history! Loved it!

Kelly managed to describe the whole history of climbing the iconic Cerro Torre in the most interesting, human, and kind way. While there are quite a few books about climbing controversies out there, this one made it to my favorite as I appreciate how objective the author remained and how despite collecting overwhelming evidence he did not engage in any kind of negative sentiment. A must-read for any climbers who love Patagonia.

The book is very thorough of its subject

loved it

One of the best books I've read in ages.

Awesome book, really well written, i could not put it down!