A historic climb, the culmination of a twelve-year dream: after three attempts, Colin Haley completed the first solo winter ascent of Cerro Torre on September 7. At 41, he admits that “solo climbing is an addiction,” which he has tempered by climbing with self-belaying. The result of a long quest, this winter solo climb is his tenth (!) ascent of Cerro Torre. “The most beautiful mountain on earth,” says Colin Haley, reached by phone in Chalten, exhausted by his long days alone on the Torre and by a final pitch where he climbed a vertical crevasse through the ice labyrinth of Cerro Torre at night.
Cerro Torre, alone, in winter ? No joke. During the southern winter, at Cerro Torre, the commitment is at its peak: no one is on the mountain or in the massif, except for a handful of skiers on the other side. There is no