remus

	Country	Contributions	Between	Climbers	Crags	Summits	Climbs	Ascents
1	United Kingdom	61619	14th November 2023 – 14th November 2026	1806	712	0	3144	5093
2	USA	26463	14th November 2023 – 14th November 2026	819	183	165	866	2437
3	France	12601	14th November 2023 – 12th November 2026	273	126	23	557	1049
4	Switzerland	10049	14th November 2023 – 14th November 2026	80	43	52	311	1128
5	Spain	8953	15th November 2023 – 14th November 2026	92	76	10	462	937
6	Italy	5201	16th November 2023 – 13th November 2026	120	59	30	197	389
7	Canada	4062	16th November 2023 – 14th November 2026	67	22	147	111	286
8	South Africa	3696	16th November 2023 – 11th November 2026	12	35	2	128	402
9	Germany	3315	16th November 2023 – 13th November 2026	120	49	1	106	236
10	Austria	2786	16th November 2023 – 11th November 2026	76	26	25	105	226

	Date	Time	User	Type	Name	Attribute
43781	5th September 2026	17:40:50 UTC	remus	library item	Alpine Journal 1899 Vol 19 502-508 AC Proceedings	Volume
Before `None` After `19`
43782	5th September 2026	17:40:49 UTC	remus	library item	Dosage Vol. II	Volume
Before `None` After `2`
43783	5th September 2026	17:40:49 UTC	remus	library item	Dosage Vol. IV	Volume
Before `None` After `4`
43784	5th September 2026	17:40:49 UTC	remus	library item	Dosage Vol. V	Volume
Before `None` After `5`
43785	5th September 2026	17:40:49 UTC	remus	library item	Dosage Vol. I	Volume
Before `None` After `1`
43786	5th September 2026	17:40:49 UTC	remus	library item	Dosage Vol. III	Volume
Before `None` After `3`
43787	5th September 2026	17:31:48 UTC	remus	library item	Climbers' Club 1898 Vol.1 No.4 Journal	transcript (Mistral)
Before `None` After `101,814 chars`
43788	5th September 2026	17:08:40 UTC	remus	library item	The Tower: A Chronicle of Climbing and Controversy on Cerro Torre	transcript (Whisper (turbo))
Before `None` After `466,123 chars`
43789	5th September 2026	15:52:18 UTC	remus	library item	The Tower: A Chronicle of Climbing and Controversy on Cerro Torre	notes_pretty
Before <p>Kelly Cordes reading his own book, <em>The Tower: A Chronicle of Climbing and Controversy on Cerro Torre</em> (Patagonia Books, 2014), in full. Cordes recorded it at home in Estes Park, Colorado, during the spring 2020 coronavirus lockdown ("this bizarre time makes a good time for storytime") with technical help from his friend Jason Albert, and released it free on his website as an introduction plus sixteen episodes of roughly 20 to 50 minutes each. Those episodes have been spliced together here into a single recording of about nine and a half hours, running from the introduction through to the epilogue and postscript.</p> <p>The reading is unabridged and uncensored. Cordes warns listeners about "the hiccups, the sips from my marg, and the wind outside my window", admits his pronunciation of foreign words is "atrocious", and notes that the book contains plenty of swearing in its quotations, so it is not really one for children.</p> <p><strong>About the book</strong></p> <p><em>The Tower</em> is a history of Cerro Torre, the granite and rime-ice spire on the edge of the Southern Patagonian Ice Field that Reinhold Messner once called a "shriek turned to stone". It centres on the mountain's three great controversies: Cesare Maestri's disputed claim to the first ascent in 1959, on which his partner Toni Egger died and for which no evidence has ever been found above the lower part of the route; Maestri's return in 1970 with a petrol-powered compressor to drill some 400 bolts up the south-east ridge, creating the Compressor Route; and the removal of most of those bolts by Hayden Kennedy and Jason Kruk in January 2012, after their fair-means ascent of the ridge, which reignited the argument over who has the right to alter a mountain. Along the way it covers the Ragni di Lecco's 1974 first undisputed ascent by the west face, David Lama's free climb of the south-east ridge in 2012, the campaign for and against the compressor bolts, and the wider question of what role equipment should play in alpinism.</p> <p>Cordes spent several years on the book, interviewing people in seven countries and working from original documents dating back to the 1950s. The finished text runs to roughly 77,000 words with appendices, a 256-entry bibliography and around 150 photographs. In 2015 <em>The Tower</em> won the Banff Mountain Book Award for Mountain and Wilderness Literature (Non-Fiction, the Jon Whyte Award) and the National Outdoor Book Award in the same category.</p> <p><strong>About the author</strong></p> <p>Kelly Cordes is an American alpinist and writer. He was an editor of the <em>American Alpine Journal</em> from 2000 to 2012 and has written widely for <em>Alpinist</em>, <em>Climbing</em>, <em>Rock and Ice</em> and Patagonia. His own climbs include the first ascent of the Azeem Ridge on Great Trango Tower in Pakistan with Josh Wharton in 2004, the first link-up of the Marsigny–Parkin route and the Ragni route on Cerro Torre with Colin Haley in 2007, and many new routes in Alaska and Peru, often in the lightweight, under-equipped "disaster style" he jokes about. After <em>The Tower</em> he co-wrote Tommy Caldwell's memoir <em>The Push</em> (2017). He lives in Estes Park, Colorado.</p> <p>The original episodes remain available to stream and download from Cordes' website.</p> After <p>Kelly Cordes reading his own book, <em>The Tower: A Chronicle of Climbing and Controversy on Cerro Torre</em> (Patagonia Books, 2014), in full. Cordes recorded it at home in Estes Park, Colorado, during the spring 2020 coronavirus lockdown ("this bizarre time makes a good time for storytime") with technical help from his friend Jason Albert, and released it free on his website as an introduction plus sixteen episodes of roughly 20 to 50 minutes each. Those episodes have been spliced together here into a single recording of about nine and a half hours, running from the introduction through to the epilogue and postscript.</p> <p>The reading is unabridged and uncensored. Cordes warns listeners about "the hiccups, the sips from my marg, and the wind outside my window", admits his pronunciation of foreign words is "atrocious", and notes that the book contains plenty of swearing in its quotations, so it is not really one for children.</p> <p><strong>About the book</strong></p> <p><em>The Tower</em> is a history of <a href="/summit/28/cerro-torre" rel="noopener noreferrer">Cerro Torre</a>, the granite and rime-ice spire on the edge of the Southern Patagonian Ice Field that <a href="/climber/2415/reinhold-messner" rel="noopener noreferrer">Reinhold Messner</a> once called a "shriek turned to stone". It centres on the mountain's three great controversies: <a href="/climber/1732/cesare-maestri" rel="noopener noreferrer">Cesare Maestri's</a> disputed claim to the first ascent in 1959, on which his partner <a href="/climber/1733/toni-egger" rel="noopener noreferrer">Toni Egger</a> died and for which no evidence has ever been found above the lower part of the route; Maestri's return in 1970 with a petrol-powered compressor to drill some 400 bolts up the south-east ridge, creating the Compressor Route; and the removal of most of those bolts by <a href="/climber/1187/hayden-kennedy" rel="noopener noreferrer">Hayden Kennedy</a> and <a href="/climber/3270/jason-kruk" rel="noopener noreferrer">Jason Kruk</a> in January 2012, after their fair-means ascent of the ridge, which reignited the argument over who has the right to alter a mountain. Along the way it covers the Ragni di Lecco's 1974 first undisputed ascent by the west face, <a href="/climber/1073/david-lama" rel="noopener noreferrer">David Lama's</a> free climb of the south-east ridge in 2012, the campaign for and against the compressor bolts, and the wider question of what role equipment should play in alpinism.</p> <p>Cordes spent several years on the book, interviewing people in seven countries and working from original documents dating back to the 1950s. The finished text runs to roughly 77,000 words with appendices, a 256-entry bibliography and around 150 photographs. In 2015 <em>The Tower</em> won the Banff Mountain Book Award for Mountain and Wilderness Literature (Non-Fiction, the Jon Whyte Award) and the National Outdoor Book Award in the same category.</p> <p><strong>About the author</strong></p> <p>Kelly Cordes is an American alpinist and writer. He was an editor of the <em>American Alpine Journal</em> from 2000 to 2012 and has written widely for <em>Alpinist</em>, <em>Climbing</em>, <em>Rock and Ice</em> and Patagonia. His own climbs include the first ascent of the Azeem Ridge on Great Trango Tower in Pakistan with Josh Wharton in 2004, the first link-up of the Marsigny–Parkin route and the Ragni route on Cerro Torre with Colin Haley in 2007, and many new routes in Alaska and Peru, often in the lightweight, under-equipped "disaster style" he jokes about. After <em>The Tower</em> he co-wrote Tommy Caldwell's memoir <em>The Push</em> (2017). He lives in Estes Park, Colorado.</p> <p>The original episodes remain available to stream and download from Cordes' website.</p>
43790	5th September 2026	15:52:18 UTC	remus	library item	The Tower: A Chronicle of Climbing and Controversy on Cerro Torre	notes
Before Kelly Cordes reading his own book, The Tower: A Chronicle of Climbing and Controversy on Cerro Torre (Patagonia Books, 2014), in full. Cordes recorded it at home in Estes Park, Colorado, during the spring 2020 coronavirus lockdown ("this bizarre time makes a good time for storytime") with technical help from his friend Jason Albert, and released it free on his website as an introduction plus sixteen episodes of roughly 20 to 50 minutes each. Those episodes have been spliced together here into a single recording of about nine and a half hours, running from the introduction through to the epilogue and postscript. The reading is unabridged and uncensored. Cordes warns listeners about "the hiccups, the sips from my marg, and the wind outside my window", admits his pronunciation of foreign words is "atrocious", and notes that the book contains plenty of swearing in its quotations, so it is not really one for children. About the book The Tower is a history of Cerro Torre, the granite and rime-ice spire on the edge of the Southern Patagonian Ice Field that Reinhold Messner once called a "shriek turned to stone". It centres on the mountain's three great controversies: Cesare Maestri's disputed claim to the first ascent in 1959, on which his partner Toni Egger died and for which no evidence has ever been found above the lower part of the route; Maestri's return in 1970 with a petrol-powered compressor to drill some 400 bolts up the south-east ridge, creating the Compressor Route; and the removal of most of those bolts by Hayden Kennedy and Jason Kruk in January 2012, after their fair-means ascent of the ridge, which reignited the argument over who has the right to alter a mountain. Along the way it covers the Ragni di Lecco's 1974 first undisputed ascent by the west face, David Lama's free climb of the south-east ridge in 2012, the campaign for and against the compressor bolts, and the wider question of what role equipment should play in alpinism. Cordes spent several years on the book, interviewing people in seven countries and working from original documents dating back to the 1950s. The finished text runs to roughly 77,000 words with appendices, a 256-entry bibliography and around 150 photographs. In 2015 The Tower won the Banff Mountain Book Award for Mountain and Wilderness Literature (Non-Fiction, the Jon Whyte Award) and the National Outdoor Book Award in the same category. About the author Kelly Cordes is an American alpinist and writer. He was an editor of the American Alpine Journal from 2000 to 2012 and has written widely for Alpinist, Climbing, Rock and Ice and Patagonia. His own climbs include the first ascent of the Azeem Ridge on Great Trango Tower in Pakistan with Josh Wharton in 2004, the first link-up of the Marsigny–Parkin route and the Ragni route on Cerro Torre with Colin Haley in 2007, and many new routes in Alaska and Peru, often in the lightweight, under-equipped "disaster style" he jokes about. After The Tower he co-wrote Tommy Caldwell's memoir The Push (2017). He lives in Estes Park, Colorado. The original episodes remain available to stream and download from Cordes' website. After Kelly Cordes reading his own book, The Tower: A Chronicle of Climbing and Controversy on Cerro Torre (Patagonia Books, 2014), in full. Cordes recorded it at home in Estes Park, Colorado, during the spring 2020 coronavirus lockdown ("this bizarre time makes a good time for storytime") with technical help from his friend Jason Albert, and released it free on his website as an introduction plus sixteen episodes of roughly 20 to 50 minutes each. Those episodes have been spliced together here into a single recording of about nine and a half hours, running from the introduction through to the epilogue and postscript. The reading is unabridged and uncensored. Cordes warns listeners about "the hiccups, the sips from my marg, and the wind outside my window", admits his pronunciation of foreign words is "atrocious", and notes that the book contains plenty of swearing in its quotations, so it is not really one for children. About the book The Tower is a history of [Cerro Torre](/summit/28/cerro-torre), the granite and rime-ice spire on the edge of the Southern Patagonian Ice Field that [Reinhold Messner](/climber/2415/reinhold-messner) once called a "shriek turned to stone". It centres on the mountain's three great controversies: [Cesare Maestri's](/climber/1732/cesare-maestri) disputed claim to the first ascent in 1959, on which his partner [Toni Egger](/climber/1733/toni-egger) died and for which no evidence has ever been found above the lower part of the route; Maestri's return in 1970 with a petrol-powered compressor to drill some 400 bolts up the south-east ridge, creating the Compressor Route; and the removal of most of those bolts by [Hayden Kennedy](/climber/1187/hayden-kennedy) and [Jason Kruk](/climber/3270/jason-kruk) in January 2012, after their fair-means ascent of the ridge, which reignited the argument over who has the right to alter a mountain. Along the way it covers the Ragni di Lecco's 1974 first undisputed ascent by the west face, [David Lama's](/climber/1073/david-lama) free climb of the south-east ridge in 2012, the campaign for and against the compressor bolts, and the wider question of what role equipment should play in alpinism. Cordes spent several years on the book, interviewing people in seven countries and working from original documents dating back to the 1950s. The finished text runs to roughly 77,000 words with appendices, a 256-entry bibliography and around 150 photographs. In 2015 The Tower won the Banff Mountain Book Award for Mountain and Wilderness Literature (Non-Fiction, the Jon Whyte Award) and the National Outdoor Book Award in the same category. About the author Kelly Cordes is an American alpinist and writer. He was an editor of the American Alpine Journal from 2000 to 2012 and has written widely for Alpinist, Climbing, Rock and Ice and Patagonia. His own climbs include the first ascent of the Azeem Ridge on Great Trango Tower in Pakistan with Josh Wharton in 2004, the first link-up of the Marsigny–Parkin route and the Ragni route on Cerro Torre with Colin Haley in 2007, and many new routes in Alaska and Peru, often in the lightweight, under-equipped "disaster style" he jokes about. After The Tower he co-wrote Tommy Caldwell's memoir The Push (2017). He lives in Estes Park, Colorado. The original episodes remain available to stream and download from Cordes' website. Diff --- before +++ after @@ -1,16 +1,16 @@ -Kelly Cordes reading his own book, The Tower: A Chronicle of Climbing and Controversy on Cerro Torre (Patagonia Books, 2014), in full. Cordes recorded it at home in Estes Park, Colorado, during the spring 2020 coronavirus lockdown ("this bizarre time makes a good time for storytime") with technical help from his friend Jason Albert, and released it free on his website as an introduction plus sixteen episodes of roughly 20 to 50 minutes each. Those episodes have been spliced together here into a single recording of about nine and a half hours, running from the introduction through to the epilogue and postscript. +Kelly Cordes reading his own book, The Tower: A Chronicle of Climbing and Controversy on Cerro Torre (Patagonia Books, 2014), in full. Cordes recorded it at home in Estes Park, Colorado, during the spring 2020 coronavirus lockdown ("this bizarre time makes a good time for storytime") with technical help from his friend Jason Albert, and released it free on his website as an introduction plus sixteen episodes of roughly 20 to 50 minutes each. Those episodes have been spliced together here into a single recording of about nine and a half hours, running from the introduction through to the epilogue and postscript. + +The reading is unabridged and uncensored. Cordes warns listeners about "the hiccups, the sips from my marg, and the wind outside my window", admits his pronunciation of foreign words is "atrocious", and notes that the book contains plenty of swearing in its quotations, so it is not really one for children. + +About the book + +The Tower is a history of [Cerro Torre](/summit/28/cerro-torre), the granite and rime-ice spire on the edge of the Southern Patagonian Ice Field that [Reinhold Messner](/climber/2415/reinhold-messner) once called a "shriek turned to stone". It centres on the mountain's three great controversies: [Cesare Maestri's](/climber/1732/cesare-maestri) disputed claim to the first ascent in 1959, on which his partner [Toni Egger](/climber/1733/toni-egger) died and for which no evidence has ever been found above the lower part of the route; Maestri's return in 1970 with a petrol-powered compressor to drill some 400 bolts up the south-east ridge, creating the Compressor Route; and the removal of most of those bolts by [Hayden Kennedy](/climber/1187/hayden-kennedy) and [Jason Kruk](/climber/3270/jason-kruk) in January 2012, after their fair-means ascent of the ridge, which reignited the argument over who has the right to alter a mountain. Along the way it covers the Ragni di Lecco's 1974 first undisputed ascent by the west face, [David Lama's](/climber/1073/david-lama) free climb of the south-east ridge in 2012, the campaign for and against the compressor bolts, and the wider question of what role equipment should play in alpinism. + +Cordes spent several years on the book, interviewing people in seven countries and working from original documents dating back to the 1950s. The finished text runs to roughly 77,000 words with appendices, a 256-entry bibliography and around 150 photographs. In 2015 The Tower won the Banff Mountain Book Award for Mountain and Wilderness Literature (Non-Fiction, the Jon Whyte Award) and the National Outdoor Book Award in the same category. + +About the author + +Kelly Cordes is an American alpinist and writer. He was an editor of the American Alpine Journal from 2000 to 2012 and has written widely for Alpinist, Climbing, Rock and Ice and Patagonia. His own climbs include the first ascent of the Azeem Ridge on Great Trango Tower in Pakistan with Josh Wharton in 2004, the first link-up of the Marsigny–Parkin route and the Ragni route on Cerro Torre with Colin Haley in 2007, and many new routes in Alaska and Peru, often in the lightweight, under-equipped "disaster style" he jokes about. After The Tower he co-wrote Tommy Caldwell's memoir The Push (2017). He lives in Estes Park, Colorado. + +The original episodes remain available to stream and download from Cordes' website. -The reading is unabridged and uncensored. Cordes warns listeners about "the hiccups, the sips from my marg, and the wind outside my window", admits his pronunciation of foreign words is "atrocious", and notes that the book contains plenty of swearing in its quotations, so it is not really one for children. - -About the book - -The Tower is a history of Cerro Torre, the granite and rime-ice spire on the edge of the Southern Patagonian Ice Field that Reinhold Messner once called a "shriek turned to stone". It centres on the mountain's three great controversies: Cesare Maestri's disputed claim to the first ascent in 1959, on which his partner Toni Egger died and for which no evidence has ever been found above the lower part of the route; Maestri's return in 1970 with a petrol-powered compressor to drill some 400 bolts up the south-east ridge, creating the Compressor Route; and the removal of most of those bolts by Hayden Kennedy and Jason Kruk in January 2012, after their fair-means ascent of the ridge, which reignited the argument over who has the right to alter a mountain. Along the way it covers the Ragni di Lecco's 1974 first undisputed ascent by the west face, David Lama's free climb of the south-east ridge in 2012, the campaign for and against the compressor bolts, and the wider question of what role equipment should play in alpinism. - -Cordes spent several years on the book, interviewing people in seven countries and working from original documents dating back to the 1950s. The finished text runs to roughly 77,000 words with appendices, a 256-entry bibliography and around 150 photographs. In 2015 The Tower won the Banff Mountain Book Award for Mountain and Wilderness Literature (Non-Fiction, the Jon Whyte Award) and the National Outdoor Book Award in the same category. - -About the author - -Kelly Cordes is an American alpinist and writer. He was an editor of the American Alpine Journal from 2000 to 2012 and has written widely for Alpinist, Climbing, Rock and Ice and Patagonia. His own climbs include the first ascent of the Azeem Ridge on Great Trango Tower in Pakistan with Josh Wharton in 2004, the first link-up of the Marsigny–Parkin route and the Ragni route on Cerro Torre with Colin Haley in 2007, and many new routes in Alaska and Peru, often in the lightweight, under-equipped "disaster style" he jokes about. After The Tower he co-wrote Tommy Caldwell's memoir The Push (2017). He lives in Estes Park, Colorado. - -The original episodes remain available to stream and download from Cordes' website. -
43791	5th September 2026	15:52:18 UTC	remus	library item	The Tower: A Chronicle of Climbing and Controversy on Cerro Torre	library_item_type_id
Before `16` After `5`
43792	5th September 2026	15:50:10 UTC	remus	library item	The Tower: A Chronicle of Climbing and Controversy on Cerro Torre	Crag Features
Before `None` After `34096`
43793	5th September 2026	15:45:49 UTC	remus	library item	The Tower: A Chronicle of Climbing and Controversy on Cerro Torre	Author
Before `None` After `Kelly Cordes`
43794	5th September 2026	15:45:46 UTC	remus	library item	The Tower: A Chronicle of Climbing and Controversy on Cerro Torre	notes_pretty
Before `None` After <p>Kelly Cordes reading his own book, <em>The Tower: A Chronicle of Climbing and Controversy on Cerro Torre</em> (Patagonia Books, 2014), in full. Cordes recorded it at home in Estes Park, Colorado, during the spring 2020 coronavirus lockdown ("this bizarre time makes a good time for storytime") with technical help from his friend Jason Albert, and released it free on his website as an introduction plus sixteen episodes of roughly 20 to 50 minutes each. Those episodes have been spliced together here into a single recording of about nine and a half hours, running from the introduction through to the epilogue and postscript.</p> <p>The reading is unabridged and uncensored. Cordes warns listeners about "the hiccups, the sips from my marg, and the wind outside my window", admits his pronunciation of foreign words is "atrocious", and notes that the book contains plenty of swearing in its quotations, so it is not really one for children.</p> <p><strong>About the book</strong></p> <p><em>The Tower</em> is a history of Cerro Torre, the granite and rime-ice spire on the edge of the Southern Patagonian Ice Field that Reinhold Messner once called a "shriek turned to stone". It centres on the mountain's three great controversies: Cesare Maestri's disputed claim to the first ascent in 1959, on which his partner Toni Egger died and for which no evidence has ever been found above the lower part of the route; Maestri's return in 1970 with a petrol-powered compressor to drill some 400 bolts up the south-east ridge, creating the Compressor Route; and the removal of most of those bolts by Hayden Kennedy and Jason Kruk in January 2012, after their fair-means ascent of the ridge, which reignited the argument over who has the right to alter a mountain. Along the way it covers the Ragni di Lecco's 1974 first undisputed ascent by the west face, David Lama's free climb of the south-east ridge in 2012, the campaign for and against the compressor bolts, and the wider question of what role equipment should play in alpinism.</p> <p>Cordes spent several years on the book, interviewing people in seven countries and working from original documents dating back to the 1950s. The finished text runs to roughly 77,000 words with appendices, a 256-entry bibliography and around 150 photographs. In 2015 <em>The Tower</em> won the Banff Mountain Book Award for Mountain and Wilderness Literature (Non-Fiction, the Jon Whyte Award) and the National Outdoor Book Award in the same category.</p> <p><strong>About the author</strong></p> <p>Kelly Cordes is an American alpinist and writer. He was an editor of the <em>American Alpine Journal</em> from 2000 to 2012 and has written widely for <em>Alpinist</em>, <em>Climbing</em>, <em>Rock and Ice</em> and Patagonia. His own climbs include the first ascent of the Azeem Ridge on Great Trango Tower in Pakistan with Josh Wharton in 2004, the first link-up of the Marsigny–Parkin route and the Ragni route on Cerro Torre with Colin Haley in 2007, and many new routes in Alaska and Peru, often in the lightweight, under-equipped "disaster style" he jokes about. After <em>The Tower</em> he co-wrote Tommy Caldwell's memoir <em>The Push</em> (2017). He lives in Estes Park, Colorado.</p> <p>The original episodes remain available to stream and download from Cordes' website.</p>
43795	5th September 2026	15:45:46 UTC	remus	library item	The Tower: A Chronicle of Climbing and Controversy on Cerro Torre	notes
Before `None` After Kelly Cordes reading his own book, The Tower: A Chronicle of Climbing and Controversy on Cerro Torre (Patagonia Books, 2014), in full. Cordes recorded it at home in Estes Park, Colorado, during the spring 2020 coronavirus lockdown ("this bizarre time makes a good time for storytime") with technical help from his friend Jason Albert, and released it free on his website as an introduction plus sixteen episodes of roughly 20 to 50 minutes each. Those episodes have been spliced together here into a single recording of about nine and a half hours, running from the introduction through to the epilogue and postscript. The reading is unabridged and uncensored. Cordes warns listeners about "the hiccups, the sips from my marg, and the wind outside my window", admits his pronunciation of foreign words is "atrocious", and notes that the book contains plenty of swearing in its quotations, so it is not really one for children. About the book The Tower is a history of Cerro Torre, the granite and rime-ice spire on the edge of the Southern Patagonian Ice Field that Reinhold Messner once called a "shriek turned to stone". It centres on the mountain's three great controversies: Cesare Maestri's disputed claim to the first ascent in 1959, on which his partner Toni Egger died and for which no evidence has ever been found above the lower part of the route; Maestri's return in 1970 with a petrol-powered compressor to drill some 400 bolts up the south-east ridge, creating the Compressor Route; and the removal of most of those bolts by Hayden Kennedy and Jason Kruk in January 2012, after their fair-means ascent of the ridge, which reignited the argument over who has the right to alter a mountain. Along the way it covers the Ragni di Lecco's 1974 first undisputed ascent by the west face, David Lama's free climb of the south-east ridge in 2012, the campaign for and against the compressor bolts, and the wider question of what role equipment should play in alpinism. Cordes spent several years on the book, interviewing people in seven countries and working from original documents dating back to the 1950s. The finished text runs to roughly 77,000 words with appendices, a 256-entry bibliography and around 150 photographs. In 2015 The Tower won the Banff Mountain Book Award for Mountain and Wilderness Literature (Non-Fiction, the Jon Whyte Award) and the National Outdoor Book Award in the same category. About the author Kelly Cordes is an American alpinist and writer. He was an editor of the American Alpine Journal from 2000 to 2012 and has written widely for Alpinist, Climbing, Rock and Ice and Patagonia. His own climbs include the first ascent of the Azeem Ridge on Great Trango Tower in Pakistan with Josh Wharton in 2004, the first link-up of the Marsigny–Parkin route and the Ragni route on Cerro Torre with Colin Haley in 2007, and many new routes in Alaska and Peru, often in the lightweight, under-equipped "disaster style" he jokes about. After The Tower he co-wrote Tommy Caldwell's memoir The Push (2017). He lives in Estes Park, Colorado. The original episodes remain available to stream and download from Cordes' website. Diff --- before +++ after @@ -1 +1,16 @@ +Kelly Cordes reading his own book, The Tower: A Chronicle of Climbing and Controversy on Cerro Torre (Patagonia Books, 2014), in full. Cordes recorded it at home in Estes Park, Colorado, during the spring 2020 coronavirus lockdown ("this bizarre time makes a good time for storytime") with technical help from his friend Jason Albert, and released it free on his website as an introduction plus sixteen episodes of roughly 20 to 50 minutes each. Those episodes have been spliced together here into a single recording of about nine and a half hours, running from the introduction through to the epilogue and postscript. +The reading is unabridged and uncensored. Cordes warns listeners about "the hiccups, the sips from my marg, and the wind outside my window", admits his pronunciation of foreign words is "atrocious", and notes that the book contains plenty of swearing in its quotations, so it is not really one for children. + +About the book + +The Tower is a history of Cerro Torre, the granite and rime-ice spire on the edge of the Southern Patagonian Ice Field that Reinhold Messner once called a "shriek turned to stone". It centres on the mountain's three great controversies: Cesare Maestri's disputed claim to the first ascent in 1959, on which his partner Toni Egger died and for which no evidence has ever been found above the lower part of the route; Maestri's return in 1970 with a petrol-powered compressor to drill some 400 bolts up the south-east ridge, creating the Compressor Route; and the removal of most of those bolts by Hayden Kennedy and Jason Kruk in January 2012, after their fair-means ascent of the ridge, which reignited the argument over who has the right to alter a mountain. Along the way it covers the Ragni di Lecco's 1974 first undisputed ascent by the west face, David Lama's free climb of the south-east ridge in 2012, the campaign for and against the compressor bolts, and the wider question of what role equipment should play in alpinism. + +Cordes spent several years on the book, interviewing people in seven countries and working from original documents dating back to the 1950s. The finished text runs to roughly 77,000 words with appendices, a 256-entry bibliography and around 150 photographs. In 2015 The Tower won the Banff Mountain Book Award for Mountain and Wilderness Literature (Non-Fiction, the Jon Whyte Award) and the National Outdoor Book Award in the same category. + +About the author + +Kelly Cordes is an American alpinist and writer. He was an editor of the American Alpine Journal from 2000 to 2012 and has written widely for Alpinist, Climbing, Rock and Ice and Patagonia. His own climbs include the first ascent of the Azeem Ridge on Great Trango Tower in Pakistan with Josh Wharton in 2004, the first link-up of the Marsigny–Parkin route and the Ragni route on Cerro Torre with Colin Haley in 2007, and many new routes in Alaska and Peru, often in the lightweight, under-equipped "disaster style" he jokes about. After The Tower he co-wrote Tommy Caldwell's memoir The Push (2017). He lives in Estes Park, Colorado. + +The original episodes remain available to stream and download from Cordes' website. +
43796	5th September 2026	15:45:46 UTC	remus	library item	The Tower: A Chronicle of Climbing and Controversy on Cerro Torre	url_public
Before `None` After `https://kellycordes.com/book/audio-book-sort-of/`
43797	5th September 2026	15:45:46 UTC	remus	library item	The Tower: A Chronicle of Climbing and Controversy on Cerro Torre	year
Before `None` After `2020`
43798	5th September 2026	15:45:46 UTC	remus	library item	The Tower: A Chronicle of Climbing and Controversy on Cerro Torre	library_item_type_id
Before `None` After `16`
43799	5th September 2026	15:45:46 UTC	remus	library item	The Tower: A Chronicle of Climbing and Controversy on Cerro Torre	library_item_name
Before `None` After `The Tower: A Chronicle of Climbing and Controversy on Cerro Torre`
43800	5th September 2026	15:23:01 UTC	remus	climber	Alex Honnold	Features In (Youtube Vid)
Before `None` After `https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0RtrkurQihw`

Badges

Contributions

Posts

60

6143

10025

229739

238

238

Contributions Map

Contributions by Country

Recent Contributions

< Page 2190 >