Cerro Torre - South face


5. What's love got to do with it


800m 7a A4 90˚

Janez Jeglic, Marko Lukic and Miha Praprotnik (Slovenia), February 1994.

Description. This is a very difficult route involving A4 nailing, 6c free climbing and the occasional 90° ice pitch. One of the ice pitches involves a very thin ice smear, only 15 cm wide. The climb has one significant traverse, three pitches long that leads to the base of a corner system leading to the SE ridge, which it joins at the height of Banana crack.

History. The first ascent required 10 days of climbing spread over a month and a half. Originally they had hoped to climb alpine style, but very quickly they gave up the idea. Due to bad weather they were forced to retreat upon joining the SE ridge. This was Jeglic's third major addition on Cerro Torre, after the Devil’s Directissima and the South Face route. They fixed ropes on 18 of the 22 pitches (to the end of the obvious traverse) that they were not able to retrieve after their ascent (they descended via the SE ridge). They placed only one progression bolt in the entire route.

They named the route after a well-known Tina Turner song, one that represented well the state of mind they were in after waiting for such a long time to complete the route. Paprotnik wrote “What’s love got to do with this? was the question that lingered in our minds during the lenght of the expedition. Moving on the edge between life and death, the unhuman tiredness, the fear and the impotence, the painful cold, the wind, the delusions, the adventure, the crazyness... Yet, in all of this, there is love...”

Approach. Niponino to Glaciar Adela Superior.

Descent. Via the SE ridge.

Bibliography. AAJ 1995 p. 210-211; Desnivel magazine 105 p. 91; Alp magazine 111 p. 16-17; High magazine 142 p. 37; La Montagne et Alpinisme 1994/3 p. 59; Planinski Vestnik 1994/5 p. 193-197.

Photos (click to enlarge)

Cerro Torre south face

Cerro Torre south face