03/01/2015.

SUMMIT LISTS. Your pick, your peaks.

Lists of summits are extremely subjective, but they can be sort of fun, so why not?

The summits of the Fitz Roy range

The summits of the Cerro Torre group

THE SUMMITS OF THE FITZ ROY RANGE

Seven, nine, eleven, fourteen or nineteen peaks.

In 2012 Colin Haley became the first to solo seven of the most important summits in the skyline profile of the Fitz Roy range most often seen. Colin completed his solos of Aguja Guillaumet, Aguja Mermoz, Cerro Fitz Roy, Aguja Poincenot, Aguja Rafael Juárez, Aguja Saint-Exúpery and Aguja De l'S in a very short time, between January 2009 and December 2011. These are the same summits that Tommy Caldwell and Alex Honnold climbed during the first ascent of the Fitz Traverse in early 2014. It is unclear who was the first to climb the seven summit list. Perhaps Peter Lüthi in the early to mid 1990's, surely Charlie Fowler in the late 1990s. Neither of them considered it something worth claiming. Steph Davis was the first to claim and describe the ascent of these seven summits as a list, when she became the first woman to do so, sometime in the early to mid 2000s.

In 2012 Whit Magro completed his own list, becoming the first to climb the nine most important summits in the Fitz Roy range. He climbed the seven above plus Aguja de la Silla and Aguja Desmochada, climbing them between 2006 and February of 2012.

The granite part of the Fitz Roy range has quite a number of summits, some more important than the others, some more prominent than others. For the definition of topographic prominence read here.

The granite summits in the Fitz Roy range and their approximate topographic prominence (TP) are, from north to south:

Aguja Guillaument
- TP of circa 160 meters

Aguja Guillaumet's South Summit
- TP of circa 50 meters

Aguja Mermoz
- TP of circa 290 meters

Aguja Val Biois
- TP of circa 90 meters

Pillar Goretta
- TP of circa 60 meters

Cerro Fitz Roy
- TP of circa 3100 meters

Aguja de la Silla
- TP of circa 160 meters

Aguja Desmochada
- TP of circa 230 meters

Aguja M y M
- TP of circa 30 meters

Aguja Kakito
- TP of circa 90 meters

Aguja Poincenot
- TP of circa 320 meters

Aguja Rafael Juárez
- TP of circa 230 meters

Aguja Saint-Exúpery
- TP of circa 290 meters

Punta Cristina (Aguja Saint-Exúpery south summit)
- TP of circa 50 meters

Aguja De l'S
- TP of circa 145 meters

While the numbers above are very rough, they are good enough to know that there are nine peaks in the Fitz Roy range with a prominence over 100 meters, a standard used by several peak lists around the world. Those are: Guillaumet, Mermoz, Fitz, Silla, Desmochada, Poincenot, Rafael Juárez, Saint-Exúpery and De l'S

Visually and geographically seven of those peaks are in the skyline profile most often seen: Guillaumet, Mermoz, Fitz, Poincenot, Rafael Juárez, Saint-Exúpery and De l'S. Although located further west Aguja de la Silla is also visually part of that skyline.

If one uses the standard that is in use to define the 82 4000-meter peaks in the Alps, one concludes that there are 11 peaks in the Fitz Roy range, the nine mentioned above plus Aguja Kakito and Aguja Val Biois.

Potentially one could also come up with a reasoning to justify including Punta Cristina, Aguja M y M and the South Summit of Guillaument. But why limit the list to the granite peaks? Why not include Cumbre Roja, Cerro Eléctrico, Castillo Negro, Mojón Rojo and Techado Negro?

THE SUMMITS OF THE CERRO TORRE GROUP

Three, four or thirteen peaks.

Depending on who you talk to, there are either three or four important summits in the Cerro Torre group. Three if you count Cerro Torre, Torre Egger and Aguja Standhardt, four if you also include the secondary summit of Torre Egger: Punta Herron. The latter has a topographic prominence of about 60 meters.

For years, in the late 1980s and early 1990s the chase was on to climb the three main summits. Mauricio Giarolli and Elio Orlandi were the first to succeed, in 1989. They were followed by Jay Smith in 1994 and exactly a month later by Conrad Anker and Steve Gerberding. Stefan Siegrist was the first to climb these three summits in winter.

Andy Schnarf was the first to climb all four summits in early 2005, but he did so having climbed Cerro Torre via the Compressor Route. He was followed by Alessandro Beltrami, Rolando Garibotti and Ermanno Salvaterra in late 2007 and by Colin Haley and Stefan Siegrist in early 2008, all of them having climbed Torre via a route other than the Compressor Route. These four summits are the ones that Garibotti and Haley climbed during the first ascent of the Torre Traverse in early 2008. Since, there have been a good number of people that have done all four summits.

One could also include the peaks to the north: Perfil de Indio, Aguja Bífida Cumbre Sur, Aguja Bífida Cumbre Norte, Punta Filip, Pachamama, Atchachila, Inti, Cuatro Dedos and CAT. In that list Tommy Bonapace is the climber that is closest, having climbed 10 out of the 13.

All this is subjective as subjective can be, but as long as that is clear, it can be a fun game.