The sun is up, the sky is blue, it's beautiful and so are YOU!
I’ve only recently had enough time to start looking at Fred Becky’s amazing tribute to climbing. I was fortunate enough to meet the 89 year young legend and shake his hand at a rare appearance in Boulder at the Patagonia store last month.
Fred logged his initial First Ascent in 1940 and is still going strong today. An icon of climbing’s past, present and future, Fred is credited with more First Accents than any other American. Fred is at home in the alpine and according to one flavorful story he told, he is at home sleeping in the back seat of his car.
How many of us dream about living the “dirtbag” lifestyle? To climb every single day that we want to? To live for ourselves instead of society? This man is a true inspiration, the Kerouac of my people.
I feel honored to have shook his hand, and I hope to climb with Fred some day and with the people he inspired.
Check out this link to Dawn’s write up on her and John Sherman’s trip to Patagonia for some fair weather sending!
This is a HUGE feat in mountaineering!
This line was established by Cesare Maestri in 1970 with the aid of a gas powered air compressor. The compressor itself still remains bolted to the side of Cerro Torre to this day. More bolts were added to the route by David Lama in 2010.
There has been much controversy over the hardware placed on the route, and over Maestri himself. The route has been repeated many times with the use and aid of the bolts, but this marks the first time the route has been climbed without them whatsoever, thus proving that it is better to bring yourself up to the mountain, than to bring the mountain down to you!
