Kelly Cordes Gallery: Breathtaking Images from the World's Most Controversial Climb

The Tower: A Chronicle of Climbing and Controversy on Cerro Torre Like a spear stabbing skyward through the snow, Cerro Torre spikes into the sky. For nearly 70 years, it’s beckoned the world’s best to remote Patagonia. In 1959, famed Italian climber Cesare Maestri claimed a first ascent that met incredulity from fellow climbers; countryman Ermanno Salvaterra stood with Maestri until attempting the climb himself.  In 1970, the controversy grew as Maestri returned with a bulky, sponsored-provided compressor to shoot hundreds of bolts into the mountain’s face.

Kelly Cordes is a renowned climber and author of this truth-ridden, adrenaline-inducing book: The Tower: A Chronicle of Climbing and Controversy on Cerro Torre. An accomplished photographer, these images come directly from his lens. No matter who climbed what route when, one fact is beyond dispute: Torre is one of the world’s most beautiful (and controversial) alpine peaks.

Kelly Cordes

Kelly Cordes

A climber approaching the Col of Hope, with the rime formations of the Rangi Route (west face) rising above.

Kelly Cordes

Colin Haley stands below the west face headwall during the first linkup of Los Tiempos Perdidos and the Ragni Route, 2007.

Kelly Cordes

There’s plenty of time to consider the climb on the approach via the Torre Glacier.

Kelly Cordes

Kelly snaps a shot of the Atlas behemoth during his 2007 descent of the controversial Compressor Route; it remains suspended on the headwall atop Cerro Torre’s southeast ridge.

Kelly Cordes

The picturesque town of El Chaltén, captured in January, 2013.

Kelly Cordes

A plate and a part from the compressor, along with a bolt from each of Maestri’s 1959 and 1970 outings, decorate Italian climber Ermanno Salvaterra’s mantle.

Kelly Cordes

People strolling the streets of El Chaltén, January 2013.

Kelly Cordes

On the road to El Chaltén.

Kelly Cordes

Colin Haley approaching Cerro Torre via the Torre Glacier. In black and white photos of this region, stark contrasts and natural grandeur become clear.

Kelly Cordes

Colin Haley below the gargoyled west ridge of Cerro Torre

Kelly Cordes

Colin Haley leads into a wind-carved tunnel of rime on the upper Ragni Route.

Kelly Cordes

The climb takes you into a world of wild, wind-sculpted rime high on the upper Ragni Route near Cerro Torre’s summit.

Kelly Cordes

Colin Haley burrowing his own tunnel on the crux pitch of the Ragni Route immediately below Cerro Torre’s summit.

Kelly Cordes

The Torres as seen from just below the summit of Fitz Roy.

Kelly Cordes

Scraggly brush and a breathtaking backdrop make for stunning photos.

Kelly Cordes

Clouds shroud this climb, literally and figuratively. Skepticism around claimed first ascents have only added to the mountain’s mystery.

Kelly Cordes

For so many, the Torre is simply a backdrop, a gorgeous wonder upon which to gaze. For Kelly, Ermmano and a handful of the world’s best climbers, the Torre is far more.