First All-Female Ascent of Filo Sureste, Famed Cerro Torre Route
Lise Billon, Fanny Schmutz and Maud Vanpoulle have climbed the southeast ridge and face of the iconic Patagonia peak
French alpinists Lise Billon, Fanny Schmutz and Maud Vanpoulle have made the first all-female ascent of Filo Sureste, a famous 800-metre 5.11 C2 WI5 up the southeast ridge and face of Cerro Torre.
All three climbers had previously climbed in Patagonia and knew that to succeed would take patience. They spent six weeks in El Chaltén waiting for a good weather window before starting on Feb. 23 when they climbed to the Col de la Paciencia and bivied. Over the next few days, they made their way up the steep headwall and to the summit before descending safely to the valley.
This wall has a lot of history, which includes Cesare Maestri using a gas-powered compressor drill to add bolts to 300-metre headwall of the southwest ridge and face in 1970. He did not reach the summit and left the compressor clipped to the last bolts. In 1979, Jim Bridwell and Steve Brewer climbed the route to the summit. In 2011, Jason Kruk and Chris Geisler tried to climb the face without using the Compressor Route. One year later, Kruk and Hayden Kennedy made the FA of Filo Sureste and removed 120 bolts from the Compressor Route on their descent. A few weeks later, David Lama freed a variation to Filo Sureste.
Billon, Schmutz and Vanpoulle’s ascent adds another page to the history books of one of the most famous mountains in the world. In 2014, we talked to Lama about Cerro Torre and more during a visit to Banff, read about it here.
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