2012 David Lama Cerro Torre First Free Ascent Expedition

Austria🏔️ 2 Peaks

David Lama

David Lama was born on August 4, 1990, in Innsbruck, Austria, to an Austrian mother and a Sherpa father from the Solukhumbu region of Nepal. Discovered at age five by legendary mountaineer Peter Habeler, who was astonished by the young boy's innate balance and climbing talent, Lama became the most decorated youth competition climber in history, winning multiple World Cup titles in both bouldering and lead climbing as a teenager. Transitioning from indoor plastic climbing to extreme alpine rock and ice, Lama set his sights on the supreme prize of big-wall climbing: the first free ascent of the Southeast Ridge (Compressor Route) of Cerro Torre (3,128m) in Patagonia. After initial controversial attempts in 2009 and 2010 where a film crew placed bolts, Lama matured as an alpine purist. On January 21, 2012, accompanied by Peter Ortner, Lama achieved the monumental first free ascent of the Southeast Ridge (5.13b / 8a), climbing the sheer, vertical headwall without clipping a single bolt from Maestri's compressor line and bypassing blank sections with delicate natural friction traverses. In the Himalayas, Lama pursued pure, unassisted exploration. In October 2018, having previously attempted the unclimbed 6,895-meter Lunag Ri on the Nepal-Tibet border with American veteran Conrad Anker, Lama returned to the mountain alone. In a continuous, solitary push in sub-zero cold, Lama made the historic first ascent of Lunag Ri via its knife-edge West Ridge, an ascent hailed worldwide as a masterpiece of modern solo alpinism. On April 16, 2019, while descending after completing the difficult M16 route on Howse Peak in the Canadian Rockies alongside Jess Roskelley and Hansjörg Auer, Lama was swept away by a colossal avalanche and killed at age twenty-eight. He was posthumously awarded the 2019 Piolet d'Or for his triumph on Lunag Ri.