Cesare Maestri

Who is Cesare Maestri?

Cesare Maestri is an Italian mountaineer and writer.

He was born in Trento in the Italian province of Trentino. He began climbing in the Dolomites, where he repeated many famous routes, often climbing them solo and free, and put up many new routes of the hardest difficulty, for which he was nicknamed the "Spider of the Dolomites". He became an Alpine Guide in 1952. His notable solos include the Solleder route on the Civetta, the Solda-Conforto Route on the Marmolada, and the southwest ridge of the Matterhorn in winter.

In 1959, Maestri, together with Cesarino Fava and Austrian guide Toni Egger, travelled to Patagonia to attempt the north-east ridge of the unclimbed Cerro Torre. The three climbed up a steep corner below the Col of Conquest, then Fava turned back and Maestri and Egger headed for the summit. Six days later Fava found Maestri lying face down and almost buried in the snow. They returned to base camp and claimed that Maestri and Egger had reached the summit but Egger had been swept to his death by an avalanche as they were descending.

Over time, many climbers have started doubting Maestri's 1959 account, as it became evident how difficult, even by today's standards, the alleged route is. Among the doubters are many well-known alpinists like, Carlo Mauri, who had failed to climb the mountain in 1958, Reinhold Messner, and Ermanno Salvaterra, who used to defend Maestri until having attempted the route himself. The criticism was also taken up by British climber and writer Ken Wilson, editor of Mountain magazine. Apart from the sheer hardness of the climb, the critics point out that Maestri's description of his route is detailed and accurate up to the high point where Cesarino Fava turned back, but vague and impossible to trace on the mountain thereafter; and that bolts, pitons, fixed ropes and other equipment abandoned by the 1959 expedition is plentiful up to the col, but absent thereafter. Nevertheless, Maestri has consistently maintained his version of events, as did Fava, who died in April 2008.