Biography
Toni Egger (September 12, 1926 – February 2, 1959) was an Austrian mountaineer from Tyrol. An exceptional climber, specialist in the Eastern Alps, Toni Egger is known for his extraordinary rapids. In 1957, he led an expedition to the Huayhuash Cordillera. In 1959, it was made in Patagonia with Cesare Maestri. The reward for issuing the attempt to climb Cerro Torre was required for an ice avalanche. His body was not found until 1975.
Accompanied by Toni Egger and Cesarino Fava, Cesare Maestri returned to Patagonia in 1959 to attack Cerro Torre. After a few lengths, Fava drops the case, he will not succeed. The other two persistent pass and the hours without the base camp having any news of the two climbers. They climb to the top which they finish in bad weather. On the descent, Egger fell fatally, carried away by an avalanche. Maestri also falls but will be found a few days later by Fava, half-buried. Tested by the death of his climbing companion, he will recount their success and then the drama of the descent. The end is terrible but Maestri managed to overcome Cerro Torre. Well, that's what he says...
The truth, nobody knows it, except Cesare Maestri. But over the years, the mountain world has built up fairly solid convictions about this 1959 expedition. Other climbers are discovering on the mountain... Not to mention that no peak has been found higher than 300 meters of way. The experts are formal, Maestri and Egger have never been to the top. It's impossible. They had to try, but didn't go much higher than Bonatti and Mauri the year before (on another route). When bad weather kicked in and an avalanche kicked in, Egger was swept well away from the summit. At the initiative of this very stubborn project, Maestri had his death on his conscience. Is it to appease him that he invented this whole story? To offer Egger this summit that he will never conquer again? No one knows, because Maestri has never changed his tune, he keeps his version of the facts and their success at the top.
The Torre Egger which is near the Cerro Torre was named in memory of Toni Egger.
