Alone
I was thinking a lot about this post. But finally I decided to tell the story, because it´s somehow important to me. Maybe it´s also worth concerning the history of alpinism, but maybe it´s not. I don´t know.
Last days have been really intense. I don´t know why, but I played the match again. I walked on the borderline between passion and sanity. I was searching for this discrepance for a long time. To be honest, I never found the perfect moment during the last four years. I thought that I am more or less done with free solo climbing. But on the same side I knew that it will come back anyway in sudden. I was just rappeling after a nice climbing day with a friend of mine after doing the route „Hexentanz der Nerven“ on the same face and suddenly I got the message. Two days later I set off.
I free soloed a multi pitch route called „Bayrischer Traum“. Around 400 meters high, steep and a classic line. It´s located on the Southface of Schüsselkarspitze in the Wetterstein Mountains. It was opend in 1980 and free climbed in 1983. I climbed the route first time in 2002 but I was not able to free it. Then I never went for it again. I did many other routes on the wall. The most impressive days for me were the first free ascent of „Vogelfrei“ in 2009, the first repeat of „With or without you“ and the Free Solo of „Locker vom Hocker“, both during the incredible year of 2007. And last week I was able to add another important day for me.
The crux pitch felt hard. It´s exposed, steep and kind of powerful. If I compare it to the Free Solo of „Pesce“ it´s not far behind. For sure the new solo adventure is still more in my mind than all the other things and the facts that it was the first time to climb a powerful sequenze without rope and that my physical shape is not the best at the moment due to traveling too much over the last weeks, influences maybe my cognition. But anyway, I don´t want to challenge my adventures. I just want to tell you the truth how I experienced it.
„I climbed up along the West Ridge to the summit the day before. Everything went perfect. I was able to sneak out from every person who was around. I enjoyed a perfect sunset, made some amazing pictures before I went for the bivy. On the next morning I rappelled in and checked out the hardest sequenzes over four hours. There was no moment where I thought that it´s not possible, but I knew that the crux will be demanding. I was completely steered from this powerful cocktail of self confidence. I arrived on the base of the wall, chilled for an hour, listened to my ipod music and started at 1 pm. After one hour I topped out, screamed to signalise the end of my concentration, walked a little bit around and sat down and left my thoughts drifting. I climbed down the West Ridge, packed my stuff and walked down silently. When I came home, I was totally psychological exhausted. I started to talk about my adventure with my family and close friends. It helped me a lot.“
There is no clear grading of the route. It´s somewhere around UIAA 8. The route is well protected with bolts. Some pitches were cleaned up years ago. From this it follows that the line is not a demanding masterpiece, but in Free Solo Style you just pass the gear and you get a different feeling. I can tell you.
