That´s not how I used to teach mathematics when I worked in school some years ago. No, it´s how our group changed in terms of their entirety during the trip.

(Kilian, Anna, Heiko, Barbara, Sabine, Lukas, Elias, Me) + (Ben, Lu) – (Sabine, Lukas, Elias) = (Kilian, Anna, Heiko, Barbara, Ben, Lu, Me)

All in all we had lots of fun regardless who was joining or leaving us. Beside playing football and joking around on the rest days we had some really nice fights and sends of routes up to 8c and perfect climbing conditions for the whole time. We climbed in Margalef, Balaguer, Santa Linya and Oliana. Viva Espagna … hopefully next year too.

This time you can enjoy not only climbing pics ;-) … Thx to Heiko.

To be honest, I felt a little bit drained after the last free solo climb on Schüsselkarspitze. But the conditions for climbing have been just like a dream. Perfect weather with perfect conditions. So for sure I went out to experience more of the amazing routes near my home. It was really weird to climb on our crags at beginning of Dezember. Normally you´ll just find some chamois searching for some remained climbers food ;-) …

I don´t know where to start so maybe I just write down a list with some catchwords. It´s normally not my style to tell you stories, but maybe that´s the best way to make this Tohu-bohu more clear and it´s anyway nothing special:

Hexentanz der Nerven on Schüsselkarspitze/Wetterstein:

short, super fun, poor protection, together with Matthias – a friend from the college of education, coincidence that we met the evening before

Schlemmerrisse on Fleischbankpfeiler/Wilder Kaiser:

cold, no sun, cool crack line, one of the best routes in Wilder Kaiser

Feuertaufe on Urlkopf/Lofer:

David in good shape – freed everything, I checked out the sequenzes for my go (hopefully next year), not so hard as expected

Sport climbing:

Climbing Team Ötztal spent some days on our new crag, Heiko and myself bolted it already a few years ago, hard stuff, we need more training; spent a few days on the crag called Chinawall too, tried the second ascent of Much Mayr´s latest first ascent, unfortunately no success; also cleaned two amazing trad lines just a few minutes from my home together with my friend Heiko, a lot of work, for trying them we have to wait for the next season – the place is like a fridge

The North Face Athlete Summit in Sayulita/Mexico:

meetings, working, fun, party, supercool team, inspiring, new expeditions, long travel, …

HAPPY NEW YEAR and BIG THX TO MY SPONSORS!!

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.

I spent the last days with Luka Krajnc and his girlfriend Nastja. Luka is a great Dolomites climber from Slovenia and a really relaxed guy. A few days ago time has come to do an El Cap ascent without hauling and working to much. Just climbing light and fast in French-Free-Style. We went for the Salathe Wall on the Southwest Face.

I led the first block up to “Heart Ledges” where Luka headed on for the cracks up to “The Alcove”. I took the lead up the amazing corner systems to “Sous le Toit”. Then it was again Luka´s time for the “Headwall” before I finished with the four pitches from “Long Ledge” up to the summit.

It took us 14 hours of climbing to reach the top. We climbed many pitches free and pulled on gear on the harder sections. For sure it was miles away from the record time but our goal was to enjoy the lightness of climbing, do it in one day and follow this outstanding line on it´s 50th birthday. It´s really amazing to find out what achievement Royal Robbins, Chuck Pratt and Tom Frost made for the climbing community. The crack up the headwall looks amazing. Exposed, steep and long. Hopefully I will find some time for a free climbing session in future.

The comment of Tom Evans, the legend on the bridge, was quite funny:

A European team, whose names are Luka and Hans, are dressed just right, and as a result have sent the entire route in just 14 hours. They were last seen, today, moving up the headwall as I departed. See folks… it pays to dress well!! What to wear while jugging on the Salathe. Hans has it made now!

I met Hazel in Camp4 and the first thing we did was hauling our bags up to “Heart Ledges”. Two days later we set off. Within the next 5 days we freeclimbed every pitch except the “Monster Offwidth”, where I slipped completely unexpected two meters below the final ledge. Unfortunately due to my totally wounded knees it was impossible for me to do this pitch again. Hazel seconded it free.

Then the route goes up right. We had lots of fun on the technical face climbing pitches. I climbed the “One move pitch” second go and onsighted most of the upper hard pitches. In total I climbed everything onsight except five pitches, which I did on next goes and the mistake on the “Monster Offwidth”.

At the beginning Hazel had some problems to stick the reachy bouldery move on the “One move pitch”, but finally she found a crazy solution. She climbed everything free and the fact, that she followed some of the crux pitches is just a forgetfully detail and changes nothing to pronounce big congrats about her ascent. She became the first woman free climbing Golden Gate and with her talent and strength it won´t be her last free climb on El Capitan.

Supercool!!

BRUDERLIEBE | Episode #1 | Who is Hansjörg Auer? from STORY.teller on Vimeo.

BRUDERLIEBE epsiode #2 | Climbing Marmolada – The new route from STORY.teller on Vimeo.

Back home I had a nice day flying with the flex-wing. My last flight was already three years ago. You can imagine how the feeling was before going off. My heart sank completely into my boots. But once in midair it was again supercool. Thanks to my brother, who gave me the last instructions ;-).

Due to a massive cold I was not climbing a lot after spain, but anyway I tried some new hard routes on limestone in a secret spot, did a cool first ascent of a route which I bolted already six years ago during a shoulder injury and “reclimbed” some classic lines in my home valley.

And what´s next? Oh yeah, I am leaving for El Capitan in a few hours …

BRUDERLIEBE:

It was in 2003 that I walked up for the first time from Malga Ciapela to the Rifugio Falier. And now I am climbing, for the first time, on the south face of the Marmolada. After a very long wait for this moment. I had, read a lot about the nearly three kilometres wide and approx. 800 meter high wall. Perfect limestone full of holes, hard and grey. Routes which describe every epoch of the climbing history. Sounding route names and of course a lot of protagonists.

However, with this, a first very unaware project also starts to grow in my head. When I appear from the precipitous spruce forest and see the face in full size, I do not see the “fish”, not the pillar of “Don Quixote” and not the green valley with the cows and the watercourse. I see the striking pillars on the right part of the south wall. Two pieces of overhanging grey rock. They engrave in my memory. However, the next day we climbed first the classic “Vinatzer/Messner”.

Four years later. In January, together with my longtime rope partner and friend Thomas Scheiber I climbed “Vogelwildpfeiler”. A route of Heinz Mariacher and Luisa Jovane. The both stamp the route development at the beginning of the 80s and find her climax with the opening of „Tempi Moderni“in 1982. We were quite late at the base. We rushed it in a good five hours to the top. Only once on the belay of the fourth pitch I looked to the left and saw the first pillar of my unaware project. Immediately I got the creeps.

Again four years later. Thomas now works and lives in Switzerland, our ways have been separated. We did not climb any more so often, but if, and then we are simply the ideal rope couple of old times. Over and over again we funbled about in our re-collections and laugh at one or other situations from our younger years. When I climbed with Much Mayr first time together the “Nose” on El Capitan, a new friendship begun. But too largely was my admiration for him to move in his alpine footprint. With him I stood during the last years often on the base of walls, planning repetitions or first ascents. We enjoyed sport climbing from Austria to Spain and for sure a lot of coffee sessions. I began with him also an extremely exciting project in the Marmolada southwest face. Freeing an old aid route. It should have been the third summer this year, while we wanted to put our whole energy in the project, we waited only till after the winter to have the route in perfect conditions. Motivated till the last hair end we talked over and over again about the project, spent a lot of time together sports climbing and were greatly glad. However, everything came differently. Much injured himself while biking hard and precipitated for the whole summer. “No, without him I will not get onto the southwest face project”. The unaware project becomes conscious. My brother Vitus will accompany me.

After five days on the route I reach together with my brother the ledge in the middle of the wall. The upper part up to the summit burr looks easier. The wall leans back. The most difficult part lies behind us. However, the most difficult time before us because now I would like to climb the route free and then suspend the upper part to the summit burr.

After many days of trying, many falls, hours hanging out on the wall, times of rebounds but also after enjoying the feeling getting stronger, finally August 21 was my day. I really had tears in my eyes, clipping the belay after the send of the crux pitch.

“As in the time-lapse photography, pictures from all corners of the south wall run by my brain. Even if there are still just 600 metres height up to the summit. I know that I am not deprived of the today’s success any more. Once again I shut the eyes before I continue pulling the rope. After 11,5 hours we shudder mutually the hands. Tired and eroded we sit on the summit and enjoy the last rays of the sun. I can´t catch it yet, however, just I experience one of my nicest moments in my climbing life and coincidentally on my mountain. Thanks so much Vitus.”

Facts:

Location: Pilastro Dorso d’Elefante/Marmolada South Face/Italy

Length: 19 pitches

Total vertical gain on rock: 800m

Proposed grading: 8b/8b+

Protection: Camalots up to #3, pitons, bolts (where necessary)

Character: Amazing line on slightly overhanging terrain on the lower part. The upper part is wild and alpine with some loose rock on the last pitches.

First ascent: 21st of August 2011 after 11,5 hours on the wall

First ascentionist: Hansjörg Auer accompanied by his brother Vitus

Length of time in total: 8 days (for the lower part); the upper part was opened during the first free ascent.

COLPO DI CODA:

I teamed up with my friend Gerhard Fiegl and freed the route, opened by Maurizio Giordani in 2006, in a 9,5 hours push. Super nice climbing along one of the last indepent lines on the South Face.

Facts :

Location: Punta Ombretta/Marmolada South Face/Italy

Length: 28 pitches

Total vertical gain on rock: 900m

Proposed free grading: 7b

Date: 24th of August

Protection: Camalots up to #3, pitons, 3 bolts (bolted by the first ascentionist)

COCO JAMBO:

It´s a direct exit to “Schwalbenschwanz”. Perfect limestone, exposed climbing, alpine protection combined with the funny lower part of “Schwalbenschwanz”. Opened together with Gerhard Fiegl.

Facts:

Location: Punta Ombretta/Marmolada South Face/Italy

Length: 4 pitches (new)

Total vertical gain on rock: 750m

Proposed free grading: 6c+

Date: 29th of August 2011

Protection: Camalots up to #3, pitons

More info on alp-con.net

I just want to keep you updated that there is more coming soon. I just have to organise some pics and to write something cool. Hope you will like it.