Freispitz

Climbing and its evolution in the heart of the Lechtaler Alpen at Freispitz area (Lech valley alps in northern Tyrol)

August 2009 - the stance on my belay is somewhat uncomfortable but I'm quite happy to be and climb here. Really ,it is great entertainment hanging here on this place, 200 dead vertical and compact meters above the valley floor and looking down along the hanging loops of the rope to Stefan who is moving through the lower passages of this fantastic ; and further down, where Rainer Treppte has just passed the crux section of Zone 40 but has to fight with the remaining 30 meters of steep rock. Looking more horizontal along the wall, there another “veteran” of Freispitz – Wolfi Mayr appears from the void. I'm also happy because this was my first real multipitch climbing this year and all the pitches run surprising smooth with exception of the first pitch, where I had to take a whopper and some rest time – as in the other years before when I tried to redpoint this. But from this passage on it was exciting climbing, Stefan offered me generously the opportunity to lead the most attractive pitches and on the meters below my current stance I succeed with athletic moves into the overhang and with finding the tricky solution to reach the bigger holds at its end before my forearms gave up their duty. Stefan now has reached this upper crux section of the route Zone 90 and fights through it with some groaning when he does the most strenuous moves. Half an hour and the final pitch later we are sitting on the small summit of the “Heel Zapfen” in the sun. Using this perfect vantage point opposite the Freispitz South face I point out to Stefan some of the routes there. While Wolfi reaches the last belay just some meters below the summit and takes his rope in we browse through the small summit register and examine what happened here in last year. Unavoidable there is written into this book – between some other guys I'm familiar with - repeatedly the name of Dieter Elsner. With him I shared many days in these walls, first at the wall just across – on the Freispitz south face and then numerous hours clinging to sharp handholds, shaky cliff positions and uncomfortable belays while exploring the Northeast face of so called Heel Zapfen (aka Mr Heel´s spire), more conservatively called the East ridge of Rote Platte here in the heart of the Lechtaler Alpen. . The Lechtaler Alpen is a 60 km long mountain range, the largest in the Northern limestone Alps and features the only mountain higher than 3000 m in this region of the Alps. It rises between the deep cut and busy upper Inn valley and the Lech valley in the northwest side which is the last unaltered, wild mountain valley of the Northern Alps. These mountains are mainly characterized by two geological elements: steep grassy Flysch mountains and rocky peaks composed of horizontal and broken Dolomite with wide talus filled cwms beneath. With its lack of roads it is a quiet area which -on first view – does not offer especial thrilling or sensational landscape: So it is not as famous as other mountain ranges and only the Southwest region is well known as part of the world class skiing resort of the Arlberg with the exclusive villages Lech and Zürs. Therefore it is not surprising this area was and is a white spot on the common climbers map. However, in mid eighties there were rumors about a first class, silver-colored limestone wall, 500 meters high and well hidden at the end of one of the small valleys structuring the different sub-ranges. Stories were told about excellent, rough and compact rock with fantastic friction and deep water runnels, as good as some famous alpine hot spots of this period like Marmolada. In general the locals kept a low profile and some mystery of the South face of the Freispitz and before there could been started a run to this area the climbers preferences has changed away from this kind of friction and balance dominated climbing style, turning towards more powerfull, steeper climbing like for example at Wendenstöcke in Switzerland. So it is only a small number of climbers, mostly of the neighboring regions, who have really done some more climbs on this hidden piece of rock. But the rumors even if they

1 may have been a little bit exaggerated, were not completely off, and climbers which are willing to leave the well worn path can find not only many sided, unspoilt landscape but also some really nice routes which additionally represent the short but interesting history of climbing here.

It was really late – at the end of the sixties - when the Freispitz region was discovered for climbing. At this time comparable walls of the Rätikon, Wetterstein and Kaiser had already a quite tight net of climbing routes but the 500 m limestone face of the Freispitz was completely untouched. This is because of the location of the mountain and its complex structure built by huge flysch slopes and marl walls which perfectly hide the major challenge, the South facing wall constructed by bright rhaetian limestone . But in 1969 there was a "race" to win the main price, the first ascent on this wall. In order to earn this price Peter Heel and Manfred Schreck started really early in year on the central part of the wall. Navigating between some huge overhanging zones they were dripped on the less steep parts by big waterfalls because of melting snow on the broad ledge above the wall: The cold water was spit out from meter- deep water erosion ruts down to the lower part of wall to hit the two pioneers. Because of the water bombardment and the lack of natural protection they were forced to use a lot of bolts on two especial compact pitches. With dedication, energy and divers abilities they forced the climb to the upper part of the wall, where difficulties and water trouble eased off. Nowadays the most compact pitch offers fantastic wall climbing in the lower 7th , the rest is nice climbing between in 5th and lower 6th grade in very impressive rock environment characterized by the runnel -covered limestone. Later this year the wall got its second route more in the left part where Phillip Albrecht und Albrecht Futterknecht found a break in the lower overhang via a hidden ramp and some tricky nailing. When they reached the silver slabs above they where able to freeclimb most of the way with exception of one compact slab and using one impressive traverse below the upper roof section. The so called Linke Südwand is the second classic and can be freeclimbed around grade 6th with some meters in the upper 6th grade (nowadays some strategic are exchanged against bolts and also the belays). Ironically the most classic line on this wall, the obvious South East ridge, was opened last: In fall of that year M. Weise and K Schott climbed along this ridge onto the top of the spike of the Freispitz Tower, from where they reached the marl terrace above the wall with a 40 meter rappel. This climbing offers mostly 3rd and 4th grade scrambling with some easier and somewhat grass-covered parts and 2 nice pitches in the 5th grade to the tower. After that year the wall fell asleep again and was visited rarely until 1983. The use of sticky rubber shoes, nuts and friends for protection as well as the fresh started freeclimbing philosophy opened the climbers mind and many new options appeared. Four years later the wall was covered with a tight web of new routes opened with the intention to avoid use of bolts if possible. As the very compact rock offered only limited possibilities for natural protection and as the main protagonists of this phase were not as calm minded as the extreme heroes of that days with its adventure- climbing philosophy, most of the routes got a few bolts actually. But also with some protected meters these routes offer climbing ambitious enough to keep the repetition numbers low, although in this decade when runout and dubious protection were more part of the game as nowadays.

There are nearly a dozen of these routes but two of these offer some specific attraction. In the lower, rightmost part of the wall a especial steep pillar leads to the upper part of the South East ridge. Günter Durner and Toni Freudig attacked this area in 1984 via compact slabs from the left and were able to link this start to some steep cracks in the upper part creating the impressive Lechtalschreck with long runouts in the upper 6th and 7th grade and a bouldery section in the 8th grade. As the route was also a kind of masterpiece and benchmark climb in that days ambitious local climbers where forced to repeat this, but nowadays – although with retrobolted belays - the fantastic pitches get only very few travel.

2 In the central part of the wall several climbers around Wolfi Mayr picked the long Kronjuwel taking the compact wall between the classics. This route was less scary because at the most difficult sections (lower 8th grade) some more hand drilled bolts were added as substitute for marginal natural pro. Especially the headwall offers an really impressive pitch breaking through a roof into some vertical water runnels. In 1993 two direct variations (and some bolts on existing parts) were added which avoid some less attractive curves along natural structures and substitutes them with beautiful wall climbing on impeccable rock: Since then this route has continuous travel up to now.

In 1988 the neo classic period phased out when for the first time on Freispitz a battery powered drill was used on the lower part of face where Günter Durner established 2 fantastic and homogeneous 4 pitch base climbs consequently searching the most compact areas of the wall. But in this time the trend was already gone away from friction climbing towards more steep faces like Wenden. Despite the advantage of the power drill these two new routes have widely spaced bolts and only few repeaters were willing to test their nerves on balancing moves high above the last protection. So the Parseiergries (the Parseier cwm) below saw a decreasing number of climbers in the early nineties. The two most important new routes got more protection however, ringing in modern times. In 1993 Geierwally was opened by Günter Durner left of Lechtalschreck, after a short warm up section follow five very homogenous slab and wall pitches between upper 7th and 8th grade on sharp features and not to selective bolt distances. In the central wall the already existing Blinde Welt got additional protection with help of the power drill and was extended through a free zone in the headwall. It offers now the longest Freispitz climb with 12 - sometimes really long - pitches, mostly in the 7th grade and an inspiring 50m crux pitch high on the wall.

But the power drill started also a completely new game in opposite of the bright Freispitz face, where a steep, dark wall borders the Parseierkar at the other side: In classic period most climbers visited Freispitz in fall and therefore this northeast facing wall was completely in the shade and cold then and got attention only as an additional spectacular accessory to the landscape. A closer view to this face however would have shown a 150 m meandering line of old fixed ropes taking the few weaknesses along some dubious looking yellow and brown zones of rock. The early pioneer of Freispitz Peter Heel has also explored this wall. Already in end of Sixties he reached a respectable height using mostly elaborately self-made pitons and some few bolts. He stopped his effort by lack of partners and the face staid unclimbed until end of nineties. In retrospective it is very astonishing that no one tested the rock closer for its potential until Rainer Treppte and friends started 1998 at the most compact area, a black stripe of vertical rock with very few structures leading directly from base to closely below the summit. Because of some troubles with weather, water and partners and because of lack of natural protection it took more than a year to complete this first route, the Zone 40 (marking the end of youth of the protagonist). The line as well as the climbing is perfect, the difficulties homogeneous with one pitch touching the 9th grade (nowadays considered as hard 8th grade) but there was one blemish. As below the summit were some overhanging zones with dubious look and some grass between, Rainer thought that this would be some less perfect rock there and ended the route below that features (nowadays this zone is passed with a diagonal pitch not really ugly and only in the 6th grade). Dieter Elsner and I met Rainer Treppte on a late November day in 1999 under the big boulder where he has established a nice bivvy place and where he was just retrieving his cached gear. The fire in his eyes when he told about the route and the rock with its characteristic inclusions made us immediately planning a try for the next spring and we already scoped a line along the weaknesses along the fixed rope which seemed to us more doable with our limited climbing abilities. So it went and after a start in the night we took off into unknown terrain in the early morning light of a fine day in June 2000. Quickly we realized the character of the gray parts of rock which is covered with hidden diagonal jugs and we

3 also experienced that the dubious looking parts are mostly quite solid and sometimes perfect limestone. We took a more direct line but roughly along the old historic fixed ropes from Manfred Heel and above the end of this we tried to follow some shallow features avoiding the steepest parts of the wall. But also there we learned by watching our falling gear that the wall was dead vertical because the gear fell down to the base without touching the wall. At the end we could not longer avoid the overhanging parts and we were rewarded by an exciting pitch whose final overhang lead us to the ridge 20 meters below the summit. We experienced a very privileged feeling when setting up a cairn at the top, obviously being the first people here. The feeling of satisfied tiredness at the end of the summit day did not hold for long time because we had tasted blood now and the wall and its unsolved riddles attracted us like a magnet. The following years we had a severe case of “Zapfen fever” and spent many summer days on that wall, learned that also the more ominous looking zones were not only climbable - sometimes with help of some of this prostatic inclusions into rock - and also they are holding enough cliffable features to allow protection setting. We had some really long days starting the walk in at 5 o'clock and were hanging on crimps, cliffs and uncomfortable stances then for whole twelve hours and coming back to car after 9pm. We had some smooth running days with sunny pitches and fast progress and we had some less productive days shivering in cold and wind and drizzle. We took a lot of very early starts at 3 o'clock at home and when I became to lazy for this I was turned on again by Dieter's never ending energy. We made friends with Franz the shepherd who stays all summer mostly alone at the small hut nestled below the enormous cave Schafgufel and we learned from him the secrets of living alone all summer long in a remote mountain environment and taking care for 600 sheep. In fall we took part in rounding up the sheep from steep slopes and driving them across the mountains back home to the Inn valley. We were extras in a movie of Jürgen Schafroth about climbing and living in this area. On some colder autumn days we shifted the playground across the cwm and explored two additional lines on the sunny side (one of them called Schaftrieb – rounding up sheep). Intense days and an intense live. At the end of that six year period there were nine new routes by us at Heel Zapfen and two more difficult ones opened by friends. Our routes all check in the medium range between 7th and 8th grade, while the Tendenz 9 has two pitches in the 9th and the Jugend forscht, by Felix Frieder will be probably at the same level but hasn't got a real redpoint ascent up to now. But the redpoint of this will be one of the last challenges here as there is not left much room for further exploration, the bonanza has played out.

I stop with my thoughts and talk about days gone as we finished our summit hour and traverse now to the start of the rappel route. Five long and mostly freehanging rappels bring us down quickly to the base and after a short gulp from the water bottle I put on my climbing shoes again as I have to finish my job of today now, the redpoint of first pitch of Zone 90. Maybe this route holds the most beautiful of our pitches, but for sure it holds the most difficult, this starting pitch. The name Zone 90 is a reference to the neighboring Zone 40 and to the fact that Dieter and I were 90 years - together - when we opened it. The first difficult and steep passages of my task run less smooth than on first go in the morning, but some detail knowledge and the sheer will keep me on the rock and doing the strenuous move to the sharp undercling which leads to a big hold. There I try to recover for the last hard moves; crimper with left hand, feet to the left pressed to the featureless rock , right hand crossing over left to another crimp, feet higher onto small footholds and reach out left for better holds. The next 15 meters to stance are much easier but still demanding with burning forearms, so this needs some time as I have to milk each resting point. So - when I finally have finished and rappelled this pitch and arrived back at the bivvy block there was already sound and smell of the coffee brewing which Rainer has started. With Rainer we celebrated the 10th anniversary of climbing Heel Zapfen. We sit together there for half an hour with old friends, exchanging news and stories and enjoying the satisfaction which is created by a fulfilled, perfect climbing day. Finally we have to start the long way back – down the cwm passing the

4 Schafgufel and along the Parseierbach. On the walk we make plans of visiting the opposite side of Rote Platte with its impressive west pillar above the neighboring Alperschon Valley – but this is another story from Lechtaler Alpen.

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