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“Addictions can be very, very bad but addiction itself is not bad.
It’s a case of what you’re addicted to.
You better live each day like it’s your last, ‘cos one day you’re going to be right”.
Ray Charles.
Link tip a friend
Good thing he’s got a rope ……
What to take on a route; carry a full arsenal of protection or go light and fast and strip the rack right down? It’s an eternal dilemma but this list below has to be at the ultimate end of the minimalist position:
One icescrew
Two screwgate krabs
Two non- screwgate krabs
A 30m 7mm rope
And one quickdraw
Even on just about a boulder problem, this has got to be considered almost the same as taking basically nothing but to take this tiny amount of gear on one of the most iconic mountains on Earth, takes truly monumental skill and bravery.
Ueli Steck’s nickname is the Swiss Machine from the film of same name and here’s a trailer of Ueli soloing the Eiger north face via the Heckmair route in the then record time of 2:47:33.
The 5,940-foot route - the first ascent of the north face - was first climbed in 1938 by Heckmair, Vörg, Harrer and Kasparek and it took them 3 days through avalanches, falls, storms on the ascent, intense cold and a blizzard on the descent and was by any measure, a massive achievement for its day.
Fast forward 70 years, add a climber of enormous experience, skill, and self confidence and during the previous year, Ueli spent more than 1,200 hours endurance training for this one route. Mix this lot thoroughly and you’ve got him ready to go at the bottom of the route.
On the day he did it, the conditions were so good that he was able to climb a lot of the demanding technical sections without gloves and he didn’t even bother to self belay himself when sections got hard; he just clipped his daisy chain into the fixed gear.
Enjoy this incredible achievement; all of it is astonishing; the casual dry-tooling, the running on the summit ridge, the photography – all of it can’t be beaten.
Except the time that is - in 2011 Dani Arnold shaved 20 minutes off what’s in the video*
Seriously consider buying the whole DVD from Sender Films; it’s a gem of a film and if you’re palms don’t sweat watching this, it’s too late – you’re already dead …..
Robert Bösch, whose photo this is above, did all the filming of Ueli on the Eiger, as well taking the footage of his speed ascents on the Matterhorn and the Grandes Jorasses; Robert’s site is here
* DA didn't free climb the Hinterstoisser traverse as Ueli did – wrong time of year.
