Eastern Alps, Austria/Italy

Longlines in the Eastern Alps

Two-week photo shooting for a cover story in the Panorama magazine of the DAV.

The photo shooting with photographer Ralf Gantzhorn started on the southern side of the Alps due to weather conditions, more precisely as a warmup in the Dolomites. After one week we changed to the northern side of the Alps to climb some routes from the selection guidebook “Longlines – Die ganz großen Klettereien der Nördlichen Kalkalpen” by Adi Stocker.

The selection of routes in this book is certainly subjective, as are the routes we climbed from it. They all have what it takes to be real classics – if they aren't already. The selection guidebook offers well-described texts, useful photographs of the corresponding face areas with the visible route and detailed drawn topos.

The complete article to this report was published in DAV Panorama No. 4/2020, see link below.

Route description to “Freier als Paul Preuß”, Hochkönig
Voice: Ralf Gantzhorn, Source: YouTube, Deutscher Alpenverein

Route description to “Plattenzauber”, Lechtaler Alps
Voice: Ralf Gantzhorn, Source: YouTube, Deutscher Alpenverein

Facts

Let’s see where it is:

Ascent:

3. – 13. September 2019, together with Ralf Gantzhorn and Janna Piwowar.

Our selected routes:

Großer Bratschenkopf (Hochkönig, Austria), 2857 m:
» Freier als Paul Preuß (1150 m, VII, 28 pitches)

Hintere Platteinspitze (Lechtaler Alps, Austria), 2723 m:
» Plattenzauber (800 m, VI+, 20 pitches)

Piz dla Dorada (Puez group, Italy), 2552 m:
» Pescione et Arione (285 m, VI+, 8 pitches)

Cima Scotoni (Fànis group, Italy), 2874 m:
» Lacedelli/Ghedina (480 m, VIII, 17 pitches)

Caution:

“Freier als Paul Preuss” is a real test piece in this selection guidebook. The Precht-route has a high nimbus in terms of protection and psychological demands. Albert Precht honored Paul Preuss and his free solos ethics in 1986 (Paul Preuss’ 100. birthday) by climbing this route in his own style – free solo first ascent and completely naked (that’s where the route name comes from).

Further information:

» Report „Longlines – Klettern ohne Ende“

» Report in Panorama No. 4/2020 in the archive of the German Alpine Club DAV (www.alpenverein.de …)