There has been plenty of action recently on the North Face of the Cima Ovest, where Hansjorg Auer, Helmut Kotter and David Lama have all made free ascents of Alexander Huber's famous testpieces.

Auer spent three days over a two-week period working Pan Aroma before making the final redpoint, and the second ascent of this amazing route through the huge overhangs below the Cassin traverse.

The Austrian, who shot to prominence with his unroped solo ascent of the Fish on the Marmolada, found the two crux pitches, the sixth (60m, 8b+) and the seventh (20m, 8c) contrasting: the first a long endurance test, while the second short, extremely fierce and in an amazing position.

He was partnered on the final ascent by Barbara Zangerl, the strong female boulderer (Font 8b+). Before this, it is rumoured she had never climbed a multi-pitch route.

Next up was the 27-year-old Helmut Kotter from Bavaria, who stepped in for the third ascent.

Kotter, who has redpointed a 9a and several routes of 8c+, prepared for this climb by completing an ascent of Huber's earlier hard route on this part of the wall, Bellavista. He'd first started to work this route last year.

Bellavista was also redpointed by the young Austrian David Lama, who has been hitting the news recently for both good and bad reasons.

On his first attempt Lama fell on the crux pitch, but continued to finish the pitch above (8a and the end of the major difficulties) before retreating.

He returned several weeks later with Peter Ortner and again took one fall on the crux before redpointing it on his second try. The two then continued to the summit of the Cima Ovest, which they reached at sunset.

Alex Huber first climbed Bellavista (A4 and 7b+) solo during the latter part of the 2000 winter. He returned in the summer of 2001, and after extensive work managed to make a continuous free ascent.

With a 55m crux of 8c on pitch six, Huber had created arguably the hardest big wall free climb in the World.

In 2002 Mauro 'Bubu' Bole made the second ascent. The Italian managed to redpoint every pitch but was unable to climb the whole route in a single push

In Bellavista, Huber had created a hard route without bolt protection that he hoped would leave a great challenge for future parties. He was wrong.

Repeating the route in 2007, he found the 55m crux pitch had been equipped with 40 pegs, many linked with slings, giving it the appearance of a 'via ferrata'.

Far more depressing were clear signs that some holds had been 'treated', lowering the grade of the climb (estimated at 8b/8b+). All this damage was rumoured to come from an unsuccessful attempt in 2005.

Huber had originally hoped to breach the great roof that characterises the lower North Face and is taken by the 1968 Bauer-Rudolph aid route (A3 mostly on bolts). He soon realized he could not do this without bolts and was forced left.

After his second ascent he decided it was now time to tackle his original project through the great roof, but using safe yet spaced drilled protection. With careful use of bolts, Huber hoped his line would remain unaltered by future parties.

After climbing the first five pitches of Bellavista, he broke out right, overcoming a 60m pitch at 8b+ with only seven protection bolts, then a short and highly explosive 20m roof pitch at 8c. On the final redpoint, Huber had to rest his forearms for one and a half hours on the stance before tackling the crux.
 

« Back