Silbergeier - 10 Thousand Hours Lead to This!

Everyone has dreams, yet few of us ever get to realise them... Some might say it's sad when you have a dream you will never see realised; the aspirations to realise mine is what ends up taking me to places I never would have gone to without them in the first place! So what if I never realise the dream? Well at least I experienced the journey!

This story is a happy ending though; I didn't just go on the journey... I realised the dream!

The Legendary photo of the no-hands rest on the 7c+ pitch of "Silbergeier"

The Dream

I have just spent 7 full days on a 250m high limestone wall attempting to climb one of the world's most famous Alpine multipitch climbs, "Silbergeier".

This climb has been a 10 year dream of mine... Since I first saw the pictures of it, heard the tale of Beat Kammerlander's amazing triumph over this immaculate bullet hard and almost featureless limestone wall and grew up hearing about the even greater challenge of climbing the Alpine Trilogy of which this climb is one third of - it has been in my mind as a climb to aspire to do one day!

A part of me thought that to climb this route would always be a dream... a beautiful one at that, but a dream none-the-less. There is always a leap of faith when you dare to capture a dream like this. What if you fail? What if it all turns to ash in your hands, slipping between your fingers like so many before...

But you can't let the thought of failure stop you, otherwise the dream will never come true. I have been through the process of "dream seeking" before and know through personal failure and triumph that both doubt and fear never help."Silbergeier" takes the really obvious looking barrel feature of this wall

It was born...

I decided last year that I wanted to try "Silbergeier" in 2015. It has always been a part of a larger goal to do the "Alpine Trilogy", but "Silbergeier" was always the ultimate of the three! 

I needed a partner for the journey but was unsure of any who would be up for the challenge. Whilst in Oz last year, I spoke to my friend Monique Forestier (one of Australia's Top Climbers) about the prospect of such a trip - she was "over the moon" excited!

We kept in touch over the year until finally meeting in Switzerland for the adventure of a lifetime!

Unfortunately we were greeted with very bad weather for the first big chunk of the trip. This meant we had to abandon the Ratikon for drier climates and return when conditions were more suitable. Thankfully the weather got a lot better in the following week and we managed to get a good 5 days on the wall together before Monique had to leave for Australia.Monique arriving to a wet Ratikon :(

Monique and I made good progress on every pitch as each day progressed; however it became apparent very quicky to both of us just how difficult this route really was! It isn't a case of just slapping a grade next to a pitch and saying "yeah, that's how hard that is" - the climbing is extremely technical, really run-out and super exposed! From my 80 odd 8b-c ascents collected from 10 years of sport climbing... I ain't ever climbed anything like these before!

Sadly Monique had to leave, but I wasn't alone! Thankfully my friend from back home, Willis Morris had decided to join me on the trip and felt satisfied enough just being away from the dreary dreak skies of the motherland to belay me for a few days on a big blue limestone wall!Feeling like a mountaineer... in the sunshine... clipping bolts...

The Ascent

 Willis spent 2 days on the wall with me before we decided to go for a redpoint. I had had 7 days on the climb and was confident that I could get through the first 4 pitches to the crux 5th pitch, but was unsure of my chances here...

On the day, we got up bright and early, power walked into the crag and jumarred the 200m of static to the base of the climb. Today we would be running of ClifBar products - thank god for them! 

I wanted to beat the sun which was coming around fast, so without much rest I ran up the first pitch, a meaty 8b/+ warm up! When this guy arrived... things got a bit more crazy!

By the second pitch the sun was closing in on us but it was still quite cool. I managed to clean the 7c+ pitch also despite it feeling about 8a+ and insanely technical and balancy - probably the most intense 7c+ I have ever climbed!

The third pitch was in the sun now but I was desperate to get through this before being burnt alive on the wall! At 8a+ this pitch was no pushover and for me was one of the most intense pitches of the climb. The climbing like all the previous is really technical and very run-out!

There is one more pitch before a resting bivy ledge - this is 7a, but rest assured if I was to grade it at an indoor wall, the locals would be begging the wall manager for my head and demanding an upgrade! Hahaha!

Willis and I sat up camp on the bivy ledge, fortifying our position on the wall with a collection of our layers and shells to sheild us from the 30 degree sun! It only shaded us partly - my ankles were swollen and burnt by the end of that! We stuck it out for 4 hours, baking in the sun before finally the sun passed around the mountain.When I was a kid I used to love building forts... Now that I am 25, I still love building forts!

It was finally my time to put the skills to the test... the dreaded 5th pitch! Grades are so subjective so you can't expect anything from the number on these big walls, but for me this pitch was absolutely terrifying! The climbing is extremely technical, the wall is dead vertical to slightly overhung, the holds are visciously small, always sharp and often gnarly razor crimps or shallow serated pockets! Maybe it's just me... I'm 70kg of "muscle + organs" and about 10kg of "flabby bits" give or take a kilo depending on whose feeding me... that's a lot of guy to be hauling up on those small holds!

In not much time at all, I found myself "somehow" working my way through the cruxy bottom half and into the demanding headwall! A nightmare thought appeared in my mind - my friend Manu, a 9a strong German crusher relayed to me his experiences of falling on this section of the climb on three separate occassions from which he had made the full ascent from the bottom completely free... What if I fall here too? Will I have what it takes to come back? Am I good enough to do this?

I blocked out the negativity and focussed on what I was doing - the climbing is all that mattered. One move flowed into the next and I found myself pulling through the crux, not easily, but with intent! I had made it through and was looking into the final daunting traverse of apprehension, insecurity and complete and utter terror! A 7m run-out on smeary feet and upside down hand-holds does that to a person, but somehow the desperation to not have to re-climb that pitch got me through it.Much like in the Titanic, I felt on top of the world - very happy that I am making progress on each pitch on the send!

Willis jumared up on second and we were celebrating making it through the hardest pitch. All I had left was a 7c+... this pitch is famously known for being the most scary, having a dangerous fall on the crux moves before a final 20m run-out on what I can only describe as "choss chimney direct" - with climbing more akin to caving.

Somehow I sketched my way up this pitch, not gracefully but with intent on not wanting to re-live the stress that pitch 5 causes me but more importantly, not wanting to be helicoptered off the cliff.

The End of a Dream?

Topping out on "Silbergeier" was the best day of my life... It's hard to put into words when I speak let alone on paper (or a computer screen), but I will try.

"Silbergeier" was a lifetime ambition of a life dedicated to climbing. A 15 year old boy grew up with this goal as one of the fundamental driving forces behind a life dedicated to climbing. And at 25 years old, the boy has seen it through!

Is this the end of a dream? Not quite... the other two of the "Alpine Trilogy" have yet to be climbed!