Senza piombo M10, clean

Senza piombo M10, clean - pic: Klaus Kranebitter

After the ice winter had started extremely slow, Benni and I got back into shape in January. We were able to free some lovely ice and mixed lines in the Langental, South Tyrol, close to the small village Wolkenstein. In 2006 I was able to make my dream come true to combine modern mixed climbing and classic, serious ice climbing when I first ascended the route ‚Illuminati‘. Now, 7 years later a new dream came true. Redpointing a line at our limits with natural protection only has been buzzing around in our heads already for some time. Accidently, a short 15 min walk from the ‚Illuminati‘, we found perfect conditions for a project like this in the route „Senza piombo“. Benni and I started on January 27^th, not knowing what was expecting us. Bizar ice formations of grade M6 in the beautiful first pitch, the second pitch WI5 which lead us onto a ledge. From there on  the character of the route changed dramatically and in front of us we saw an overhanging rock face with very little structure. For an instance we thought this might be it and we couldn’t maintain our clean style. I was very impressed that even though it didn’t seem to be possible, Benni climbed on and left all the pitons and bolts at the belay . ‘I just want to have a look and see what is possible’, he said. This wasn’t the first time in the past few years when I was impressed by his physical as well as his mental skills. Also this time he didn’t want to give up: after a seemingly endless fight he freed the 3^rd pitch on sight –simply brilliant. Now it was my turn to climb the next pitch up to the ice curtain without using any ‘unnatural’ tools. The structure of the rock changed again, not many hooks left, getting steeper and steeper, not a promising combination. After two falls when twice one of the two cams I used dropped out of the shallow crack, I was at my wit’s end. Continuing with technical climbing I tried to somehow get to the curtain, memorizing the movements and placements for my next try. ‘Rest days’ are the best days. And after one of those when we climbed the direct entry to the route ‘Jumbo-Jet’, the hooks and moves of the crux pitch were spinning round and round in my head. On and on I tried to figure out the cam placements and remember the motion sequences. Finally, after a real rest day, which we were desperate for, the time had come. The alarm clock was preset for 4:15 but I was wide awake while before that. I was extremely focused on the route. Everything was like in a film. The climbing demanded everything I had, but I successfully made it to the top. Due to warm weather conditions the final pitch in the ice was rather scary, but Benni kept his nerves. Our dream of the first M10 protected with natural tools only came true. We named the route ‘senza piombo’. Finally it came all together, we were able to focus all the hard mixed climbing and ice climbing from the previous years, all our skills and routine for this single point.