UKC

http://www.imerisia.gr/article.asp?catid=26510&subid=2&pubid=113521...

Albert Precht, one of the most prominent Austrian climbers with some 800 alpine/trad first ascents has died climbing in Kreta with his longtime partner Robert Jölli. His FA's stretched from local Tennengebirge, Hochkönig and Dachstein to Korsika, Greece & Oman and were always opened by fair means without bolts. Many of his lines are both elegant and serious classics with hard grading that will testify a rather forgotten style of mountaineering for years to come.

RIP.

In reply to tjekel:

Obituary on bergstiegen.com. In German, but google translate might be able to make something of it.

http://www.bergsteigen.com/news/albert-precht-1947-2015

In reply to tjekel:

That´ll be the Albert Precht of Sigi bolt infamy then.

In reply to jimtitt:

Sure it's the right moment to rediscuss what has been discussed locally more than once?

In reply to tjekel:

That is very sad news. I'm sure I'm not the only frequenter of Wadi Rum who sees him (just from looking in awe at the intimidating impressiveness and sheer number of his routes) as a bit of a true hero of purism in the climbing.

In reply to tjekel:

Why not? While Robert Durran sees him as a true hero of purism in climbing his subsequent retro bolting of a great many of his routes with substandard bolts causing at least one fatality means his legacy is not only a prodigous amount of first ascents but several thousand defective bolts for others to deal with. His subsequent reaction was not guaranteed to give unreserved respect and not all climbers would agree with the rather glowing picture of him as portrayed in the various obituries.
As many climbers in the UK will be unfamiliar with his activities and who´s information will come from obituries it seems only fair to point out he was also a man with failings.

In reply to jimtitt:

I was never fond of his way of rebolting nor did I like his eaction in that particular case. However I do hope that we'll never have to deal with the same situation of a fatality due to bolt failure in one of our routes, yous, mine, whoever, due to a mistake that we might or might not have seen - which still may happen.

This does not distract from the new routing he did. And - everyone is free not to get onto his routes. As they are mostly in the mountains, people should find out easily they are not in a gym, and act accordingly.

In reply to jimtitt:


I was not aware of this retro bolting issue. It sounds a tragic saga. Presumably he felt aggrieved that his own routes had been devalued by others who could not match his impeccable ethical standards.

I had only ever seen Precht's name in guidebooks while staring up at his lines of monstrous boldness in Jordan and Oman and had come to see him in my own mind as an almost mythical figure. I remember how the new routes book in Rum recorded major ascents for almost every day of his trips, perhaps only taking a day off to set a fast time for running through the sand around the whole Jebel Rum massif!

In reply to Robert Durran:


No, he retro-bolted his own routes using sub-standard bolts made by Sigi Brachmayr which subsequently turned out to be not only of dismal quality but exceptionally badly installed. As a mountain guide he should/must have known better. His handling of the ensuing fatality and the issue was poor to put it kindly and more generally felt to be an insult to the intelligence of the climbing community.

In reply to jimtitt:


I was speculating about his (possibly misguided) motivation for retro-bolting in the first place and certainly not defending it being done unsafely.

https://www.ukclimbing.com/logbook/crag.php?id=11520

"Rather than see his routes disappear underneath newer bolted routes, Precht underwent a form of conversion and set about bolting his own climbs."