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Interview/Trip Report - Scotland 2011 - Ines Papert

© Hans Hornberger
Ines Papert more than 'getting the hang' of Scottish winter by onsighting Happy Tyroleans (IX,10)  © Hans Hornberger
Ines Papert more than 'getting the hang' of Scottish winter by onsighting Happy Tyroleans (IX,10)
© Hans Hornberger

Ines Papert onsighting Happy Tyroleans (X,10)  © Hans Hornberger
Ines Papert onsighting Happy Tyroleans (X,10)
© Hans Hornberger

German climber Ines Papert recently had an action packed trip to Scotland, where she and her climbing partner Charly Fritzer put up some hard first ascents and also made some significant repeats.

Below is Ines' report of her trip, but UKC also managed to grab five minutes with Ines as she was in the airport - about to leave to Canada. Here's what she had to say:

Ines Papert - Mini Interview

What was the hardest bit of climbing you did in Scotland?

The hardest bit was rescuing our backpacks! ;-) We left the packs at the bottom of Coire an Lochan the day before our last day. The rock was black and as we have learned to accept the Scottish ethics, we did not climb that day.

But the day after was even worse, we had to approach in 200km/h wind gusts and again...the climbs were black. That was a pain in the ass!

Everything else went smoother. But yeah - I had to fight a bit on Bavarinthia [Ed: first ascent of a IX,9 onsight], I didn't had the right protection and the placements weren't quite so good.

What was the best part of your trip - the best experience?

Sharing days with friends from Scotland, Greg Boswell, Simon Yearsley, Dave MacLeod and others. And... that a person returned my ice axes to me, after they got lost.

What do you search for from climbing? Adventure, fun, fear?

To feel happy at the end of the day... the longer and steeper the climb was, the better I feel.

And the feeling when you've finished something at your personal limit. Yesterday for example I onsighted my first M11, “Open End” at Dryland, near Innsbruck, Austria. That was also a successful day, totally different style than trad climbing in Scotland. I like the opposite extremes.

You've travelled a lot, so where is your favourite place to climb in the whole world?

There are so many different places. But I love rock climbing in the Dolomites and also Utah, Indian Creek. For winter climbs I prefer Canada and Scotland. [Ed: is the right answer!!]

What are your plans for the rest of 2011?

I'm going to the Atlas Range in Turkey with two girlfriends in summer and later in the year to Kyrgyzstan again, to finish our route on Mount Kyzyl Asker.

Right now I'm travelling to Canada, for some slideshows and sponsor meetings, as well as some climbing in the Rockies.

Thanks Ines, have a safe trip.


TRIP REPORT - by Ines Papert

After my first trip to Scotland in 2010 I was anxious to get to work on the harder routes and maybe even climb a few of them, but the mystic aura, the strict ethic-code and my huge respect for the traditional winter climbing was still there, deeply ingrained in my mind.

A few weeks before we left for the North I contemplated about all this. At the end of the day it's really all in your head: your mental strength is essential, and I knew that my inner-self was ready for an other awesome trip to Scotland. I no longer had nightmares about ground falls, I just dreamt about climbing more harder routes than last time, when we had been so lucky with the weather and ice-conditions.

I was highly motivated but a few days before departure my climbing partner suddenly cancelled his trip. Perhaps this was due to the bad weather, the cold temperatures or the strong winds, but the fact of the matter is he decided to spend his winter holidays in summerly Thailand instead. A bit hard to understand and disappointing, but these things happen and so I asked a good old friend of mine, Charly Fritzer from Austria, to join me. Sometimes you just have strike lucky and two days before we left he said yes. And just like last year, young gun and aspiring photographer Hans Hornberger joined us with his camera.

Our friend Ian Parnell helped us a lot. Again it was he who got us in touch with local climbers and collected information about the routes to climb and the ice conditions. I wanted the local climbing scene to be an important part of our trip and meeting old and new Scottish friends by accident in a lonely car park in the middle of nowhere made us feel like being at home.

This year we weren't as lucky as last year with the weather. But sometimes you just have to kick yourself in the butt and get outside in the early morning, even when rain and wind make you want to decide differently and a warm BigTree Campervan awaits. But that's part of the game, another mental game. Because up there you cannot just wait for the clouds to clear and the sun to come out. It might take weeks...or even longer...

photo
Ines Papert, Charly Fritzer and Dave MacLeod after their new route 'Triple X' on Ben Nevis
© Hans Hornberger

Charly Fritzer getting to grips with steep mixed climbing in Scotland  © Hans Hornberger
Charly Fritzer getting to grips with steep mixed climbing in Scotland
© Hans Hornberger
On our first day in Scotland we got lost in the fog and rain, we didn't even find Coire an Lochain in the Cairngorms. We had heavy rainfall, strong winds and no visibility whatsoever and our mistake was to not take a compass with us. On the next day we went up again with local climbers Pete Macphersun and Greg Boswell, both of whom are highly talented climbers. Pete and I on-sighted "Daddy longlegs" VIII, 9 while Charly und Greg went up "The Ventricle" VII, 8

The next day greeted us with awesome weather. The sun was shining and after the usual three hour approach-hike Charly and I repeated a fantastic route on Ben Nevis: "To those who wait" IX, 9. 20-year-old Greg Boswell had established the route only a few weeks ago and he invited us to make the second ascent. "To those" is a fantastic, spectacular overhanging crack with more or less good gear placements along the icy crack. We figured out that hexentrics were safest pieces of gear on this route.

On the top of Ben Nevis we met Dave Macleod by accident and decided to join forces the next day. Fortunately he owns the "magic key" which opens a barrier on the way in. This shortens the approach-hike a lot and the climbing/hiking ratio suddenly becomes much better. Together with Dave we established a new route which finishes up a big chimney first climbed by Ian Parnell and Ian Smallbouth, two good friends and strong climbers. We called our route "Triple X": we were a team of three and the route has three fully stretched pitches.

My personal highlight of the trip was a new route climbed in the Cairngorms. We were joined by our friends Simon and Neil who opted to climb the nearby "Falling out Corner". As Neil took a huge whipper right next to me, I lead the crux pitch and tried really hard not to fall onto the little gear I had managed to place on my way up. Right in the roof, half-way up the pitch, my feet slipped and my ice tool popped off. The second tool just kept stuck where it was and with one last power-move I managed to pull myself in position again. Although the gear-placements were bad, the climbing great. After at least an hour on-sighting the first 30m I finally established a belay and Charly seconded this pitch, in his usual fast style. he quickly sped up the second, easier pitch to the top. We called the route "Bavarinthia" IX, 9, because I'm from Bavaria and Charly is from Carinthia.

There's one more thing that climbing in Scotland really makes you aware of: we, the so-called "alpine climbers", really need to think hard about drilling and bolting. Bolting routes from top to bottom isn't always necessary, even - like in Scotland - when the rock isn't totally solid. If we want to keep the adventure factor in there, then we must agree on a code of ethics when we establish new routes. It's all about keeping our eyes and mind open and establishing new routes in a traditional way, or at least with a minimum use of bolts. We have to take part in this discussion and raise awareness, first and foremost in the European Alps.

Without the help and support of the Scottish climbers we would not have climbed this many hard, great routes. Thanks again for your help, friendship and support: Ian Parnell, Simon and Sarah Yearsley, Greg Boswell, Dave Macleod, Pete Macpherson, Michael Tweedley... and more.

photo
Ines and Charly on top of 'To Those Who Wait' - after the second ascent
© Hans Hornberger

photo
Although they didn't get perfect weather, Ines and Charly certainly made the best of their time in Scotland
© Hans Hornberger

The Routes:

26/01/2011 - Cairngorms, Coire an Lochain: Daddy Longlegs VIII, 9 on-sight
27/01/2011 - Ben Nevis: first repeat "To those who wait" IX, 9 Charly Fritzer redpoint (f.a. Greg Boswell & Will Sim 31/12/2010)
28/01/2011 - Ben Nevis: first ascent "Triple X" VIII, 8 on-sight (Ines Papert, Charly Fritzer & Dave Macleod)
29/01/2011 - Cairngorms: "The demon direct" IX, 9 "Happy Tyroleans" IX/10 on-sight
31/01/2011 - Cairngorms: Coire an Lochain: "Savage Slit" V, 6 and first ascent "Bavarinthia" IX, 9 on- sight (Ines Papert & Charly Fritzer 31/01/2011)

RELATED VIDEO: Ines' previous winter climbing trip to Scotland in 2010


Thanks go to Hans Hornberger for the photographs and help with this report. Check out his photography website here: hans-hornberger.com

Ines Papert is sponsored by Arc'teryx, GORE-TEX, Black Diamond, Lowa, Red Chili, Julbo


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11 Feb, 2011
Fantastic. Attention has been drawn to this ridiculous list of ascents within one week, but has this ever been done before? Greg Boswell's ticklist for this season is equally incredible, but has such back-to-back modern climbing ever been done before this year? Is this the new 'Smith and Marshall' week? I can barely stomach climbing three days in a row, puntering my way up 'easy' routes. What these people are doing is unbelievable.
11 Feb, 2011
It's interesting that she mentions several times the issue of "ethics", almost implying that in light of just this one trip, she's keen to shift the pro-bolting attitude on the continent.
11 Feb, 2011
Two trips. They made similar very positive comments about the added dimension trad gear brings after last years trip as well.
12 Feb, 2011
I stand corrected, ta. "The rock was black and as we have learned to accept the Scottish ethics, we did not climb that day." This was interesting to me (as someone not well educated in the ins and outs of dry tooling) - it seems to imply that on the Continent, bare rock that you wouldn't touch in Scotland just gets tooled. I'm not making any judgements, just saying that it's interesting.
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