Christoph Hainz makes solo first ascent of Golden Pillar of Ortler

"It all began because of the documentary I'm filming for Servus TV about Mt. Ortler" (or Ortles, in Italian, editor's note) Christoph Hainz immediately explains. "We wanted to go up and shoot something about the route first climbed in 1976 by Reinhold Messner, Hermann Magerer and Dietmar Oswald up the central pillar on the SW Face. But then I saw something .."

What did you see, the light ...? we ask. He laughs ... "You know how it is, you go up once, look around a bit, reckon there might be something, have another look from below and then you see it, there’s the line you think to yourself. You realize that those three pillars, one on top of the other to the left of the Messner route, are there on purpose, there to be climbed. And at that point the only thing you can think about is having a look to see if that really is the case. "

So you set off alone? "Yes, I told the Servus TVguys that that if they wanted to, I could try and climb a new route… and that I’d like to do so on my own. We agreed that they’d fly a helicopter to the base and then they’d follow me to the summit. But I’d have to exit at noon…"

So how long did it take you? "I exited ater 1 hour and 55 minutes." So the southwest face is 750 meters high and you took less than two hours to climb it via a new route graded... IV, IV+?

Christoph laughs again "Well, in touch there was also some grade VI+ climbing."

How much fun did you have? "I had great fun, it was beautiful..."

And did anything surprise? "Yes, the rock that at times was outstanding, and other times really poor quality. It really was a real and pure adventure."

Hainz climbed his ‘Golden Pillar of Ortler’ on his own, onsight and without ropes. No gear was left in-situ.

The climb will be screened by Servus Tv during the program ‘Ortler - Südtirols König der Berge’ on 16/11/2016 at 21:15

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