Eiger Paciencia repeated by Nils Favre and Symon Welfringer

Following on from his recent hard climbs in the Mont Blanc massif, France’s Symon Welfringer now checks in with a rare free ascent of Paciencia on the imposing north face of the Eiger. Welfringer completed a team ascent with Nils Favre, the Swissman known above all for his hard bouldering up to 8C but evidently just at ease on a 900 meter, at times runout 8a on one of the most famous walls in the Alps. Loaded with almost 30 kg of gear and accompanied by photographer Damien Largeron, the duo made a ground-up ascent over 2 days, with a bivy at the Czech ledge and with both climbers redpointing the harder pitches.

Paciencia was establishedin 2003 by two of Switzerland's finest alpinists, Stephan Siegrist and Ueli Steck, and freed by the duo in 2008. Its fierce reputation was further enhanced after the first repeat in 2011 by David Lama, who told planetmountain in no uncertain terms "I've rarely climbed such a demanding route."

Welfringer’s words echoed this sentiment "All the 24 pitches requires full focus, especially the sketchy 7a/b with big runouts and poor protections. Finally the crux pitches weren't that hard compare to other lower graded. But the whole route from 6a chimney to crimpy 8a offers magnificent pitches.Of course, the rock is loose in some part of the easy pitches but in the hard ones I think it's one the most beautiful limestone of Europe."

This repeat caps a highly successful summer for Welfringer, but also for Favre who a few weeks ago with Siebe Vanhee pulled off the first repeat of Parzival, the 8b multi-pitch established by Michael Wohlleben in 2017 at Westliche Dreifaltigkeit in Switzerland.