Salbitschijen Winter trilogy completed by Lukas Hinterberger, Michael Wohlleben

On the 15th and 16th of 16 February 2023 German alpinists Lukas Hinterberger and Michael Wohlleben managed to enchain three ridges in Switzerland considered absolute classics, namely the West, South and East Ridge of Salbitschiijen. The pair needed circa 45 hours to climb the more than 80 pitches and in doing so they were confronted with the entire spectrum of what a mountain can offer from perfect granite to chossy rock, snow, ice and avalanche-prone terrain. Their ascent came about after a failed attempt last year and is believed to be the first winter ascent of the Salbitschijen trilogy. Wohlleben provides the details.

Michi, first off: what does the Salbitschijen winter trilogy entail?
The Salbit trilogy in summer has actually become a great classic among ambitious climbers, mountaineers, etc. It is the linkup of the south, west and east ridge. In summer there are 80 pitches with almost perfect rock, except for the east ridge. In winter it's a completely different issue. For us the ascents and descents, the abseils down the south face and the couloir, the snow and ice plastered on the hundreds of towers are all relatively straightforward technically, but the entire project is an extremely complex undertaking.

Teams in summer usually need an entire day for this. We originally thought we'd manage to pull it off in 24 hours or do it by climbing non-stop, but we soon realised that what we were looking for an adventure, and therefore that we didn't want to be dependent on time. So we planned to for one and, if necessary, even two bivouacs. Like this were were certain we'd succeed.

How did the idea come about?
I got the idea of the first winter trilogy a long time ago, with Ueli Steck while doing the first winter traverse of the Tre Cime di Lavaredo in the Dolomites. That felt like a super cool project and the Salbit trilogy was an obvious next choice. Lukas also had the same idea and while drinking coffee after a day at the crag we realised that we both wanted to do it.

Had you climbed the routes before in summer?
I'd never done the Trilogy, although I've guided Salbit a couple of times and I climbed it once as as a kid Lukas did the Trilogy a few years ago in 16.5 hours.

So how did the ascent go? Did anything surprise you?
Surprised? On 80 pitches across this terrain everything is a surprise and uncertain. It was surprising that abseiling into the south face and the south couloir went faster than expected, we were extremely lucky when digging out the belays...that's why this hurdle was relatively easy. Before that we never knew if we would even manage to get down there. The West Ridge proved challenging, in particular the first tower, because a lot of snow had accumulated there. This transformed in the afternoon and entire pitches were completely wet. We also had to fight on the first pitches of the second tower which were icy and we really didn't know if we'd succeed. Having said that things went pretty much as planned.

We found a great spot on the west ridge for our bivy. The next morning the traverse from the normal couloir to the start of the East Ridge proved challenging due to the risk of avalanches: the slppe was steep and we had to wade through chest-deep snow... but somehow we managed. We experienced a last surprise on the east ridge. This is actually the most alpine ridge of all, so we expected to be very slow, but we managed to climb it extremely quickly and efficiently by short roping. We were less tired than expected and managed to avoid a second bivy and stood on the summit for the last time at around 8 p.m.

What's the appeal of an undertaking of this sort ?
The attraction was to experience an adventure completely on our own on this mountain. We have saw a soul on Salbit in winter :-). And of course there's the appeal of attempting a logical project that pushes us to, or even beyond, our limit. In the end we had to dig in deep and rely on all our mountaineering experience to make it happen, without having to travel to distant lands.

What does this trilogy represent to you?
The importance of a project... I've got incredible memories of those two days with an extremely good friend, with whom I went through thick and thin. It made us feel alive, like seldom before. But in the greater picture, when compared to global issues the world is currently facing, it's no more important than a single grain of sand in the sea. And that's a good thing :-)

Links: www.michiwohlleben.de, Petzl, SCARPA