Vertical Jungfrau Marathon by Roger Schäli & David Hefti

"It’s complex. Complete. Requires a bit of everything. And it follows a beautiful, fascinating line that you can see from the valley floor all the way to the summit." This is how Swiss alpinist Roger Schäli described the so-called ‘Jungfraumarathon’ a huge +3300m elevation gain outing that leads from the Lauterbrunnental all the way to the summit of Jungfrau in the Bernese Oberland.

The "vertical marathon" follows two existing routes, Stägers Bürtblätz (350m, 7a+) and Fätze und Bitze (300m, 7a) before following the long Rotbrättgrat ridge to the 4156m high summit. The first to climb this combination, over two days in 1997, were Sacha Wettstein and Andreas Leibundgut while on 22 August 2013 Schäli teamed up with David Hefti for a 16-hour push, setting off at 3:30 at night and summiting at 19:30

"Even today I consider it an important ascent" Schäli told planetmountain.com "in some respects it’s absolutely unique in the Alps."

Links: rogerschaeli.ch, Petzl, La Sportiva