Beat Kammerlander climbs Drei Siebe at Bürser Platte

Bürser Platte in the news once again. And as so often happens, the reason for this can be found in Beat Kammerlander, the Austrian climber who like few others has helped shaped the development of hard sports climbing and alpine climbing ever since he first started at the end of the 1970's. After numerous important first ascents that span the spectrum from the single pitch Speed 8c+ at Voralpsee to the multi-pitch Silbergeier 8b+ in the Rätikon , the 55-year-old now checks in with an interesting first ascent on the smooth slab located just outside Bürs in the Vorarlberg region of Austria that he believes is a real gem: Drei Siebe.

The route in question lies to the left of Kammerlander's famous Prinzip Hoffnung and despite being a sport climb has some sections that are fairly run out. The bouldery crux start is followed by a second half that is both powerful and technical and although Kammerlander has suggested a "mere" 8b, he also states that Drei Siebe "is one of the routes where the grade is meaningless".

Talking to Planetmountain, Kammerlander explained "there are some routes that are just really hard to climb, regardless of their official grade. In fact, some routes are climbed very rarely indeed while others of the same grade, but of a different style, get repeated very often. Drei Siebe falls into the first category and being really strong physically and superb at Campus Boarding won't get you far, you certainly need to know how to move if you want to get up this complex set of tiny crimps."