Madeleine Cope deals with difficult trad slab Prinzip Hoffnung
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Jacopo Larcher
British rock climber Madeleine Cope has made a swift ascent of Prinzip Hoffnung, the difficult and delicate crack at Bürs, Austria, originally established by Beat Kammerlander as a sport route and then climbed trad by Kammerlander himself in 2009. This 8b/8b+, E9-E10 is rapidly becoming a coveted line to test technique and mettle and was in the news only last week thanks to Austria’s Nadine Wallner who pulled off the second female ascent after Barbara Zangerl.
While Cope’s ascent may come as a surprise to some, it truth it shouldn’t. In recent years the Sheffield-based climber has amassed a climbing curriculum that spans the spectrum, from 8c sport climbing (Bat Route at Malham Cove, UK) to E9 trad (Once Upon a Time in the South West at Dyer's Lookout, UK). Ascents of Freerider all free on El Capitan in Yosemite and the American Direct on the Petit Dru in the Mont Blanc massif indicate that she is equally at home on big walls and in the high mountains, and her repeat of Prinzip Hoffnung early yesterday morning simply confirms her extraordinary talent and tenacity.
