[Nibile]

a previously unknown austrian climber named auer, at the end of april has free soloed the "via attraverso il pesce" (aka "the fish) in the south face of marmolada, italy.
he soloed the route with shoes, chalkbag and helmet, in two hours fiftyfive minutes.
it wheighs in at 7b+ and 33 pitches, for the few ones that may have not heard about the route. its mostly vertical.
its a major, major achievement in bouldering highballs.

[andy_e]

Good effort by that lad. Although Auer in german means meadows, what a cool name... He must have Stahleier though.

[BenF]

Great effort indeed.  The Fish was a route that really inspired me when I first started climbing and I remember reading an account of it in an edition of Mountain magazine (therefore rather a long time ago).  Awesome piece of rock and an awesome line.  What an experience it must be to solo at that kind of level in that kind of terrain.  If the guy ever posts on here, he can have some waddage from me!

[jwi]

Blew my mind.
Read an account in Rotpunkt around 94 or so of some chick (Lovisa something I think, really really good Italian climber from back then) doing this route.  The photos from the article about Der Fish are still lodged firmly in my mind. Can never claim the O/S (as if....). Seems to be a proper hard route, and scary to boot: even if runouts are less likely to bother the soloist.

[RASTATA]

Indeed. If I'm correct Hainz Mariacher made together with his wife Luisa Iovane first free ascent in 1982. Maybe Nibs know for sure.

[El Mocho]

I wanted to go and try this in the summer but it looks like we might be heading to the Picos instead. Went to the Marmalada about 10yrs ago to try the Fish but weather was wack so never got on it.

I thought Igor Koller was involved in the first free ascent as well as making the first ascent with some aid (in 1981 at something like VI and A1 - all subsequent ascents felt it was A3 or harder and after I took a 50ft fall off an Koller A1 move when my sky hook ripped I know what they mean)

Waddage for the solo must have been ace doing it.

[Bonjoy]

 I've always fancied this route, although Bentley's accident did put me off slightly

[andy popp]

I always wanted to do it too after experiencing the Picos but it never happened. Cavey's done it of course. El Mocho, the Picos are class. Do you have any specific targets? The Murciana route Nick and I freed on the West face of El Naranjo was superb but of course Pou et all have done much harder things since.

[Nibile]

im not sure mariacher freed the route. im sure it was a pretty good team: heiz mariacher (fa of 8b's still to be repeated...), luisa jovane (8b sport), and "manolo" zanolla(!!!). they were caught by darkness one time, and manolo rappelled from a cliffhanger by candlelight...
anyway...i think the first free was by roland mittersteiner.

anyway...a friend of mine (crazy mutherf****) did the route a couple of years ago. he was belaying, and his partner was sketchy and told him "watch me, cos if i fall here we get hurt". to which my friend politely answered "no, if you fall here we both die".

[Nibile]

awash at sea.

[sharkey]

Stella achievement, takes being in the zone to a new level, it is hard to comprehend the comitment required for something like that. What an amazing place the south face of the Marmolada is, at a sligthly less modest grade i did the Don Quioxte route with my girlfriend a few years back and gazed over that wall with extreme awe, i think i heard that the Fish completley free using brit grades has many pitches like solid E6!!

[Nibile]

the above picture was taken by a party on the don quixote.
its the only proof of the ascent, for those fools who always doubt. its an amazing pic. carpenter effect a go-go.
dunno about the brit grades but its french 7b+ with potential lethal falls.

[a dense loner]

it looks fuckin amazin, and that's swearing

[Nibile]

i hope i dont become boring with this subject, but with a friend of mine were talking about this feat, and thought its been the end of the possible volution in alpinism/climbing, as an overall achievement for risk taking, skills, and pure will.
i was thinking about dean potter's solos in yosemite, but theyre not free climbed. also thought about alex hubers solo on brandler-hasse, but its much much shorter, one number grade easier (at 7a/+) and, despite on poor rock, overhanging, so with actual holds to pull onto, instead of drawn ones.
what else?
manfred stuffer soloed alot on the dolomites lately, but on shorter routes and on easier terrain.
nothing else vaguely comparable comes to my mind.
i sincerely think one cannot do better, except in raising the thechnical difficulties, on similarly long and precarious routes.

the more i think about what he has done the more speechless (although from this post it could seem not), and amazed i am.
to me this is the greatest achievement in climbing history.

[andy_e]

Whilst googling for a picture of balls of steel to describe this man's actions, I came across this thing:

 

[Nibile]

...talk about "family jewels"!!!

[sharkey]

I thought of comparisons with Hubers ascent which was pretty breathtaking, but taking into account his credentials for ground breaking hard ascents, 7a must be a relative  path to Uber Huber, this 23 year old must have been so close to oblivion at times making this ascent, as you say a truly superhuman feat.

[Paul B]

the more i think about what he has done the more speechless (although from this post it could seem not), and amazed i am.
to me this is the greatest achievement in climbing history.

Although I'm amazed at this (balls of steel for sure), I think thats a bit of a bold statement to make!

[Somebody's Fool]

the more i think about what he has done the more speechless (although from this post it could seem not), and amazed i am.
to me this is the greatest achievement in climbing history.

Although I'm amazed at this (balls of steel for sure), I think thats a bit of a bold statement to make!

You're not wrong there Paul. These days people are too quick to forget about things like the sit start to Local Hero when making such rash claims.

Although I'll forgive Nibile this time though as I assume he's never climbed at Wimberry.

[Nibile]

my fault nonetheless.

[jwi]

the more i think about what he has done the more speechless (although from this post it could seem not), and amazed i am.
to me this is the greatest achievement in climbing history.

Me too. For sure this have to be one of the best ascents ever. The standard for multi pitch free-soloing have just been improved in leap and bounds.  33 pitches, vertical 7b+, some rotten rock, and tainted only by some minimal preinspection. Not only mus Auer be really competent, he must also have lady luck on his side. For that I salute him.