Some background for those of you wondering why this has come to a head recently, some background on the Hasse-Brandler.
The Cima Grande di Lavaredo is one of the six classic north faces of The Alps. Unlike the others, though, its is a huge overhanging pure rock wall rather than the mixed alpine terrain more typical of the Eiger or Matterhorn.
The
first ascent of The Direttissima was in 1958, after many attempts and failures, and took four days of sustained hard aid climbing, and left 180 pitons in situ, plus bolts, wedges threads etc. The second ascent followed immediately, and added another 40 pitons.
It wasn't climbed free until 1987, by a strong German team led by Kurt Albert. Over the next twenty years it became one of the most sought over free routes in The Alps. For a personal perspective by an 8c climber,
see here.
Dolomite limestone is inherently loose, friable - not your typical continental bolted limestone, more what the french call 'terrain d'aventure'. The route is not an obvious choice for free soloing.
On August 1 2002, I climbed the Direttissima (5.12a, 550m, Brandler-Hasse-Lehn-Low, 1958; FFA, Albert-Sprachmann, 1987) of the Cima Grande di Lavaredo free solo, with nothing more than climbing shoes, chalk bag and helmet. I started climbing at 7 a.m. and reached the summit after approximately four hours. The route is eighteen pitches long, with one pitch of 5.12, four of 5.11 and four of 5.10. I had spent six days on the route before my solo. The first time, I climbed the route onsight with Guido Unterwurzacher. I then trained on the route for five days with Michi Althammer until I knew the route and its difficult passages well and above all until I knew which holds I could trust in the not-always-solid dolomite typical of the Cime di Lavaredo.
The rock in the Dolomites is quite friable. Don't you feel that you are stacking up the odds when free soloing on such rock?
As the rock on the Direttissima is friable, I was forced to avoid many questionable holds and instead use many small but solid holds. This made the route harder than its normal grade. Even more, I had to climb three consecutive overhanging pitches in a row, with no rests, since that section is protected by hanging belays. This made the route significantly harder than its guidebook grade, 5.12a.
- Alex Huber, Germany
Huber's ascent included a twenty minute rest on a ledge below the crux section, where he calmed down from the inital pitches and considered whether to continue onto the irreversible crux pitches. Despite having 'spent six days on the route, studying the sequence of the most difficult sections and marking with chalk crucial holds', it still took four hours.
Simpson's account is
here.
Approximately 1 hour 37 minutes later I arrived at the summit, having climbed the last five or six easy pitches in roughly twenty minutes
Removing the twenty minutes for the top six pitches leaves 1hr 17m for the other 12 pitches of sustained E2-E5 climbing - 6.41 minutes per pitch. In his own words, 'that pace is outstanding'.
So is Huber slow by nature? No, in '07, when he and brother Thomas held the speed record for the Nose at 2:45:45 (since broken twice, current 2:36:45, Leary/ Potter) working out that 'they ascended at an incredible rate of almost 6.1m per minute'.
Assuming only 25 metres per pitch on the Hasse-Brandler, Simpson was moving at speeds not dissimilar. On the crux three pitches he also had some ropework to contend with:
I threaded the rope through the belay anchor and tied into both ends; when arriving at the next anchor, I’d untie one end and pull the rope through
Knocking off time for each pull-through, plus coiling and uncoiling ropes - say ten minutes total - leaves 67 minutes for 12 pitches. Lets say each pitch is 25 metres (Stu - is that reasonable?) leaves him climbing at ~4 metres per minute.
Compare the videos of speed soloing on the Nose and Huber on the Hasse-Brandler, and consider the difference in speed. Why? Friable limestone is not an obvious choice for speed soloing; granite cracks are. Trying to climb fast on that rock is suicidal - even with the solid holds tick-marked.
Simpson's claim should have been the climbing news story of the year, and yet it has been ignored by every site or magazine in the world (except Climb). Why? Its simply not credible.