The late, great climber Hansjorg Auer described the Schiefer Riss route up the north face of Sagwandspitze as one of the most terrifying climbs in the Austrian Tyrol. In 2013, he, David Lama, and Peter Ortner became the first to complete the line in winter.
It took them two tries, including “the worst night of their lives” on the brittle rock of that cold and hostile face.
Sagwandspitze. Photo: Martin Sieberer
Earlier this week, two elite alpinists, Simon Gietl and Martin Sieberer, finally repeated that momentous line.
The route
Schiefer Riss (meaning “inclined crack”) is a diagonal route on the fragile and often wet rock of an 800m face. Hias Rebitsch and Roland Berger first climbed it (in summer) in 1947. No one repeated it for almost 30 years. Only a handful of teams have attempted it at any time of year.
The route on Sagwandspitze (3,227m). Photo: Martin Sieberer
After the talented trio did the first winter climb in 2013, Hansjorg Auer said: “The grade makes no sense here because no grade is capable of describing the level of commitment we had to assume in order to reach the summit.”
After doing the first winter repetition, Martin Sieberer agrees.
Sieberer inches up difficult, fragile rock. Photo: Simon Gietl
Why so scary
“The grade of Schiefer Riss is about VI/M7 and 80º on ice/snow, but on that route, it is not the grade that matters,” Sieberer told ExplorersWeb. “It’s the sustained steepness, combined with brittle rock, difficulty, and length. The face is about 800m high, but since you climb a lot sideways, the total length is actually about 1,000m (20 pitches).”
Sieberer adds that it involves many hard pitches, hardly any fixed gear, loose rock, and no good bivy spots. “We slept on a narrow ledge with half a tent and only one sleeping pad,” he said.
The sketchy bivy the climbers pitched on a narrow ledge on the night of February 23. Photo: Martin Sieberer
The Austrian climber is not surprised that so few have climbed it. In summer, unstable rock makes the face even more hazardous. “It’s safer in winter,” he says.
But that safety is relative, as he noted:
We were quite scared at some points, because there are so many loose flakes just waiting to fall down. We even had a rope cut by a falling rock on the first day. On some pitches, the only protection is mental (not really enough to stop a fall), so you definitely have a lot of no-fall zones. We also had to be extremely careful descending, since we rappelled the whole face.
Gietl takes care not to fall while melting snow for breakfast. Photo: Martin Sieberer
A late friend’s dream
“Do not underestimate that wall!” said David Lama, who died with Auer and Jess Roskelley in 2019 in an avalanche in the Canadian Rockies. Lama called the Sagwand north face “the Tyrolean Eiger.”
In 2022, Martin Feistl, a rising star in elite Austrian climbing, attempted the route with Amelie Kuehne but had to turn around mid-wall. Yet the challenge fascinated him, and he planned to try again, this time with a three-person team that included Gietl and Sieberer. Unfortunately, Feistl didn’t live to make his dream come true. He fell 40m to his death last year while free soloing the south face of the Scharnitzspitze. He was just 27.
The north face: constantly in the shadow. Photo: Martin Sieberer
Strangers on the wall
Gietl, from the Italian part of the Tyrol, and Sieberer, from the Austrian side, had never climbed together before. They wanted to take on the project as a memorial to their common friend, Martin Feistl.
“Martin Feistl mobilized Simon and me to join him on the route, and we planned to attempt the climb as soon as conditions allowed,” Sieberer told ExplorersWeb.
A section of water ice. Photo: Simon Gietl
They credit their success in large part to the detailed information that Feistl and Amelie Kuehne shared with them, particularly how to navigate through the maze of rock and icicles on the lower part of the route.
Sieberer, in yellow, and Gietl on the summit of Sagwandspitze. Photo: Martin Sieberer
