Ines Papert Repeats Camilotto Pellisier

On the 20th July Ines Papert redpointed Camilotto Pellesier on the world famous north face of Cima Grande di Lavaredo (2,999m). This ascent makes her the first woman to repeat one of several free testpieces of the Tre Cime.

The 11-pitch Camilloto Pellisier's route runs in a direct line from the bottom to the end of the overhanging left part of the Cima Grande north wall and was established in 1967 by Enrico Mauro and Mirko Minuzzo. With 340 bolts and about 50 pitons used, it was more a bolted "via ferrata" than a climbing route. In August 2003 Mauro “Bubu” Bole made the first free ascent of the route at 8b. Bubu did not add  new drilled protection but he re-bolted the belays.
Ines started working on Camilotto last year but failed to complete the ascent because of serious accident she had on the south face of Marmolada. Next year, after long recovery and another successful Ice World Cup season, German mixed-climbing specialist returned to the route. “It was a long recovery and I had a lot of time to think about it”, says Papert. “For me it was something which was already open and not finished. I felt that the route was waiting for me. This summer I felt that the time has come . My ankle is good enough at the moment, although it’s still swollen, and there’s still a lot of metal inside: twelve screws and a long plate, but still it’s better than I thought it would be.”
It turned out to be a long battle for Ice World Champion. “On the first days I spent on the route the weather was really bad. Usually after one or two hours of climbing it was starting to rain”, recalls Ines. “When it only rained, it was not a problem, because the wall is overhanging, but when there were thunderstorms I was scared and abseiled down many times. So in total, bad weather days included, it  took me 15 days to work on the route. Nine days of working alone on the fixed rope and six days with partner. I had two final RP attempts, the second one was successful.”

On the 20th of July, in the morning, reigning ice champion appeared at the foot of Cima Grande north face together with her climbing partner Wasti Schöndorfer and the photographer Rainer Eder. It turned out to be a successful attempt and  Rainer could take pictures of the real first ascent. “In fact it happened by chance”, explains Papert, “Rainer was leaving to the States the following week and he wanted to make the photos before. I had told him that I wouldn’t pose, I couldn’t do repeat any moves, because my goal was to lead the route. Rainer  was absolutely easy about that”.

Camilotto is already the third extremely hard multi-pitch route Ines  repeated in the past 3 years. In 2003 she did Symphonie de Liberte on Eiger’s north face and in 2004 she did the third RP ascent of Letzte Ausfahrt Titlis on the east face of Titlis. In her opinion, because of its sustained character, Cima Grande line is  the hardest one of the three of them.

Soon you’ll find a new interview with Ines on ClimbAndMore!