Ines Papert onsights Flying Circus

One of the toughest and most challenging alpine mixed routes of the world, the legendary Flying Circus (Switzerland) first climbed by Robert Jasper  07.02.1998, has been climbed for the first time by a woman – Ines Papert. Exactly on the day of the tenth anniversary of the first ascent  well-known German climber onsighted the route.

In 1998 German alpinist Robert Jasper spent 8 days spread over 2 months working on the 145-meter line. The route climbs out of an enormous cave at the foot of the wall and the first two pitches are overhangin by 45o. Robert redpointed the route accompanied by his wife Daniela. They  named the line Flying Circus and  rated the pitches as follows: pitch 1 – M9 (25m), pitch 2 – M10 (35m), pitch 3 – M7 (30m), pitch 4 – easy  (45 m). Only the belays were equipped with bolts, on the pitches only pitons, friends and nuts were used.

Here is a short report by Ines:

“I had been thinking about climbing that route for a long time. This time I was very lucky that all the factors necessary to realize this project were at my side. The route was unclimbed for several years and it was almost a miracle that there was still some ice on it.
When I stood under the overhanging wall, full of icicles that resembled shark’s teeth, I was both scared and thrilled. This was the result of   mixed feelings of respect to the wall and anticipation. Feeling like  I was inside of a cathedral I started to hum J.S. Bach melody. This helped me to regain  my strength .
I climbed the first meters slowly and carefully, concentrating on not making any mistakes because  my only  protection were  few pitons and ice screws. With every move I gained more self-confidence and I was feeling happy to reach the belay after climbing the first M9 pitch. However now I had to face M10, 35-meter long, slightly  traversing. At this point I almost lost one ice screw and ice tool. Luckily they stuck on the hood of my jacket so I managed to catch them. Uff, what a stress! I reach the second stand happy but with burning in my arms. Thomas [Senf] followed me with ease and no hesitation, proving a real class. There were still two long mixed pitches to climb. Finally, full of pride, we got to the top. Below us there was one of the most beautiful mixed routes I had ever climbed."