Ines Papert enforcing Law and Order (M13, 45m), Kaiser Mountains, Germany. Papert is the first woman to climb the mixed grade, downplaying her accomplishment on this horizontal roof near her home as training for a climbing vacation to Iceland. The steep line has almost no foot placements and requires thin, bad hooks and unusual rests. [Photo] Ines Papert collection
Off the ice competition circuit to enjoy time with her family and more leisure climbing, Ines Papert entertained herself with Law and Order (M13, 45m) on February 16. It was her third day of working the line. The route climbs out a steep, dark cave hidden in Tyrol’s Kaiser Mountains near Salzburg, one hour west from Papert’s home in Germany. Papert is the first woman to climb the mixed grade, but she downplays her accomplishment as merely training “to get back in shape for Iceland,” where she and Audrey Gariepy took a “more than excellent” vacation to establish new lines from February 22 to March 7.
The cave that houses Law and Order was found by Markus Bendler of Austria and sports a number of hard mixed and ice climbs. Bender bolted Law and Order in 2005 and climbed it one year later; Hari Berger and Mauro “Bubu” Bole have repeated the route. Papert made its fourth ascent, with Bender belaying, after two days of work earlier in the season with Bubu. Papert said that she would only have one chance to redpoint that day, as the route is so pumpy that “if you fall close to the top, you have no more energy left for another try. That’s why I did not fall.” Papert nailed a cruxy section fifteen meters up that required a reachy stein-pull at the lip of a roof, followed by two figure fours. Her spurless ascent took thirty-five minutes. She was forced to rest in unusual positions and use “new movements for myself, changing tools and keeping them in my mouth. It made me strong for our projects in Iceland.”
Gariepy joined Papert shortly afterward for a trip to Breidalsvik and Kaldakinn, Iceland, establishing numerous routes up to WI6+ and M10, bolted ground up. One of their greatest accomplishments was climbing thirteen hours straight to accrue over 1000 meters of WI4 and harder in a single day. They set their sights on this goal after craving long (200-400-meter) routes in the south of Iceland that were not in condition due to warm weather.