Stunning footage of Kastenwand’s Mayr/Auer

In the fall of 2013, Hansjorg Auer and Much Mayr made the first ascent of a route up the Kastenwand in Pinnistal, Austria.

Hansjorg Auer wrote the following on his blog.

“The legendary Kastenwand located on Ilmspitzen in Pinnistal/Stubai catches the eye because of its quadratic shape and the horizontal cracks. The rock quality is not the best and loose rock characterises more or less all of the climbs in this region. In summer 1990 Andreas Orgler established the only route after seven days of work split over seven years. He called it “Chaos” as one of his greatest first ascents in this area. Orgler established a great amount of new routes over the years. All of the wildest and most adventurous climbs in the Stubai Alps are still to his credit and their names speak for themselves. But not only in alpine rock climbing he pushed the limit. Ice climbing was his second big passion and he was one of the leading athletes raising the bar in the 80s. With the first ascents of Masherbrum NW-Face/Karakorum in 1985 and the still unrepeated “Wine Bottle” on Mt. Dickey/Alaska in 1998 he became known throughout the international alpine scene. In 1995 he was honored with the Piolet d´Or. Unfortunately he died during a hang glider competition in Australia by reason of a material defect in January 2007.

“Now Much Mayr and I opened the second route on the wall slightly right of “Chaos.” After three days of searching a way through the unstructured rock face we grabbed its first ascent this week. Technically it was not very hard, but mentally super challenging to open the pitches and to climb into the unknown. Falling was not an option. The belays are equipped at least with one piton while on the 7 pitches itself you will find only seven pitons and two bird beaks. For those who wants to repeat the route, bring two sets of cams down to the smallest sizes and a hammer. We suggest a grade around UIAA 8-/8.

“We still have no name for the route. So we will leave Mayr/Auer.”

Kastenwand – alpine first ascent – Much Mayr & Hansjörg Auer from Hansjörg Auer on Vimeo.