Lara Neumeier Climbs Nine-Pitch 5.13d
With support by Nadine Wallner, she became the third woman to repeat the 230-metre Rätikon route
German climber Lara Neumeier has made a rare ascent of Headless Children on the Schijenfluh in the Rätikon, Austria. The route is a nine-pitch 230-metre bolted limestone line with cruxes going at 5.13d.
Neumeier and Nadine Wallner, who was also working on the route, spent four days projecting the individual pitches, before Neumeier climbed the route on her first full lead attempt, on day five. Neumeier is the third woman to climb the route after Nina Caprez and Babsi Zangerl.
“I’ve had the idea of trying Headless Children for a long time,” she said. “At the end of July this year, I finally went up for the first time with Nadine where we checked out the first four pitches. Although we didn’t get very far on our first day, we were motivated to come back soon. So we went back to Rätikon for two days in mid-August to try the upper pitches up to the crux. During these two days, I climbed all the moves except for the famous mantle in the 5.13d pitch.”
Neumeier went searching for beta and found a video of Kilian Fischhuber’s second ascent back in 2016, and photos from Zangerl’s send. “After watching Kilian’s video and Babsi Zangerl’s pictures, we returned at the end of August with a better beta for the mantle and tried it again,” Neumeier said. “Once the mantle worked out, I knew that I was ready to give it a send try. Two days later was the day you always wish for as a multi-pitch climber. With full support from Nadine, I was able to send all pitches to the summit first try on lead.”
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