Barbara Zangerl from Vorarlberg manages only the second ascent of the Sprengstoff route (9a) on Lorünser Wändle.
Initially dared Babsi Zangerl certainly not on the route. The motivation to plan the line and start from scratch was too low. But the first ascent by her partner in winter 2020 gave Babsi the necessary drive to tackle this complex puzzle.
Falling on the last exe of explosives was pretty nerve-wracking. Actually, I always thought that I could no longer fall there. And so the whole project got an extra dose of mental challenge.
Babsi Zangerl
But Babsi stayed with it and didn't think about giving up. But on the contrary. For her, the coolest thing about project planning was that she got up fully motivated every day and was looking forward to the next session in the project.
Actually, this would have been planned as a resting point, but Babsi had to let go
On last Friday the time had come. Babsi battled the pumps in the very endurance-heavy route and says it is probably the most difficult and best route she has ever climbed. That is quite something.
Babsi Zangerl is one of the strongest and most versatile climbers in the world and proves this in big wall routes like The nose, Trad routes like Green Spit or sport climbing routes like Speed Integrale.
Via the explosives route in Vorarlberg
Sprengstoff (9a) is a line in the Vorarlberg climbing area that has long been known as the “Lorünser Project” Lorenser Wandle. The route became a climbing legend in the 90s Beat Kammerlander established, but remained without red point ascent for around a quarter of a century. This was despite the fact that numerous climbers had broken their teeth on the route.
In winter 2020 Jacopo Larcher close this chapter and freely climb the route.
With the naming it makes Jacopo an allusion to the fact that all sectors are located on the property of Steinbruch Lorüns GmbH and that there was meanwhile fear that the sectors might fall victim to the company's work.
I very much hope that this area will continue in the future because it is a wonderful area (not just for climbers) and there are still tons of difficult projects waiting to be climbed.
Jacopo Larcher
The company recently submitted a so-called deforestation application, which made the local climbing scene sit up and take notice. According to the latest information, the climbing sectors and thus routes will be preserved for at least the next 15 years. Motivated repeaters, nothing stands in the way of the second ascent of the route explosive (9a) to get.
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Credits: Cover picture Jacopo Larcher