The probably strongest climbing couple in the world has struck again: Jacopo Larcher and Babsi Zangerl have succeeded in redpointing Alex Luger's testpiece The Gift (8c, 350m) in the Rätikon. Jacopo secured the first repeat with his ascent on August 12th, and Babsi secured the first female ascent of the difficult multi-pitch route three days later.
The Gift With difficulties up to 8c and limited traditional protection in the lower part, it is one of the most difficult alpine multi-pitch routes in the Rätikon. 2014 by the top Austrian athlete Alex Luger first ascended and free climbed in one day in 2016, the line remained unrepeated for years.
In 2021, Babsi Zangerl and Jacopo Larcher looked at the difficult key pitch for the first time. This summer they wanted to get down to business. After a total of 6 days on the wall, both were able to lead climb all seven pitches of The Gift without falling.
The Gift: A 5-star line
The Gift begins with traditional alpine climbing. The climbing difficulty reaches its peak on the last few pitches. The key pitch is 8c, followed by an 8a+ pitch with a tricky boulder problem. These two pitches are the hardest on the entire route.
"On our first day this summer, we climbed to the crux pitch, which was nerve-wracking due to the limited protection in the lower part of the route," says Babsi Zangerl.
The crux is a stunning grey overhanging strip on perfect
Babsi Zangerl
Limestone. It really can't get any better than that!
The Gift, the strong Austrian concludes, is a 5-star line that offers strength-endurance climbing with hard, bouldering sequences. Just what she likes. "We needed the rest of the day to find the different betas and clean all the holds, which are very dirty and slippery after the winter, as the grey strip is often wet."
Two successful redpoint ascents
After a few more days of planning, Jacopo Larcher successfully redpointed The Gift on August 12th, making it the first time the route has been repeated. Just three days later, Babsi Zangerl also managed to climb all of the pitches without falling, adding another First Female Ascent to her impressive list of achievements.
The strong Vorarlberg native describes her ascent of The Gift as follows: «I had a different solution for the crux compared to Jacopo and definitely more problems with a long, far-reaching
Zug. I needed an extra day in the hope of finding an easier solution. Finally, I found a small adjustment that helped make the crux a little less risky.
After a rest day, although I still felt tired, I decided to give it a go. We started in the morning, but we waited for the sun to subside before I started climbing at 13pm.
I felt nervous as I reached the crux, but somehow I managed to save some energy for the low percentage crux and reached the final hold with a maximum pump. When I clipped the anchor, all the pressure fell off my shoulders.
I was just happy that I still had plenty of time and wasn't in a rush for the last two pitches. Everything worked out and we both ended up at the top of the wall, which was a fantastic experience to complete another great project."
The Gift: A really heavy gift
The challenging alpine route The Gift got its name from a noble gesture: Pio Jutz – one of the most active developers of high-end routes in the Rätikon at the time – was originally working on opening the route. When he realized that the route was too difficult to complete himself, he gave the line to Alex Luger, who was the first to ascend The Gift in July 2014 and was able to redpoint it in one day two years later.
That might interest you
- Alex Luger climbs "The Gift" (8c, 350m) in the Rätikon
- Babsi Zangerl and Jacopo Larcher repeat Eternal Flame (650m, 7c+) at the Trango Tower
- Video: A rope team for life - Barbara Zangerl and Jacopo Larcher
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Credits: pictures Noah Insam, Sebastian Ganahl and René Fischer