Nina Caprez manages the third repetition of the heavy multi-pitch route Headless Children in the climbing area Rätikon.
The Swiss all-round climber Nina Caprez is back in her homeland and makes short work of heavy alpine routes. As the third person, she manages the redpoint ascent of the 260 Meter long multi-pitched trip Headless Children (8b - Top) on the Schijenfluh im Rätikon.
In 2017, the weather was thwarted
Nina Caprez looked at the tour last year and made a few attempts: "The weather wasn't very stable last year, which is why I had to postpone a serious climb," Nina explains to LACRUX. So she returned in September of this year and invested three days until it worked with the passage.
Nina Caprez in an interview about Headless Children
we have with Nina Caprez talked about the multi-pitched tour on the Schijenfluh and asked her what the challenges were for her personally.
The place out of the roof is pretty shaky. Was that the key point for you?
At this point, I tried a long time, but when I had the beta raushatte, went by itself. It was just a heavy bouder, where you need a flexible hip and a good body feeling. The teeth I have but really on a heavy Boulderstelle with small bars (7c +) bite. That was clearly the key point for me, and I would not be surprised if it were rated 8a.
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What was the biggest challenge in general?
As always in such a long tour: You have to know the whole tour well and climb as easy as if you were in a climbing garden. The lengths are very athletic and if you are cramped then it gets tight with the walk-through.
I feel most comfortable in a large wall - Nina Caprez
Was there some sort of recipe for the way through?
I had been in Paris three days before for a lecture and just felt like climbing. Back in Rätikon The weather was not so good and I should have waited even better conditions. But the joy and joy of climbing were just too big. When I went through the 8b-length and hung on the roof, hats started to hail. I was really lucky that I could climb the length even when wet. Then it started to rain really heavy, so I had to return to the rain-safe state. There we ate Nüssli for two hours and just hoped that it would open. And that's it. My partner then climbed the 8b length and I took out the slings so we had material for the last two pitches. It was quite a challenge to climb these two lengths half-wet. But in the end everything went well.
You seem to be in top shape. Do you train specifically against projects / routes like Headless Children?
I'm just so motivated for climbing this year and I like to climb long projects anyway. In the winter months I was very much in the hall at the Boudern and on the rope, then five weeks in Greece and my last trip in one of the heaviest multi-pitcher tours in the world, Tough enough, sure was a good workout.
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At this point the motto is "feet first"!
Headless Children was established in the 90er years
The route was set up in 1997-1999 by Marco Müller, Koni Mathis, Rüdisser Bruno and Mark Amann climbed red point for the first time. After that, you didn't hear about the nine pitches on the Schijenfluh for a long time. Not until 2016 when the Austrian Kilian Fischhuber repeated the tour for the first time, the route was discussed again. “A friend showed me photos and I immediately wanted to know everything about the route. At this point, however, I didn't think about trying. That only came a few days later, ”explains Kilian.
Video of the inspection of Headless Children by Kilian Fischhuber
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Credits: Cover picture Stefan Kiitzi