Ines Papert

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The route was established in 1967 by Enrico Mauro and Mirko Minuzzo. With 340 bolts and about 50 pitons used, it was more a bolted "via ferrata" than a climbing route. In August 2003 Mauro “Bubu” Bole made the first free ascent of the route at 8b. Bubu did not add new drilled protection but he re-bolted the belays.

Ines started working on Camilotto 2005 but failed to complete the ascent because of serious accident she had on the south face of Marmolada. Next year, after long recovery and another successful Ice World Cup season, German mixed-climbing specialist returned to the route. “It was a long recovery and I had a lot of time to think about it”, says Papert. “For me it was something which was already open and not finished. I felt that the route was waiting for me. This summer I felt that the time has come . My ankle is good enough at the moment, although it’s still swollen, and there’s still a lot of metal inside: twelve screws and a long plate, but still it’s better than I thought it would be.”

It turned out to be a long battle for Ice World Champion. “On the first days I spent on the route the weather was really bad. Usually after one or two hours of climbing it was starting to rain”, recalls Ines. “When it only rained, it was not a problem, because the wall is overhanging, but when there were thunderstorms I was scared and abseiled down many times. So in total, bad weather days included, it took me 15 days to work on the route. Nine days of working alone on the fixed rope and six days with partner. I had two final RP attempts, the second one was successful.”

On the 20th of July, in the morning, reigning ice champion appeared at the foot of Cima Grande north face together with her climbing partner Wasti Schöndorfer and the photographer Rainer Eder. It turned out to be a successful attempt and Rainer could take pictures of the real first ascent. “In fact it happened by chance”, explains Papert, “Rainer was leaving to the States the following week and he wanted to make the photos before. I had told him that I wouldn’t pose, I couldn’t do repeat any moves, because my goal was to send the route. Rainer was absolutely easy about that”.

Camilotto is already the third extremely hard multi-pitch route Ines repeated in the past 3 years. In 2003 she did Symphonie de Liberte on Eiger’s north face and in 2004 she did the third RP ascent of Letzte Ausfahrt Titlis on the east face of Titlis. In her opinion, because of its sustained character, Cima Grande line is the hardest one of the three of them.