A few days after making the first repeat of David Lama’s and Peter Mühlberger’s Sagzahnverschneidung, Martin Feistl teamed up with Sven Brand and returned to the Valsertal to add an difficult direct start to the Rampenführe, the first route up the cold north face of Sagwand established in 1925 by Josef Harold and Helmut Scharfetter.
Feistl and Brand initially believed they were following the first two pitches of the winter version of Schiefer Riss, first climbed in March 2013 by Hansjörg Auer, David Lama e Peter Ortner with one bivouac, but later realised they shared only a brief section on the first snowfield before continuing directly up towards Rampenführe. The new variation is 300m high and breaches difficulties up to M6, WI 4, X. On joining Rampenführe Feistl and Brand pushed on to the summit, producing a total of 950m of climbing in 11 hours. It should be noted that another party retreated from an attempt a few days later, leaving pegs and nuts insitu used for the abseils. Let’s see, what Martin tells about the experience …
