UKH

Does anyone know what kind of gear Helmut Kiene used on his first ascent of "Pumprisse" back in 1977? It was the first route in the alps graded UIAA 7 and climbed without the use of pitons or bolts.

Without wanting to take away from the achievement of climbing the very impressive Pumprisse, surely it's obvious that there were already routes in the Alps that were actually UIAA VII  or harder way before 1977.

The fact that the UIAA at the time was run by blinkered dinosaurs who were unable to face the fact that younger generations were climbing way harder than they ever did is a minor historical detail that really isn't worth the amount of attention it still gets. (See also: 5.9)

Indeed, that it was "in the Alps" is also an indication of the outdated thinking still prevelant, a summer outing on the Fleishbank is hardly more Alpine than climbing in the Pfalz, I've spent longer looking for crags in the Franken than it takes to walk from the hotel to there.

And it was hexes and big nuts (and balls!), there's a photo on the FA in Alpin.

Good point. I for one doubt the actual existence of the Gotthardskirche

Our first attempt to find Waldkopf ended in the pub, who the f*ck writes in a guidebook  "park at the third pile of logs" in a working forest? .

Gotthardskirche definately exists, I went there with Uli Röker!

Of course there have been several routes which were as hard or even harder than the "Pumprisse" in 1977. But Kiene and Karl were the first to officially grade their route UIAA 7 and publish their decision in a magazine. It was the ignition to eventually open the UIAA scale to harder grades. I must admit that this is a weird story of the UIAA scale and that other grading scales worldwide were much more logical.

What do you mean with balls? Ball nutz?

Testes.

Got it! (Sorry I am not a native speaker)