Berger was a champion competition ice climber, winning the world championship three times and had just repeated Markus Bendler's Law and Order M13, Diebsfen sterreich, earlier in the week. He was also an exceptional all-round climber with many hard mutli-pitch ascents as well as hard ice. A recent trip took him to Madagascar where with Florian Scheimpflug, Ondra Benes, Tom Sobotka he established the 2,400-foot Short Cut (Fr 7c+))