Prinzip Hoffnung


Prinzip Hoffnung, is a long traditional climbing route on a thin crack up a conglomerate rock slab on the "Bürs plate cliff" overlooking the village of Bürs in Vorarlberg, Austria. The route was greenpointed by Austrian climber in 2009, and was one of the earliest traditional climbing routes to be graded at 5.14 R, 8b/+, X/X+, or E9-E10 ; it is still considered one of the hardest traditional climbing routes in the world.

History

The blank south-facing black conglomerate slab on the "Bürs plate cliff" that overlooks the village of Bürs in Vorarlberg, had been known to climbers in the region as a possible project.
In 1997, Austrian climber Marco Wasina made the first redpoint of the lower part of the route up the length of the first thin crack that splits the face, which he did as a bolted sport climb. A few months later, his friend repeated Wasina's route, and then made the difficult moves to extend the route rightwards into another set of even smaller fissure cracks through an almost blank featureless section of to create an even harder sport climb that he graded at 8b/8b+.
In 2009, Kammerlander removed the bolts and spent several months training and mentally preparing himself, to reclimb it as a traditional route. During his attempts, he took several falls from its crux onto small wires below. In September 2009, Kammerlander, aged 50, made the first free ascent of Prinzip Hoffnung as a traditional climb. He said: "The Burs Face has always fascinated me. The climb is very particular and uses tiny edges and footholds. If you try it too often you bloody your fingers and wear through the rubber on your shoes. It's a hell of a battle."
In March 2014, Austrian climber Barbara Zangerl made the fifth overall free ascent and the first female free ascent of the route. Even a decade after Kammerlander's first ascent, the route had only recorded its tenth ascent, and in 2023, the route is still ranked as one of the hardest traditional climbing routes in the world.

Route

The route is described as a mix of a crack climb and of a slab climb. The first section is the thin finger-crack protected by small cams and wires that eventually peters out. The crux is the transition right across the slab and upwards for another to get to a second, very narrow crack, around 9m long, which leads to the top. The crux is described as crimpy and unprotected, and there is a long distance — known in climbing as a runout — to the last point of climbing protection. Falls at the crux are intimidating, with an added danger that if the last micro-wire breaks, the fall can be over in length.

Legacy

The Prinzip Hoffnung route is considered a classic crack/slab traditional climb and an important testpiece, with subsequent repeat climbs of Prinzip Hoffnung being closely followed and recorded in the climbing media. Both British climber Maddy Cope, and American climber Anna Hazlett , said that it was a dream-climb. Hazlett called it "a perfect mix of crack and slab – although it was definitely more cracky than I anticipated".
The route is an important part of Beat Kammerlender's legacy, who was one of Europe's strongest rock climbers in the 1990s, and who made the first-ever ascents of multi-pitch routes at the grade of and of. Kammerlander remarked in 2009 that the climb had "an equal significance in my personal development" as his other major climbing projects that had also required him to develop himself.

Ascents

Prinzip Hoffnung has been ascended by :
First female free ascents were: