UKC

Andrew Hannan shares the first chapter from his manuscript about the history of free climbing, introduces us to Kurt Albert, and explains how the redpoint came to be.

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Hi Andrew, great to see this. What a story!

Mick 

Thank you Mick, and thanks for your support while writing!

Brilliant! 

Good job he wasn't a Nescafe guy.

I once climbed one of his 1978 VI+ (F6a) routes at Streitberger Schild. It was frighteningly run-out and hard. I wish I'd known then his first "rotpunkt" was just around the corner from it. One to go back for I guess...

Yes, Kurt’s grading was merciless. One of the Berlin climbing walls has a route which was actually set by him some 20 years ago; when they moved to a new location they recreated the route, using the original structured panels and holds. It’s called, fittingly enough, “Kurt Albert”, and is horribly hard, requiring very delicate and complicated footwork and disproportionately strong fingers. It still carries the grade of VII+ which Kurt gave it (ca. 6b+/6c), but the general consensus is that VIII-/VIII (6c+/7a) would be more appropriate. It’s still on my list, I must have failed on it at least 20 times so far.

Great article. Are you going to write any more on the earlier trad history of saxony? It's remarkable both for the world leading standards they achieved and the climbing world's general ignorance of that.

I climbed with some guys from Munich '78 - 80 they came over here keen to learn about British free climbing. When I went back over to Germany, they explained the "Redpoint" system as it was then. A red circle painted at the base of a route meant someone was trying to free a climb. Once it had been freed, the circle was filled in and it became a "redpoint".

Thank you! Yes, the early Saxons will have an important place in the projected book; not only was their influence of worldwide importance (e.g. Fritz Wiessner in the Gunks), but they were amazing characters as well (Oliver Perry Smith was the Al Harris of Bad Schandau around 1910, except that he preferred his Maserati to a motorbike; the anecdotes are multitudinous!)

I'm rather speaking off the top of my head here, but I recall that the Rotkreis - the circle - had a slightly more specific meaning: that the route had been climbed in 'af' style. Although this stands for 'alles frei/all free' it doesn't quite fit the current understanding of the term; it refers to an ascent wherein all the individual moves are free-climbed, but resting on [generally fixed?] protection is 'allowed'. I don't think that it quite equates to the French 'tire clou', 'bolt-to-bolting' or 'French free' in that in all these cases one tends to make full use of a piece of gear as soon as it is within reach - whereas with af, in theory at least, one tries to leave the rest point using the same holds from which one initially arrived at it. On the Saxon sandstone af refers to the traditional style of actually taking a hanging belay on some or all of the Ringe - large and generally widely-spaced ringbolts - on a particular route. Guidebooks sometimes give grades for both a route's 'traditional' and Rotpunkt status, for example "Über den Drachenrücken VIIIc, RP IXa". In this instance RP simply means 'free' as we currently understand it; individual ascents, of course, may range from 'full-on redpoint tactics' to onsight.

Yes, the word "circle" is ambiguous (circle of pastry or light; circle of mushrooms. "Solid red circle" is what I was meaning. Thanks for pointing this out!

PS the Rotpunkt company is still going strong, but they've changed the logo, which is a shame:

https://www.rotpunkt4u.de/Shop/

The route of the very first redpoint got upgraded to VI+/E1, which feels more fair than the V+/HVS mentioned in the article. Great article though!

Thank you for the enjoyable article. 

Thomas Ballenberger http://ballisbrain.com/ should be credited with the picture of Kurt Albert on Sautanz (7b+) the cover of Boulder.

Ballenberger was one of the prime movers behind the Magazin fur Sportkletterer, an uncompromising title for the early 1980s. It was great but only lasted for 3 issue, proof it doesn't pay to be too far ahead of your time. 

https://www.instagram.com/p/B0b16fsDgaU/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

https://www.instagram.com/p/B1wm8J5Dd1y/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

Thanks Jack!

V+ (HVS) was the grade when the aid moves were included; without the aid it's VI+.

Right! Thanks for the info .
I'm still planning to do this one without the bolts as a trad line. But the franconian limestone doesn't grip cams amazingly.

Good luck then, and have fun!