Maddy Cope adds Prinzip Hoffnung to her Euro tick-list
- Saturday 15th August 2020 at 6.38am
April 3rd; 2019
Maddy Cope has successfully repeated Prinzip Hoffnung (F8b/+, E9/10) at Burs, Austria.
Maddy's IG feed showing the photo by Jacopo Larcher
Having been on an extended Euro trip in their van, Maddy and her partner Ryan Pasqual, rocked-up at Burs, Austria on their way back north from Spain. Following a tip-off that Prinzip Hoffnung might be something to have a look at, Maddy had a top rope burn and was hooked! However, the south-facing aspect of Prinzip Hoffnung means that the wall heats up during the day making the climbing even harder. The generally hot and humid conditions were also making things even worse for Maddy. Initially she opted to try the route in the evening to avoid the heat of the day. Next she tried leading the route by torchlight but found that made it harder to get quick and accurate foot placements. Finally, Maddy set her alarm for a super early start.
Maddy explained to CLIMBER how Prinzip Hoffnung finally went down…
You finally got good connies for PH – but at 5am! Great effort on getting Ryan out of bed at that time but seriously how was it climbing so early?
Yes, I really didn't want to climb it in the morning, since crimping hard feels unpleasant before at least midday! The main thing I noticed is that my skin felt more sensitive with pain when I crimped! But it has been really warm here and the slab is south facing - the black rock soaks up the heat. I had some tries with a head torch but it is slow to find the feet. I just tried to imagine I was on El Cap! I woke up and drove us to the crag and warmed up and then knocked on the van for Ryan- luckily you can pretty much belay from the car here of you wanted! I am grateful to him though. It actually felt a little bit more humid than in the evening/night (usually a wind picked up) But the rock was colder so I guess that helped, but I think the main thing was that it was light.
You got the tick pretty quickly in the end; can you tell us about the gear and how the final lead went?
The final lead felt pretty good, I think because I had taken the fall a couple of times I was relaxed, with a roller and a good belay it's quite a nice fall. Placing the gear mid crux is definitely the hardest bit, they are small but luckily not fiddly, so you just have to place them fast and try not to over grip - you have to have some power in your arms/fingers for the crux. The crux ends with a big sideways reach to a good hold which if you’re shorter or have a short span you have to do another foot move which is hard.
Can you contrast Prinzip Hoffnung to Once Upon a Time in the SouthWest which you climbed last year?
It's a similar climbing style to OUAT but different head wise. The climbing is harder but I think it's safer.
Maddy and Ryan are heading home now and looking forward to doing some UK trad after a very successful Euro trip.
Prinzip Hoffnung has had something of a chequered history but it’s now becoming something of a “must-do” tick for the cognoscenti. Beat Kammerlander did the first ascent on bolts in 2009 and then returned and lead it on trad gear only. Since then it’s had less than a dozen ascents - Maddy’s is the tenth overall trad ascent we believe - bringing the number of female ascents to three after ascent from Babsi Zangerl and Nadine Wallner.