Alex Huber, 55, FA’s Mythos (8c+)

Alex Huber has done the FA of the vertical 76-meter-long Mythos (8c+) at Barmstein. In February, the German mountaineer was diagnosed with a brain tumour and underwent emergency surgery almost immediately. Fortunately, the tumour was benign and successfully removed, but recovery was a challenging journey. After a three-month pause, he gradually regained strength over the summer and achieved two remarkable first ascents. The first, Überleben ("survival"), is a short multipitch at Brendelberg graded 7c, 7b, 8b and the second, was Mythos an extraordinary feat just months after life-saving surgery. (c) Heinz Zak

The 55-year-old was one of the greatest climbers in the world during the 90’ies. In 1996 he made the FA of Open Air (9a+) which has only been repeated by Adam Ondra, who upgraded it to 9a+. In fact, several of Alex’ hardest FA’s have later been upgraded. During the last 25 years, his focus has been putting up big walls and multipitches. In 2022, he made the FA of the six pitches Ramayana (8b+) after having worked it ground-up alone with a soloist set up.

Can you tell us more about the 76 m route and the process behind it?
The "Mythos" is on the north face of Barmstein, a cliff which is just a 10-minute walk from my home. The route itself has some three parts.... the first 35 meters are overhanging but good featured somewhat in the 7c - range, then followed by 25 meters of very compact, almost featureless wall. In this continuous crux there is no one single good hold or foothold. With the last move of the crux being 60 meters above the ground the route is a mind game. You shouldm't get nervous about these delicate and tricky moves. The last 16 meters are still compact but have holds of normal size and the difficulty does not exceed the grade 8a+.

I started working it occasionally in August, but even though it is a north face, the temperatures were way to high for really attempting it. It was much more for „training reasons“. Then in October came the good temperatures before I finally climbed it on the 1st of November.

How long falls did you take?
Falls were up to 15 metres, maybe even a bit more because there is so much rope involved. But falls are basically soft and due tot he nature of t he route without any risk. During the ascent I intentionally didn’t clip one oft he bolts and accidently couldn´t clip the next either… because oft he weight oft he rope, clipping is really difficult. Brain surgery at age 55, how did you manage to get back in shape so fast?
Because of a bigger defect of the Dura Mater which was closed by an artificial tissue, it was necessary to avoid any activity whatsoever after my operation in February till June. Then I started with therapeutic climbing and in July I began climbing outdoors. As there was some certain epileptic risk I started climbing just toprope, mostly self belayed with minitraxion. Six month after the surgery I went back to alpine climbing in the Dolomites with Simon Gietl and this was the moment for me when I could see myself coming back to normal.

If you ask me how I could come back in shape so fast... it felt different for me. Six months of no real climbing is something which has never happened to me since I began climbing some 40 years ago. It is a long walk but I always felt better after climbing so it was the best therapy for me.