Sprengstoff 9a by Barbara Zangerl

Barbara Zangerl reports on Insta that she has done the first repeat of Sprengstoff 9a in Lorünser Wändle. It was bolted some 25 years ago by Beat Kammerlander and Jacopo Larcher, her boyfriend and who also took the picture, did the FA last November. In total, Babsi projected it for a month calling it her probably hardest route ever.

"At the end of the day the coolest thing about such a project is that you wake up every single day highly motivated. I couldn’t wait to get there and just try as hard as I can and find the perfection of every single movement. It is probably my hardest and one of the best single pitches I have climbed."

How have you been able to train during the winter?
We have built our own small climbing wall at home. So we trained at home during winter.

What is your next plan?
In April and May, we will stay around home. We can’t travel because of the Covid situation. It is all a bit insecure at the moment. In June, we want to visit Norway to check out some multipitch climbing there. In summer I want to focus on big wall climbing. We will go to Pakistan to have a look on the Trango towers.

The Austrian has previously done four routes 8c+/9a and harder. Including also her boulder, trad and big wall tick list, she is the superior best female multi-discipline rock climber out there. As a matter of a fact, when it comes to big walls, only a couple of male have a better or equal tick list. In 2019, she was awarded National Geographic adventurer of the year.