Watching Patrick Edlinger climb without a rope, the French filmmaker Jean Paul Janssen described the aesthetics and commitment of the moment with an apt comment: he had just seen Life at your fingertips. Climbing solo, that is, without a rope to stop a fall, is an exercise that is as rare as it is terrifying and that only seduces a few. Martin Feistl is the latest victim of a game in which mistakes or bad fortune are paid for with life. The 27-year-old German mountaineer died on May 18 after suffering a 40-meter fall on the route Spitzenstätter, 270 meters, in Austrian Tyrol. The authorities do not know the exact cause of his fall (A slip? A grip that could have broken?…) and the members of the rescue team who went to the scene of the accident were only able to certify the death of an elite mountaineer who This same winter he had stood out by starring in several important openings of new routes in mixed terrain together with Simon Gietl, another young climber of enormous talent.
On his social networks, Gietl wanted to highlight Feist’s “purist style,” “his ability as a climber, his sense of humor and his desire to live leaving the minimum ecological footprint.” Rather than traveling from one continent to another looking for vertical adventures, Feistl defended the possibility of finding them close to home, squeezing his imagination, a trend that grew during confinement. In his opinion, it was not absolutely necessary to fly from here to there to test yourself climbing: he valued intuition much more to find interesting challenges in Central Europe.
Feistl was a member of the German team of young mountaineers between 2016 and 2018 and stood out above all for his defense of a solid ethic applied to mixed alpine terrain: he put minimalist style first when taking on great challenges. Recognized as a purist Feistl had chosen to face his mountain challenges according to strict values: the how mattered more than the result. He defended light, technical mountaineering without traps in which physical and psychological aptitudes weighed more than the improper use of materials that facilitated or reduced the difficulty of their ascents. His way of relating to the peaks was also linked to one of his greatest concerns: climate change. Thus, the need to respect the environment had been imposed, trying not to leave any trace after passing through the walls. His death joins a slow but incessant drip of misfortunes related to the practice of soloing, possibly the only sporting activity that does not allow mistakes.
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