Robert Jasper (at the IMS in Brixen)

He himself was the most dangerous polar bear in Greenland. Whenever the German extreme climber Robert Jasper pitched up his tent last summer during his one-month solo expedition in the eternal ice, he built a protective fence against polar bears around it. If one of the predators had touched the fence, a flare would have gone off to chase the polar bear away – and of course to warn Robert. One day, however, the 50-year-old was so in mind that he touched the fence when he wanted to climb over it. “I almost blew myself up,” says Jasper.

Jump between two worlds

Alone in Greenland

We meet at the 10th and last “International Mountain Summit” in Brixen last week. In April, Robert had celebrated his 50th birthday. “I thought to myself: Before I get a midlife crisis now, I’d rather do a solo expedition,” says Jasper and laughs. “It was as if I was jumping back and forth between two worlds.” Jasper paddled through the fjords of Greenland in a folding kayak, hiked to the foot of the mountain he had chosen, and succeeded the first solo ascent of Molar Spire in three days. He called his route through the 450-meter-high rock face “Stonecircle” because “the most impressive things in life are often rocky and hard”.

Inner peace and strong nerves

Kayaking through the fjords

The mixture of being alone en route, kayaking and bigwall climbing was “very special” says Robert. “It was an absolutely ingenious adventure.” Even though he had a queasy feeling in the beginning, he coped well with the loneliness overall: “It was very, very quiet. You only have the sounds of nature. About this silence you find very fast to yourself. I was quickly in harmony with myself and absorbed the silence in me. This loneliness, combined with the wilderness, was a wellness holiday for the soul.”

When Jasper talked to others about his experiences after his return to civilization, his vocal cords were overstrained. “It took me a few days until I could speak properly again.  After four weeks I was simply not used to it anymore.”  He “would never have been able to spend so much time in the wilderness at the age of 20,” Robert believes. “Not at 30, maybe not even at 40. You must know yourself well, have inner peace and strong nerves as well.” Aged 50, he now fulfills all these qualifications. “Nevertheless, it was an experiment. It could also have gone wrong.” However, according to  Jasper’s words, he never had the feeling in all that time that “he was giving up control”.

Preserving lived stories

During the solo ascent

Expeditions like these on Greenland are “like jewels that I put in a treasure box. These are memories that make me happy,” says Robert. “I know many colleagues, especially younger ones, who go from one tour to the next, who are addicted to adventures and simply consume it. So I think to myself: ‘Be careful!’ You can have an accident and maybe the next day you won’t be able to climb anymore. If you haven’t learned to appreciate experiences, this situation can even break you. It is important to preserve stories you have experienced.”

Even though it was his first solo expedition, there have been – besides team successes – also some solo achievements in Jasper’s long career. For example in 1991, he climbed solo through the “classical” alpine north faces of the Eiger, Matterhorn and Grandes Jorasses. Together with his wife Daniela, Robert opened the first Eiger route in the tenth degree (“Symphonie de Liberté”) in 1999. His route “Odyssey”, mastered in 2015 along with Swiss Roger Schaeli and South Tyrolean Simon Gietl, is considered the most difficult route via the Eiger North Face to date.

Expeditions took him to the 7,804 metre high Nuptse East in the Himalayas, to Baffin Island in the Arctic – and to Patagonia: For their new route through the north face of the Cerro Murallon in 2005, Jasper and his team partner Stefan Glowacz were nominated for the Piolet d’Or, the “Oscar of the Climbers”.

More like a decathlete

On the summit of Molar Spire

Robert is not only on the move in extreme rock, but is an excellent ice climber too. “I was never a pure sports climber,” says Jasper. “I practice various disciplines of alpinism and am therefore more like a decathlete. Sport climbing is my basis: The safer you can climb the more buffers you have in alpine terrain.” Being father of a daughter and a son, “the backpack I carry has become bigger and heavier,” Robert admits. “I have more responsibility, but the experience outweighs that.” Safety is his top priority, not only on the mountain. “You have to try to minimize the risk but nevertheless take the step towards your passion, your adventures. That’s my philosophy.”

IMS walk to the Latzfonserkreuz

I will miss the IMS. After ten years of “International Mountain Summit” in Brixen it’s over. The voluntary organisers, Alex Ploner and Markus Gaiser, who had put a lot of heartblood into this extraordinary mountain festival every year, are throwing in the towel. The reason: Lack of support from outside. A real pity! Year after year at the IMS, former and current stars of the scene were streaming in and out: Reinhold Messner, Sir Chris Bonington, Doug Scott, the Huber brother, Steve House, Alex Honnold, Ueli Steck, Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner, Ralf Dujmovits and so on. Not only did they give lectures, but they also went hiking with other mountain friends in the mountains of South Tyrol. That was the special attraction of the IMS. I have always enjoyed this “walk and talk” very much.

Vicarious embarrassment on Kangchenjunga

Tamara Lunger (in the background the pilgrimage church Latzfonserkreuz)

Yesterday, for example, we hiked with the South Tyrolean professional climber Tamara Lunger up to the Latzfonserkreuz at 2,305 metres. The hut there is (still) run by her parents. I talked to Tamara about her experiences during the first winter ascent of Nanga Parbat in February 2016. While her teammates Simone Moro, Alex Txikon and Muhammad Ali “Sadpara” had reached the summit, Lunger had had to turn back 70 meters below the summit. Throughout the whole day she had felt sick. God gave her a sign, Tamara tells me: “On that day ten hours of praying did not help. I knew then that something was wrong.” In spring 2017, she was back again at an eight-thousander: With Simone Moro she wanted to traverse all peaks of the Kangchenjunga massif. This did not happen, this time Moro had health problems. After the expedition Tamara was fed up with the eight-thousanders. What she experienced in the base camp, where commercial expeditions had pitched up their tents too, left scars. “I can’t believe what some people are doing. I was partly ashamed of them,” says Tamara. “It really broke my heart what was going on there.”

Wellness holidays for the soul

IMS organizer Markus Gaiser, Tamara Lunger and Robert Jasper (from l.)

Robert Jasper also attended the hike to the Latzfonser Kreuz yesterday. The 50-year-old German top climber had been on a solo expedition to Greenland this summer. With a folding kayak he paddled from the last inhabited settlement through a fjord towards the mountain he had chosen for his first ascent. “To travel by folding boat, then to open a new route in a big wall, all this with reduced means – that was an absolutely ingenious adventure,” Robert enthuses to me. Even if he had had a queasy feeling before the start, he coped well with being alone. “Through the silence you quickly get to yourself. That was a wellness holiday for the soul.” On his return to civilization after four weeks, he needed a few days until he could speak properly again, says Robert.

Don’t waste any time!

Beat Kammerlander

Beat Kammerlander prefers to find his climbing goals near home, in the Rätikon region. The 59-year-old Austrian from Feldkirch is a living climbing legend. He has been doing world-class alpine sport climbing for decades. Last year he opened an extremely difficult route which he called “Kampfzone” (Combat Zone). On the IMS hike, I ask Beat if he has to fight more today than he used to in earlier days. “You always fight as well as you can,” Kammerlander replies and laughs. “But today I probably have even more motivation and more consistency to achieve a goal. I don’t waste any more time.” Beat doesn’t think about the end of his career as an extreme climber yet. “Do what you love! Why should I stop doing what I like to do best?”

If that were also so easy at events like the “International Mountain Summit” …

P.S.: Detailed blog articles about my talks with Tamara Lunger, Robert Jasper and Beat Kammerlander will follow. So the IMS will linger.