During the first days of last july, Mauro Bole "Bubu" and Hari Bergher both climbed the route "End of Silence" in "rotpunkt" style. They made some tryes on the days before. The route was opened by Huber brothers on the Feuerhorn North Face (Reiteralm, Germany) on 1990. Thomas did the first free ascent on 1994, then Jorg Andreas did the first repeat on 1999 and finally Stefan Glowacz on 2002. The route has eleven pitchs with difficulty of 7a+, 6c, 6a+, 6a, 7b+, 7c+, 7b, 8b, 8b+, 7c, 7a+. "End of Silence" still remains a point of reference and one of the harder routes in the world about this kind of climbing.       END OF SILENCE   I knew that sooner or later I would tackle that route. It was just a matter of waiting for the right time.   When I was at the World Ice Championship three years ago, Hari Berger (winner at the last two championships) and I had the idea of doing the route together. We set the date for May a few times, but time and time again something happened that would distract us from the project... usually it was my fault!   This year, seeing that I was in really good shape, I finally decided to focus my time and thoughts on doing the route again. Not asking Hari to do the route with me was out of the question, especially seeing that I had promised him. Besides, the whole adventure would have been much easier with him as he had done it before and knew the route very well: he lives half an hour from the wall and also knows how to use the military cable car that would help us to avoid the two-hour climb up through steep forest. That's not really true, he knew how to get permission to use the cable car... but seeing that it always turned out to be so complicated with strict times to respect, we always ended up going on foot.   At the end of the first day I returned with my tail between my legs after trying the two hardest lengths: an 8b and 8b+ in the 8th and 9th pitch respectively. I couldn't understand the sequence of movements of the two vertical walls of smooth grey limestone. There were small holes and scattered cracks here and there around the line of bolts. I tried one way, Hari tried another way, but neither of us found the right way - it was extreme finger and foot movements all the way.   And the other lengths weren't any easier! Pitches of 7c and 8a require a certain amount of effort and all you need is to put a foot wrong and you go down. To sum it all up, it's an old-style route where you don't need excessive arm strength but you do need excellent foot technique and balance, strong fingers and... most of all... you have to have a lot of imagination.   Because of our individual commitments and unstable weather, we didn't always manage to do the climb together and so the easiest solution was to try on our own, with a safety catch on a fixed rope on all lengths. I set up a tent at the base of the wall so as not to have to climb down to the car every evening, but in the end, after a day all on my own up and down the ropes and always with afternoon storms...I was mentally exhausted and I kept saying to myself "what on earth am I doing here alone talking to the wall?".   In the end I went home: a four-hour drive, time passing fast as I thought about the moves.   Now I think back to those moments under the wall, completely confused and not knowing what to do - do I sit here in silence or go back to the car, turn on the music and go home? These things didn't happen when I was twenty! Days were like hours, there was nothing I couldn't handle... looks like I'm getting old!   Anyhow, the days always ended on a positive note. Slowly but surely, hour after hour, I overcame that which I thought was impossible. On the phone, Hari would keep telling me the same old things and then we agreed to try to link the whole route together.   Given the forecast of bad weather conditions and my mental exhaustion, I decided to wait a few more days. On Sunday I got a message from Hari saying he had managed to complete the route in off rappel and all in one day and that in the next days he would keep himself free and belay me on the route that I absolutely had to finish.   I rested for a few days. And the, like for the other routes... a 4am wake-up call, music blaring and the usual four-hour drive. Hari met me at the parking lot. I congratulated him on the climb, but he answered "Thanks! But now it's your turn!"   On the two-hour walk he told me about his climb and we discussed the moves he did differently to me. Later that morning I started with the first pitch while Hari followed with the ascender to speed things up. In the more difficult pitches Hari, using chalk, marked all the small holes to be used for feet and hands. Without these markings it would have been very difficult to find the holds: the problem was that the daily storms washed the chalk away and putting a foot or hand didn't go unpunished.   I could feel that it was the perfect day for the climb and like a in a dream I did everything right. Once I finished the 8b+ I gave a sigh of relief while thinking "it's not over till the fat lady sings". I still had a not too difficult 7c to do but I couldn't remember any of it so I asked Hari if he could climb it so he could mark the holds. The problem was we didn't remember that he, being taller than me, uses a lower hold and so, when I was on the boulder with the wrong foot I couldn't do anything except fly. It sounds incredible, after all it was only a 7c, but if you get it wrong, you're never getting back!   I got back to the belay, really ticked off and started off again. All that was left was the 11th and final pitch, a 7a+, which I stupidly had never tried seeing that it was ridiculously easy compared to the others. It would have been better if I had tried it. Never underestimate anything! With the help of Hari I managed to reach the belay... and as we say in Trieste "That's another one done... but not before pissing my pants!".   It's a route that once completed is very satisfying, surely one of the best of its kind in the world. Thanks Thomas Huber for this masterpiece.   Bubu				"End of Silence" FEUERHORN (Reiteralm, Germania) Movie (2,05 Mb)
						Photos by Fabio Dandri