Half a life project on Netflix
A little more than two years ago, I finished the biggest project of my life: The ascent of the six great alpine north faces in record time has occupied, accompanied and shaped me over a period of 10 years. All in all, the climbs took just 9 hours and 39 minutes. Now the streaming giant Netflix is dedicating a 90-minute report to three of these ascents: Duel on the Abyss.
It all started with the Eiger North Face. In 2011, the record ascent catapulted me from one day to the next into the focus of the worldwide climbing scene. Interview requests, praise, but also criticism came from all over the world. A new experience for me as a young climber, which I met in the usual way: I just kept climbing.
Not all north faces were equally noticed by the public. The record on the Matterhorn North Face in 2015 naturally attracted a lot of attention. The tour on the Grosse Zinne even brought me to Markus Lanz on German television in 2018. Against this media hype, the Piz Badile in 2016, the Grandes Jorasses in 2018, and finally the completion with the Petit Dru in 2021 almost went under.
For me, none of this made any difference. The six big north faces were my dream, no matter who else was interested. I went through with the project in the style I had chosen, and every single ascent marks an important milestone in my life that I am very proud of.
I'm delighted when the Netflix documentary makes my world of the north faces tangible for an even wider audience. Even if the Eiger, Matterhorn and Grandes Jorasses are only half of the big project and the competition has been dramaturgically moved to the foreground. I just keep climbing.
The six north walls at a glance:
April 2011: Heckmair route (1800 m), Eiger north face in 2 hours 28 minutes
April 2015: Schmid Route (1200 m), Matterhorn North Face in 1 hour 46 minutes
September 2016: Cassin route (800 m), Piz Badile north face in 52 minutes
July 2018: Cassin route (1200 m), Grand Jorasses north face in 2 hours 4 minutes
September 2019: Comici Dimai Route (550 m), Great Peak North Face in 46 minutes
September 2021: Allain-Leininger route (900 m), Petit Dru north face, in 1 hour 43 minutes
Photo: @alexbuisse