Rock And Ice Royalty: In Conversation With Ines Papert

Ice and mixed climbing are having a moment right now. Participation in these activities and the media’s appetite for arguably the gnarliest forms of climbing is at an all-time high. Arguably one of the most preeminent alpinists of our time, champion ice climber Ines Papert knows a few things about climbing the cold stuff.

Born in Germany, Ines discovered her love for the mountains after moving to Bavaria at 19. Three years later, Ines climbed Watzmann, her first significant peak and the third highest mountain in Germany. Ten years after that, she won the Ice Climbing World Cup, and has won it three more times since then. With a first ascent of Likhu Chuli (6719m) in Nepal to her name, becoming the first woman to climb the mixed climbing grade M13, and both repeating and opening some of the most difficult routes in the world, including the first female ascent of The Hurting XI 11, one of Scotland’s most testing winter climbs.

Put simply, ice climbing is the act of ascending frozen water formations and features, but when you get into the specifics, it’s far more complicated and nuanced. Think tackling terrain including frozen-over rock faces, icefalls and free-hanging, vertical ice stalactites using axes and front-point crampons. There are weather systems to consider, avalanche risk, crevasses, freeze and thaw cycles and of course, the fact that natural ice is becoming scarcer and indeed more fragile as the world grows warmer.

Then there’s the equipment needed for ice climbing; ice screws are placed to protect the climber from a fall, but more typical climbing gear such as hexes and wires might also be required for mixed routes that cover rock and frozen turf too. Ice and mixed climbing have separate grade systems to get your head around, oh, and then there’s dry-tooling.

So, how has ice climbing changed since Ines’ career first began on the newly-formed competition circuit, 20 years ago? I caught up with this rock, ice and mixed climbing master on a rare rest day, whilst she and climbing partner Sarah Hueniken lay in wait for a weather window to progress on their latest project, opening up a new line at Helmcken Falls, Canada.

First of all, since the beginning of your climbing career, has climbing changed and how?

Yes of course, a lot. I’m really, really grateful that I was part of the earlier generations in a fresh, new kind of mixed climbing that we experienced back in the day. With the new shape of the tools, and when ice climbing became more than just a training sport for alpine missions and people started creating goals on steep ice and mixed lines around the late 1990s or early 2000s. We still had so much to explore, we still had lots of new routes to claim, which gets less and less since there’s more and more people doing it, which is great. But it felt like everything was kind-of fresh and new then.

And nowadays there is that kind-of social media mentality, it’s easy for young people to get the feeling that they are in the wrong place at the wrong time. The fear of missing out is something I can see in my son’s generation a lot. I encourage younger people sometimes to just switch off from social media for some time and to focus on what they’re doing. On one hand, you can crazy good information on social media, but you also can easily get lost. I get the feeling: Oh, what am I doing here? I am at the wrong place. It’s too warm here. I should be somewhere else right now because the conditions are good. And having patience, waiting for right conditions is a part of climbing.

I guess partly thanks to its presence on social media, climbing in all its disciplines is more popular than ever these days. How do you feel about that?

I’m really happy that climbing became so popular in the past 20 years and that people love to explore the mountains, not just gyms. Inspiring people is a big part of my career and what I’m doing, I really like to inspire people and I enjoy seeing more and more people out there, even though I’m more the person that would prefer to go to places where it’s less crowded! There’s so much space in our environment that there’s enough for everyone.

Yes, there’s so much to learn about, and the list keeps on going on and on. Do you still feel as though you are learning even now?

Oh, yes, I do still learn every time I go out. I promise.

And the days I get to go climbing are getting less and less, which I guess has to do with global warming and the ice. We don’t often have the days to get out and climb ice any more, which I think for current generations makes it harder to get into it. You have to be flexible, and you often walk away without doing anything. That’s something we all have to learn now.

And of course making mistakes is a part of the learning process too. Has there ever been an occasion where you’ve made a mistake whilst climbing? And what did you learn from the mistake?

Oh, I think I made many mistakes in my career! Because I have always been learning by doing, I hardly had any mentors that showed me how to do things.

With ice I don’t really remember having any big failures, but on rock I did. That was my earlier life when I thought I had to take every single chance to claim a big mountain face, you know. I was so driven and super motivated and didn’t look into the weather during the rush. I ripped a huge flake off the mountain face and I fell and hurt myself really badly and my partner almost got killed. We were so lucky we didn’t die, and this story told me: Okay, often less is more. Choosing the objectives at the right moment, taking your time, preparing and finding the right window to do big objectives, that taught me a lot. So I got quieter I got more responsible towards myself and my partner after that.

So you’re currently making a film at Helmcken Falls about a new route there, is telling the stories of your climbing experiences particularly important to you?

The route we chose wasn’t actually chosen to create a film about, but the idea of filming it came up later on in that period. I would never climb a route just for a film, I would make the same decisions whether we film or not. But yeah, it’s just to give other people the chance to be part of it, that’s the motivation I guess.

An element that is very inspiring for me, is that it’s an all-woman team that you are a part of too with this particular route. Does that have significance in the film?

Doing it with another female climber, that’s pretty rare. I don’t know many on the planet that would love to do adventures like that, but Sarah is a pretty sweet and strong woman. She sometimes struggles with fears and she always says: Oh, you’ve never you’re never scared. But I am, honestly. I do watch the mountain and I ask myself what is the obvious risk? And is this just my kind of girlish, Oh, I’m scared thing? I try to push her a little bit and she gives me a good feeling that what I’m doing is right. So we are pretty good team and have lots of fun.

Do you think that the public attitude towards motherhood in activities that might be perceived as risky has changed to a more positive one, because of other athletes sharing that journey?

I never had bad experiences, but I’m also the kind of person that would never listen to what other people think anyway. Back then I didn’t have the chance to share it in the way female athletes are doing it today and I really love to see that, and the way it helps other women get rid of those fears. Seeing other athletes having babies and sharing their experiences with them and other women, yeah, it’s very positive.

Obviously, the overall opinion becomes more open when we talk about women having kids and climbing at the same time. People will always say they think it’s right or wrong because of course, we take a risk here and there. But we’re not stupid, we do think a lot about it. I think that when you’re a mom, you think even more about risk. Climbing was always part of my life, I couldn’t just run away and pretend I was happy without doing it.