DOLOMITI 53 itinerari raccontati

Experiences of first ascents

Heinz Grill is one of the most known climbers in the German-speaking mountaineering community, not so much for of his sports performances, but rather for his personal conception of climbing: he has always looked for the aesthetic pleasure underlying the bodily gesture and the interaction with the surrounding environment.

In this book, together with his great friend and climbing partner Florian Kluckner, Heinz presents a selection of the best routes that they established in the Dolomites, providing readers with useful practical information for the repetition of these routes, but also guiding them to the discovery of the highest “spiritual” treasures of these climbs.

Moreover, the routes are enriched with the accounts of the ascents, written by the authors or by their climbing partners, some of which are very famous also in Italy, such as Ivo Rabanser for example. Photos and drawings, all made by the establishers, ensure the best quality, also concerning the technical description of the itineraries, all of which present long developments and mountaineering difficulties between the V and the VII grade (UIAA).

Heinz Grill grew up in Soyen, a small village in the South of Germany, near Wasserburg am Inn. He started climbing at the age of 12 and from a young age he developed a free solo climbing style that was quite unique for the time. He climbed 400 long and demanding alpine routes on the mountains of Karwendel, the Kaiser Mountains, the Reiter Alm and the Dolomites. After having moved from Germany to Arco, in Trentino, he dedicated most of his time to the establishment of more than 115 new routes. He focused mainly on stimulating the spiritual and sensory side of climbers, in line with his philosophy of life. This was possible especially in the valley of Sarca, through to the development of the so-called“rhythmic climbing”that is particularly suitable for friendlier and less demanding walls. However, from 2005 and even more over the last few years, Heinz Grill has established new itineraries in the Dolomites, giving the repeaters the chance to appreciate the experience of the specific characteristics of every single route in this area, that is so demanding from the mountaineering point of view.

Florian Kluckner was born in Innsbruck, Austria. He is a mountain and ski mountaineering guide and climbing instructor; he climbed up to the 8b grade with his ascent of the Cerro Torre, in Patagonia. In 1994 he met Heinz Grill, who gave him the chance to deepen his approch to mountaineering and climbing. From 2006 he established approximately 100 new routes in the valley of Sarca, Dolomites, Sicily and Piemonte. He is author of the brochure “Die Kunst der empfindsamen Bewegung” (The Art of the Sensitive Movement, 2014), the climbing guide books “Arco Plaisir” (2016) and “Kunst und Klettern” (Art and Climbing, 2019), and several articles in climbing magazines.