Limit - the best crags in Tirol

22 23 Fern-Sehen Fernsehen bekommt hier eine andere Dimension. Im Vor- dergrund Stephan in der 19. Seillänge von »Schrei aus Stein«. Unten das Reintal. Links oben der helle, aus dem Wald ragende Punkt ist einer der meistbesuchten Orte Deutschlands: Schloss Neuschwanstein. Rechts daneben der Säuling, ein weiterer bekannter Kletterberg. In the foreground, Stephan climbs the 19th pitch of »Schrei aus Stein«. Below, the idyllic Reintal in all its beauty. The bright spot rising out of the forest at the top left, is one of Germany’s most frequently visited sights: Neuschwanstein Castle. To its right, you can see the Säuling, another famous peak for climbing. Gimpel | Tannheimer Tal | | Tannheimer Tal | Gimpel Are people who collect things happier than those who don’t? Obviously, this question has neither to do with clim- bing nor with the Tannheim Mountains. Anyway, collecting objects is as old as mankind and some would claim that life becomes more beautiful through collecting. Let’s start with some history: It was not before the 19th century that people went in the mountains to climb sum- mits. Before that, they would rather stay in lower altitudes collecting herbs, mining gems or hunting chamois. It was at that time that the first peak collectors emerged and just a few kilometres north of the Tannheim mountains, one of the first female mountaineers had her home. Queen Marie of Bavaria, mother of the fairy-tale king Louis II, who was born in Berlin and nicknamed »Bavaria’s first female alpinist«. At the age of 16, she came to the Bavarian court and was absolutely striving to climb the mountains so close to her Hohenschwangau residence. Over the years, Queen Marie collected just about all the peaks of the Tannheim moun- tains. After all the peaks had been climbed via the easiest ways, people tried to find more challenging ways to reach the summits. Instead of just collecting peaks, it was more fashionable and rewarding to collect demanding routes on well-known peaks in order to stand out from the crowd. Different types of collectors might find their fulfillment in the Tannheim mountains. After the Seven Summits and all the fourteen 8,000 m peaks had become a trivial collection for some, humans have started to seek for new challenges. An outstandingly exotic collection is to focus on ornitholo- gical summits which, means on alpine peaks named after birds. The Hochvogel in the Allgäu Alps or the Falkenstein in the Bavarian Forest are examples for such mountains. Another »bird peak« is the Gimpel (2,173 m) here in the Tannheim mountains and it is probably the most prominent and striking peak in the whole region. The Gimpel is also one of the few summits Queen Marie could not conquer due to its steep faces and the lack of a truly easy normal route. Today, the most coveted route to collect in the Tann- heim mountains is located at the Gimpel. »Schrei aus Stein« in the north face is part of Adi Stocker’s legendary collection »Longlines« and due to its length and difficulties up to UIAA IX-/IX, the route is definitely something with which climbers stand out from the crowd. Back to the question posed in the introduction whether collectors are happy people: Stephan Wolf and Sarah Stenico would definitely agree that a particular type of collecting causes happiness. After climbing »Schrei aus Stein« successfully, they will confirm that collecting demanding longlines makes you happy.