Heinz Mariacher

Born in a small Austrian town Heinz discovers climbing very early, at the age of 11 he makes his first "free solo" ascent, climbing a mountain route with tennis shoes (grade V).

In the 1970s Heinz solo climbs some of the hardest routes of the moment in his home mountains and in the Dolomites. To mention a few: the Rebitsch Pillar on the Fleischbank, Kaiser (1973), the Schmuck on the Fleischbank (1973), the Cassin on the Cima Ovest di Lavaredo, the Comici on the Cima Grande di Lavaredo, the Egger at the Cima Piccola di Lavaredo (1974), the Lacedelli on Cima Scotoni (1974), the Vinatzer on Marmolada (1975). The spontaneous idea to free solo (on sight) the Conforto on Marmolada, 800 meters in 4 hours in 1979 testifies a new mentality of challenging big walls in the Dolomites. Also the free solo ascent of the 800 meter route Don Quixote on Marmolada in 1 hour 20 minutes (1985) happened casually during a hike around the Marmolada.

In 1977 Heinz opens a new route in the Karwendel, Charlie Chaplin on the Laliderer, 800 meters, climbing all free, using only a few pitons for protection, which at that time is a milestone of free new ascents in the mountains. More new routes with this style follow on the Marmolada: Don Quixote, Vogelwild, Abrakadabra and Tempi Moderni.
In the 80s Heinz gets a pioneer of free climbing around Arco and takes part of the evolution of sport climbing in general. Kendo, 8b+, in 1986 is one of the hardest routes of that period. Tempi Modernisssimi, 7c+, 300 meters, bolted from the ground up, is the first route of this style and difficulty in the Dolomites. In 1987 follows the first redpoint ascent of Via del Pesce, 7b, 900 meters on the Marmolada. Also in 1987 Heinz is among the first to repeat Rude Boys, 5.13c, and Monkeyface, 5.13d, Smith Rocks, Oregon.

As film maker Heinz gets the price "best film on climbing" (Ritorno al silenzio) in 1993 at the prestigious Mountain film festival in Banff.
Heinz made also history as a climbing shoe designer, starting with the famous model "Mariacher" in 1982 to his actual very successful collaboration with SCARPA.

Scarpa

As a contemporary witness to the last forty years of climbing history, I want nothing more than to clarify my personal point of view, and perhaps stimulate others to reflect on these matters as well. The freedom that allows everyone to decide for himself and the right to our own opinions and choices should remain an inviolable principle of the climbing experience. The content of this website is based on notes I wrote down when I was young and at the top of the game and they express the vision I had about the future of climbing in the mountains.

Climbing enriched my life like no other activity. Climbing and mountaineering are a wonderful school of life: it’s a path that has heart and soul. I have never been an extraordinary athlete—at best I was more open-minded and mentally less limited than most climbers in my surroundings—but that didn’t matter, because climbing was a very personal challenge. It was like a second life lived within a different world; it was a lifestyle, a philosophy, and a form of meditation. My approach to the mountains and climbing was organic because it served no other purpose than to enjoy life and freedom.


I'm around on the rocks for a very long time, such a long time that I still had the opportunity to climb with some of the pioneers of classic freeclimbing in the mountains, long before the spread of modern sport climbing.

The mindset and enthusiasm of my predecessors was very close to my own and I don't think that todays generation feels that much different. Even if climbing has become very popular and is getting transformed to a real sport, there are still young and enthusiastic climbers who are seeking the unknown and are fascinated by the original spirit, by the idea of personal freedom far from the limits and regulations of a mass society.

In the times of change I was one of the few "old style alpinists" to embrace sport climbing as a new challenge and was in the mid eighties among the very first in Italy to explore 7c, 8a and 8b. Nevertheless I didn't forget my origins and still considered mountain climbing as a different game with different rules. After many years of sport climbing I still believe that in the mountains style is more important than grades.

From his website

Some significant climbs:
• Charlie Chaplin - Laliderer Parete Nord, Karwendel, Austria - 1977 - Prima salita con Peter Brandstätter
• Harlekin - Marmolada/Punta Rocca (ITA) - 1977 - Prima salita con Reinhard Schiestl
• Hatschi Bratschi - Marmolada/Punta Ombretta (ITA) - 1978 - Prima salita con Luggi Rieser e Reinhard Schiestl
• Via Messner - Sass dla Crusc/Pilastro di Mezzo - 16 luglio 1978 - Seconda salita, con variante, con Luisa Iovane
• Vogelwild - Marmolada/Punta Ombretta (ITA) - 1979 - Prima salita con Luggi Rieser e Luisa Iovane
• Zulum Babalù - Marmolada/Punta Ombretta (ITA) - 1979 - Prima salita con Egon Wurm
• Don Quixote - Marmolada/Punta Ombretta (ITA) - 1979 - Prima salita con Reinhard Schiestl
• Via Messner - Sass dla Crusc/Pilastro di Mezzo - 16 settembre 1979 - Quarta salita e prima salita in libera (RP) con Luisa Iovane
• Nose - El Capitan (USA) - 1980
• Salathé - El Capitan (USA) - 1980
• Abrakadabra - Marmolada/Punta Ombretta (ITA) - 1980 - Prima salita con Luisa Iovane
• Sancho Pansa - Marmolada/Punta Ombretta (ITA) - 1980 - Prima salita con Luisa Iovane
• La Mancha - Marmolada/Punta Ombretta (ITA) - 1981 - Prima salita con Luisa Iovane, Reinhard Schiestl e Manfred Ruf
• Ombrello - Marmolada/Punta Penia (ITA) - 1982 - Prima salita con Luggi Rieser
• Tempi moderni - Marmolada/Punta Rocca (ITA) - 1982 - Prima salita con Luisa Iovane
• Attraverso il Pesce - Marmolada/Punta Ombretta (ITA) - 1984 - Seconda salita con Luisa Iovane, Bruno Pederiva, Maurizio Zanolla in tre giorni
• Tempi modernissimi - Sasso delle Undici (ITA) - 1986 - Prima salita con Luisa Iovane
• Attraverso il Pesce - Marmolada/Punta Ombretta (ITA) - 1987 - Prima salita in libera (RP) con Bruno Pederiva, a tiri alterni

Wikipedia

A climber at my age does not know this model, but La Sportiva “Mariacher” model climbing shoes is a milestone in modern climbing footwear. And it is your design (also with your name on it) . You were designing climbing shoes 20 years ago and you are still doing more or less the same in Scarpa as the Product Manager.

You have an ability to meet climbers needs with the manufacturers experience. How did you start this journey?
Strangely enough in the early eighties I got a little known among alpinists because I opened some new routes on the Marmolada. The climbing community was very small and a different mental approach created just as much attention like high grades today. My different approach was to open new routes in a new stile: free, fast and with a minimum of protection.
One day La Sportiva, at the time a very small and little known shoe manufacturer, approached me and proposed a job as a consultant and testimonial for climbing shoes. They had tried for years with very little success and I was so unhappy with the performance of climbing shoes (that were available on the market in those times) that I was excited about the opportunity to create something better (even if they offered very little money).

An interview: http://www.heinzmariacher.com/aykut-interview.html

When climbing resembles poetry: scenes from "Ritorno al silenzio”, the 1992 film about climbing in the Dolomites starring Heinz Mariacher and Luisa Iovane.
At times just a few images suffice to awaken distant memories. Like this short clip, staring Heinz Mariacher and Luisa Iovane climbing up Sass de la Crusc, also referred to as Heligkreuzkofel. The following clip contains just a few scenes, little more than 3 minutes, and is taken from "Ritorno al silenzio” - Return to silence - the 30 minute film directed by Mariacher and Sepp Wörmann that recounts the beauty of climbing in the Dolomites back in 1992.

At the time a new form of climbing, i.e. sport climbing, had already begun its small revolution, thanks also to Mariacher and Iovane. The first-ever organised climbing sport competition had already been held at Bardonecchia. The Arco Rock Master was already a legend, and everything we now know still had to happen. At the time the general belief was that climbing competitions would have "unshackled" the competitive aspect off mountaineering and rock climbing. Perhaps this is another reason why Mariacher introduces the video as "an attempt to express how I visioned the future of climbing in the Dolomites. It's not about the grade, it's about what you feel…"

“I am always thinking of new things that I wouldn’t have thought of ten or twenty years ago,” says Mariacher. For La Sportiva, his previous employer and also a classic among the Italian manufacturers, he invented, among other things, the Mythos. “Actually, as a performance shoe,” says Mariacher. Alexander Huber, for example, wore it during his free solo ascent of the Cima Grande. The Evergreen is a comfortable lace-up shoe, but has also become a shoe used in the moderate recreational field and for alpine enjoyment routes. “There are still large volumes sold today,” says Mariacher.

Miura and Testarossa with La Sportiva, later the Booster S with Scarpa – countless climbers-feet around the world have depended and still depend on Heinz Mariacher’s work. “One of my personal favorite shoes is the Mantra,” says Mariacher, which he designed at La Sportiva. A very soft slipper, “such a soft shoe was then a novelty,” says Mariacher. He has always liked wearing it, even whilst alpine climbing. “I wear my approach shoes up to the fifth or sixth difficulty degree,” says Mariacher. This gives recreational climbers, who often climb at this degree difficulty in the hall, a first sense of what the climber Heinz Mariacher has achieved in his athletic career. Solo ascents of, for example, the Cima Grande, Comici and Nordwand. In 1986 he climbed what was probably the first route in Italy with a difficulty degree of 10: So steep, so exhausting, an almost absurd level of difficulty for any amateur climber. Mariacher was also instrumental in the development of the climbing areas in the northern Lake Garda area and the Sarca Valley, now a (rather overcrowded) cult place of sport.