Jakob Schubert, Jorg Verhoeven unleash their Zillertal creativity
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Tobias Lanzanasto
Above the rapid and cold river Ziller Jakob Schubert and Jorg Verhoeven have made the first ascent of two hard sport climbs, putting Austria’s Zillertal back in the limelight once again.
Schubert had established the valley’s first 9a in 2015 with his Companion of Change and now he has linked two existing routes, Hiasline, 8c/+ by Matthias Schießtl and the 8b+ Linke Generation to produce Walk the Line, a 9a that cuts diagonally across the entire front face of Monkey Island. Verhoeven concentrated his post-lockdown efforts on a line projected by local par excellence Gerhard Hörhager at Schwarze Wand. This combines two existing routes to produce Der Weg zur Quelle, Road to the Source, which "weighs in at long and pumpy 8c+" and features an interesting double dyno.
"The new lines are the result of a big of creativity, but one has to say that the link-ups are really worthwhile” explained Verhoeven, who added “in the coming years though there’ll probably be far more high-end routes in the Zillertal. There are lots of projects on the go and the potential is nigh endless at the moment."
