Norbert Bätz

Ines Papert and Mayan Smith-Gobat, accompanied by their photographer friends Thomas Senf and Franz Walter, attempt to free climb 'Riders on the storm', in the extremely difficult east face of Torre Central del Paine, Patagonia. The route was first climbed by Wolfgang Güllich, Kurt Albert, Bernd Arnold, Peter Dittrich and Norbert Bätz in January 1991 in 15 days of climbing over a five-week period. This stunning line on the sheer 1300m east face of Torre Central line went at 7c, A3. The climbing is very varied and demanding, ranging from delicate and runout face climbing to wide cracks and roofs, which were often entirely iced up. As yet, there have been no free ascents of this route, though many strong climbers have tried.

The film follows some of the top local climbing in Germany’s infamous Frankenjura. It mixes in stills photography and rostrum shots to give a bit of historical coverage. The film mixes climbing footage with well thought-out cutaways to maintain interest, and is clearly well filmed and produced.

iClimb - The Frankenjura video is a documentary about bouldering that takes place in Frankenjura. It was directed by Tim Bartzik in 2005 and produced by iClimb. It features Kurt Albert, Norbert Bätz, Milan Sykora, Dai Koyamada, Lukas Biere, Lars Decker and others.