LOWA PRO Team Ines Papert

With LOWA on ice

After Ines Papert completed her physio­therapist training in 1993 and moved from her native state of Saxony in eastern Germany to Bercht­esgaden in Bavaria, she quickly realized that her new surroundings offered much, much more than winter skiing pleasure. She soon discovered her passion for the mountains and, above all, ice climbing. Ines launched her profes­sional career after winning the Ice Climbing World Cup in 2001 and went on to win four world cham­pi­onship titles in subsequent years.

She also began to feel at home not only on ice, but also on the face of mountains. So in 2003, Ines ascended the Symphonie de Liberté on the north face of the Eiger in one day. She ended her competitive career in 2006 and has devoted herself primarily to tours and exped­itions since then. Ines trains in very different ways for each particular project. For high-altitude tours, she likes to train by taking her paraglider to the top and get acclimated to the altitude. In preparing for tough routes on rock, she prefers low-structure rock faces.

But the athlete describes the birth of her son, Emanuel, in 2000 as the crowning achievement of her life. In her book “Im Eis” (On the Ice), she describes the balancing act of being a mother and a profes­sional climber and how she found her way on the steepest routes.