1954. - 2010.


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" ...another enormous German sat at the table, slowly stirring a great big mug of coffe with a spoon. I recognized him from Boulder magazine as the German climbing legend Kurt Albert. He had massive shoulders and arms, a big mop of blond hair and a bushy blond moustache. He pulled the big silver spoon of the cup, turned it round so the bottom of the spoon was pointing towards me and said - Hup! Look at your funny face! I looked down at the spoon, it still had coffe on it. My head looked really small apart from my nose, which looked massive. I started to laugh and I knew I already liked this person.

Kurt was absolute climbing legend. In Germany, he pushed grade after grade. Before guidebooks, aid climbers would paint a red ring at the base of a piece of rock, to let others know that it hed been climbed. Than later German climbers, and Kurt particular, worked through endless aid climbs to produce state - of - the - art free - climbs. To let the aid climbers know that he had freed the climb, Kurt would get a pot of red paint and fill in the ring that the aid climbers had used to tag their climb. Kurts tag become known as a rotpunkt - a red point. In years to come, the phrase redpoint would come to define the massive push in standards that took place in free climbing in 1980s.
Kurt and Wolfgang welcomed me warmly and I relaxed instantly. I ended up staying with them for the next five months. They always seemd to have a big and little brother relationship. They shared a house, but didnt live in each others pockets. Sometimes, they would sit in silence for days not feel any need to speak.

In the winter of 1987 and 1988, I was hanging out in Germany a lot, spending time with Kurt and Wolfgang. It was good to see my two friends again. When I first arrived they werent climbing a lot, but were instead training. There was a gym we would visit called Campus. It was just a regular upmarket gym and in the daytime was full of pretty girls in thongs doing exercises with little weights. It didnt have a climbing wall but Kurt and Wolfgang asked permission to put a wooden training board. They were told they could, but that it had to be kept really clean. This was to become known as the Campus board..."

(Revelations, Jerry Moffatt)


>>> Kurt Albert.com