A Year and A Half After a Life-Changing Fall, This Climber Is Back At The Top

A little over a year ago, Austrian climber Bernd Zangerl was climbing the hardest highball boulder problems in the world, putting up first ascents all over the place, and generally feeling invicible. That all changed after an awkward fall that badly injured his back, and he slowly started losing feeling and the ability to use his arm. After months of treatment and physical therapy that led nowhere, he picked up his life and went to this Shangri-La, a specific area of the Himalaya he had visited many times before. There, with a new outlook, he slowly built up strength to return to top form, and put up the first ascent of Into the Sun, which blurs the lines between trad climbing and highball bouldering. 489 days after his fall, he completed his first ascent, finally bringing an end to a dark part of his life.