Moritz Attenberger ©

Ocean Approach

Philipp and Moritz Hans set sail for Amorgos, Greece, to establish a new climbing route. Simply enough—or so it seems.

by Hannah-Marie Beck

You are brothers and best friends but also very different. How do you complement one another on the wall?

Philipp I have been on several expeditions, and I am more willing to really suffer. Moritz does not enjoy that as much. But he is an insanely good competitor. He keeps a clear head at exactly the right moment, and he ended up being key to our success because he was able to climb the hardest section.

Moritz, you are more used to big TV stages, such as Ninja Warrior or Let’s Dance. How did the expedition compare?

Moritz The big wall was way outside my comfort zone. On TV shows, there is a huge production team making sure everything runs smoothly. It’s still challenging, but I am stepping into a role that I can step out of again. Belaying my brother while hanging over the water in Greece and traveling on a small sailboat—that is a completely different story. No safety authority signed off on it, and there is no big production team that checked everything ten times. Philipp just drills a hole, puts a bolt in it, and I have to trust it.

Merlin und die Frage nach dem Warum ("Merlin and the Why of It All") is the name of your climbing route, and the film opens with the question, "Why are we even doing this?"

M The film never provides a specific answer, but it does a pretty good job of demonstrating why you do it: to push yourself, discover something new, and find out what's possible.

P Sailing and climbing—these two things are the very definition of freedom to me. On land, you always have a point of reference: a wall, a guardrail. Out at sea or on unclimbed rock, you do not. The wall on Amorgos rises straight out of the water. The only way to reach it is by boat. You drill the first bolt from a kayak, and then you are immediately on a demanding pitch. No broken rock to scramble over; no bushes to fight through first. It’s the perfect combination of two things I love.

If you believe in your goal and keep at it with patience and perspective, things tend to work out.

Philipp Hans

The perfect climbing spot: an untouched rock face towering straight out of the sea.

And your friend simply handed you a sailboat?

P That's the craziest part of the story. At the time, Flo Schüle was still a stranger to me! Then, out of nowhere, I got a text saying he had a sailboat available and that I should call if I had an idea for it. Word had spread through Stuttgart’s climbing community that I had sailed on an expedition to Greenland, and Flo was looking for someone who would do something adventurous with his boat. He generously lent us Merlin without a second thought, even if we put a few dings in it. That kind of thing just doesn’t happen.

It took you several attempts. What happened?

M Three trips in all. On the first, in 2024, we didn’t even find Amorgos. On the second, everything went wrong from the start: the electric motor died, there was no power on board, our teammate Falk got sick, and Philipp was alone at first. We still made it to Amorgos, reached the wall for the first time, and spent forever bolting a single pitch. The return trip was almost impossible because of the swell and wind, and then Philipp got sick overnight. We had to call it quits after just one day and ended up stranded on a neighboring island.

P That is somehow part of these projects—they are never easy. But if you believe in your goal and keep at it with patience and perspective, things tend to work out. On the third trip, everything finally fell into place.

Amorgos

Amorgos, the easternmost island in Greece’s Cyclades, is defined by rugged mountains, dramatic cliffs, and deep-blue Aegean waters. Philipp Hans virtually scouted nearly every island in the chain, but the wall on Amorgos stood out immediately. It looked so steep and so perfect that he knew: if they were going anywhere, this was it.

What was it like for you, Philipp, to lead the project?

P I had already made several first ascents with climber Stefan Glowacz and learned from him how to read a wall and choose a line to establish a route. Greece was the first time I had done it on my own, and I was tense the entire time. At night, you never know: Is my anchor going to hold? Will I make it out of the bay? When you’re caught in that kind of spiral and can’t find any peace—that’s tough.

M You are constantly dealing with one bad situation or another and have to stay present—and being on a sailboat in those conditions is physically brutal.

There is no one I trust more.

Moritz Hans

What does it mean to bolt a new route?

P I chose the line, and from there it was like a puzzle: Would the line I’d scoped through binoculars actually go? On a first ascent, you’re climbing terrain where there’s nothing there yet; you have to place every point of protection yourself. In the harder sections, you place a hook on a small edge, carefully weight it, and start drilling—knowing that if you shift your weight, the hook could pop off. In easier spots, you can hold on with one hand and drill with the other. It gets exhausting—and scary—fast. Once, a hold broke and I came off the wall with the hold in one hand and the drill in the other. You can bolt two pitches a day at most. But when the route is finished, you free it and realize it actually climbs beautifully—that’s the greatest feeling in the world for me. And then to hear my toughest critic, my brother, rave about it...

How does it feel to have your film in the EOFT?

P It still feels surreal. We went to the EOFT every year, watched the films and the guests onstage, and got goosebumps thinking maybe we could do something like that one day. And now we’re the ones standing up there, telling everyone about our adventure!

M The climbing and outdoor world is where we come from. In a way, it feels like home.

Philipp and Moritz Hans, climbing in Amorgos

The Hans Brothers

The Hans brothers from Stuttgart grew up climbing. In 2018, Moritz (right) was part of Germany’s Olympic development team, but he chose not to pursue a purely competitive path and instead took on new athletic challenges on the TV shows Ninja Warrior and Let’s Dance. Philipp (left), meanwhile, gravitated toward adventure, combining climbing with expeditions.