An ascent by the climber, Felix Wendschuh, on 9 September 1905 was the first documented attempt to climb the Barbarine. He climbed up to a point underneath the summit block, at least to the end of the crevice. The story that Keiler, the publican in Pfaffenstein, had forced him to turn around under threat, should probably be discounted. Keiler was a climber himself and would have had nothing against a climb, especially as those who first climbed it later left documentary evidence with him in the pub.