Blog Posts in Category: Austria

Große Ochsenwand Klettersteig

Alastair BegleyAustria, Via Ferrata Short Link

We chose to climb the Große Ochsenwand (or Schlicker) Klettersteig today, as it was a beautiful but very hot day and we thought that getting up high would help reduce the impact of the heat, how wrong we were. It was also a route without much time for being slow, as the guidebook time was 7 hours, and there was only 7.5 hours from first lift to last lift! The day started with a frustrating loss of 200m of height as we descended towards our objective. The descent was very straight forwards, however finding the ascent was not. The guidebook said there was a well travelled path, but we certainly could not find one initially across the scree field, we eventually found some faded red paint spots and then found a more substantial path. We were very hot by the time we got to the base of the route, and for the vast majority of the route, but this did not take away from the enjoyment of a wonderful route up the huge face, with brilliant views down the valley and of the large rock faces around us. The route. Read the full article…

Elfer Nordturm Climbing

Alastair BegleyAustria, Rock Climbing Short Link

After a few days of paragliding we felt that it was time to return to one of our more normal activities and do some exercise! We decided to go climbing on the summit behind the launch we have been regularly using, and that I have flown over multiple times. Given the hot conditions at the moment, it was also very important that the route faced north, which made it ideal! The ascent to the route was very enjoyable with wonderful views of the Stubai valley. We were soon at the start of the Klettersteig, which we followed for the first few sections before making the very loose descent down to the huge face the route climbed up. After some faff finding the start of the route, amongst horrible loose rocks, the route was a joy to climb. It was really well bolted, with excellent rock (mostly) and enjoyable climbing. The first pitch was IV, and was mostly up a chimney, which took the ”traditional” option to get up. The second pitch looked outstanding from below, and didn’t disappoint, and it really did go at the stated grade of IV despite. Read the full article…

Wankspitze Klettersteig

Alastair BegleyAustria, Via Ferrata Short Link

At the start of the season trying to find klettersteigs which are interesting, involve a summit and are open is a bit challenging. After our first few thoughts being dismissed as we discovered that they were not yet open, we settled on the Wankspitze Klettersteig. It was a very easy klettersteig, but it climbed a ridge to the summit of the Wankspitze and had wonderful views towards the higher mountains in Austria. The walk up to the Lehnberghaus was fairly quick in the forrest, however it was already fairly warm in the morning so we stopped for a refreshing drink before continuing with the approach to the Klettersteig. As we climbed higher we soon left the forrest and were treated to spectacular views of big limestone faces and gullies. After doing most of the ascent towards the summit we arrived at the col between the Wankspitze the Westliche Griesspitze, which is where the klettersteig started. After eating most of our lunch we set off on the klettersteig. It started with a few interesting sections, but unfortunately the rest of the klettersteig was very straightforward, however this was more than made. Read the full article…

Langtauferer Spitze

Alastair BegleyAustria, Ski Touring Short Link

I planned a weekend tour from Vent last year with the plan to ski from Vent to the Martin Busch Hütte, then over the Fineilspitze to the Schöne Aussicht and then over to the Hintereisferner and back down to Vent. The tour was initially supposed to have five people, but due to major trips being re-arranged due to being postponed, injuries and covid, it ended up just being me and Yasmin on the trip. It felt very strange getting up for breakfast at 7:30 with a plan of doing a 3500m peak, however our start time was dictated by the late breakfast and the hut, combined with the plan to ski down from the hut and catch the ski lift up to just below Teufelsjoch. The ski down to the lift in the morning was wonderful as it was down a freshly groomed piste, however touring skis are not ideal for a carving descent! Unfortunately the lift opened 30mins later than we thought it would, which led to a very cold 30mins watching the chairs being slowly put on the lift and the count down to the final chair. Thankfully. Read the full article…

Fineilspitze

Alastair BegleyAustria, Ski Touring Short Link

I planned a weekend tour from Vent last year with the plan to ski from Vent to the Martin Busch Hütte, then over the Fineilspitze to the Schöne Aussicht and then over to the Hintereisferner and back down to Vent. The tour was initially supposed to have five people, but due to major trips being re-arranged due to being postponed, injuries and covid, it ended up just being me and Yasmin on the trip. The first day was a simple ski up the valley from Vent into the hut, we left Munich in plenty of time so we were in no great rush on the ski in, as we had plenty of time and our only plan for the afternoon was Apfelstrudel at the hut, and then crevasse rescue practice. The ski in was very straightforward and we only had to briefly take our skis off a few times. I have stayed at the Martin Busch Hütte a few times before, once as a child and once last year with Becky, and I remember the walk in going on with many “last corners”, and it certainly wasn’t different in Winter.. Read the full article…

Juifen Ski Tour

Alastair BegleyAustria, Ski Touring Short Link

Despite the week of warm weather ruining the quality of a lot of the snow, careful route selection was still required due to deep instabilities in the snowpack on certain aspects. This lead me to select Juifen as neither the route and the slopes above the route were overly steep. The weather as we set off from the car park was less ideal than I was hoping for, as it was snowing for most of the ascent with low cloud shrouding the mountains. Despite the warm weather we were still able to skin from the car park, all the way to 100m below the summit. The start of the route up the Vorstraße was easy and we were soon at the split between Juifen and Hochplatte. At this point most people carried on to the closer Hochplatte, but there were some other parties making the treck over towards Juifen. As we emerged from the forrest the views into the valley were lovely and we could certainly see signs of the instabilities on certain aspects due to the amount of avalanche debris. As we were ascending the weather was starting to. Read the full article…

Rietzer Grießkogel

Alastair BegleyAustria, Ski Touring Short Link

After some careful route selection due to the avalanche conditions James and I settled on the Rietzer Grießkogel near Kühtai in Austria. This had the advantage that it was high, south facing and was mostly less than 30 degrees. The disadvantage of heading to a really popular tour, with a small car park was the starting time, and I was not particularly happy to be picking James up at 5:30 in the morning! The drive down was cold and it was still -10 degrees when we parked the car, thankfully as we were sorting out kit out the sun hit us and provided some much needed warmth. After the first 10m from the car we were able to put our skis on and then there was excellent snow cover the entire way. The ascent was very straightforward, the start up into the valley was a bit icy in the morning but we soon emerged into the wide open valley and began to be able to admire the views. Despite the air temperature staying cold, the sun and the ascent soon warmed us up and meant we were down to base. Read the full article…

Choralpe, Westendorf Paragliding

Alastair BegleyAustria, Paragliding Short Link

After a break from flying due to Christmas, we were both keen to get out flying again as soon as the weather allowed. On our first weekend where we were both back in Germany the weather aligned and we headed back to Choralpe, with a friend from our paragliding course. It was a wonderful day of flying with 10 degrees on the summits, zero wind and blue skies, it did feel more like spring than winter! The only downside of the warm weather was how wet out gliders were when we got them home.