Blog Posts in Category: Germany

Watzmann Überschreitung

Alastair BegleyBavaria, Via Ferrata Short Link

I have wanted to traverse the Watzmann since first visiting the Berchesgaten a few years ago on a landscape photography trip, where I took the photo below. On our second summer holiday this year we had decided to stay around Munich and with a perfect weather forecast, and spaces in the Watzmannhaus we decided to head over to Berchtesgaden to do the classic route crossing the Watzmann. The route itself was absolutely wonderful, and it was also nice to stay at the hut given it was in such a fine position looking out over Berchtesgaden and the surrounding peaks. The route certainly had all the aspects required to make it a wonderful experience, great views, plenty of exposure and fun scrambling and it was great to look down to the impressive Königssee. The descent from the ridge to the Wimbachgrieshütte was pretty unpleasant and very long, but was worth it given how good the ridge itself was! We debated if we should do the route in one day or two, in the end we decided to stay in the hut and do the route in two days, as the guidebook. Read the full article…

Direkter Ostgrat Blankenstein

Alastair BegleyBavaria, Rock Climbing Short Link

With a cloudy forecast we set off to climb an easy multipitch route on the Blankenstein, near Tegernsee. I was keen to do this route, having previously admired the Blankenstein while doing a winter circuit of the Risserkogel and Wallberg with James. We were supposed to be meeting with some friends from the IMG, however due to S-Bahn cancellations they were very delayed, so we set off alone as we didn‘t want to wait for 90mins in the car park! The walk up was very straightforward and we made excellent time, the conditions were however worse than we were expecting! The temperatures were somewhat different to what we have had to become accustomed to recently! Despite the odd spit of rain, and the cold conditions we decided to set off anyway. One of the crux moves was the move off the ground, which was made harder by not being able to feel anything in my fingers having waited for the team in front of us to get to the first belay after getting lost! Once the first move had been dispatched, the rest of the pitch was a delicate traverse,. Read the full article…

Hochries

Alastair BegleyBavaria, Walking Short Link

Due to a very unstable forecast we wanted to do a short walk in the morning which was close to Munich. We ended up deciding on a circuit including the Hochries. As we set off in the morning the weather was lovely, however as we approached the ridge the cloud started to build and we found ourselves in the cloud hoping that this wasn’t a sign of an impending storm, earlier than forecast. Nonetheless we continued and enjoyed some fleeting atmospheric views and some wonderful views in the brief moments without any cloud. As we descended from Feichteck the cloudbase seemed to lift slightly and meant that we had enjoyable views while walking along the ridge to Hochries. Here we enjoyed an early lunch at the Alm on the summit, before making a hasty retreat back down to the car.

Kampenwand Climbing & Paragliding

Alastair BegleyBavaria, Paragliding, Rock Climbing Short Link

Due to the potential for afternoon storms, we wanted to find a route which was easy, relatively long and not too far away from Munich. We ended up settling on heading to the Kampenwand, which had the added advantage of being able to get a lift up to the route! We linked up multiple routes along the ridge to have a full day out, climbing in the sun with wonderful views. We did not end up climbing exactly what we had originally planned, due to a mixture of ending up at the wrong start place, not wanting to do 6m of climbing to have to abseil back down (and then ending up behind a group of 3 who would have caught up) and a pitch being harder than expected, damp and runout. In the end we linked the following routes, with a few abseils along the way between the different crags: Westgipfel, Westseite, Torweg, 80m, f4 Westgipfel, Westseite, Westgrat (top section), f2 Teufelsturm, Nordwestkante, 45m, f3 Hauptgipfel, Nordseite, Nordwestverschneidung, 70m, f4+, DNF Hauptgipfel, Nordseite, Ostgrat, 150m, f2 It was a great day out in the sun, with some enjoyable climbing,. Read the full article…

Heimgarten

Alastair BegleyBavaria, Walking Short Link

Having previously climbed Heimgarten via the classic traverse from Herzogstand, we decided to climb it from the other side as it was an appropriate length and distance from Munich to do with Lou, Adam and Lottie. The walk initially gained altitude easily in the forrest, but we soon emerged into spring alpine meadows, which were covered in flowers. Thankfully there was a wooden walkway as some of the meadows were fairly wet, although as Adam found out, some of the wood was fairly slippery! The ascent then took us up towards the summit with wonderful views over Kochelsee, Heimgarten and the flatlands to the north. Unfortunately as we approached the summit the cloud really started to build, but we still enjoyed good views before stopping the hut for a drink and some cake. The walk down was very pleasant, and we soon warmed up after the fairly chilly stop at the hut! We took a detour near the carpark to walk down next to some waterfalls, which I took my first post-walk “swim” of the year in to clean off before driving to the campsite.

Rotwand

Alastair BegleyBavaria, Walking Short Link

After a wonderful winter of piste skiing, ski touring and ski mountaineering, I was really looking forward to getting back out walking in the mountains. It feels surprising that the first walk was at the end of April, but as the ski season just seemed to keep going we just kept skiing! Unfortunately the weather running up to the weekend wasn’t looking that great, but it at least looked dry on Saturday morning, on some forecasts. Thanks the the enthusiasm of Adam and Rob we headed out despite the dull forecast, and what a good decision that was! Adam had to be back in Munich for 2pm, so we had a relatively early start, which combined with the weather meant that the mountains were very quiet. As we were driving to the carpark at Spitzingsee there was plenty of low cloud and it looked grim, thankfully as we approached the car park we burst through the inversion layer and were treated to blue skies with some high cloud. The walk up to the Taubenstein was fairly short and as we approached the col we were treated to a wonderful view. Read the full article…

Wallberg

Alastair BegleyBavaria, Winter Walking Short Link

As we only had a half day spare, generally poor weather and plenty of snow which made walking hard work, we decided to head to the Wallberg as we could take the lazy option to the top, have some lunch in a restaurant with a view and then make the short walk to the summit. The weather was better than expected when we got to the top, and there was even a brief glimpse of the sun. Due to this we decided to head to the chapel and admire the view before retreating into the very quiet restaurant for lunch. Feeling lazy and full we then headed off to the summit, which wasn’t difficult due to the excellent trail in the snow. I was last on the Wallberg after a much longer day with James last year. After a quick descent we were back at the lift for the easy descent back down to the car.

Enningalm MTB

Alastair BegleyBavaria, Mountain Biking Short Link

I finally headed out on my MTB after 14 months of being in Munich, so what better for a first outing than 40km with 1200m of ascent! We headed off from Graswing early in the cold early in the morning, and just about warmed up before the descent down the old road to Oberau. This was pretty enjoyable having not been out on the MTB for so long, but it wasn’t technical. Next we made the mistake of following my quick sketch of the route, which gave us a tough ascent which was unridable, but the descent sort of made up for it. The first section was wonderful single track, although it being entirely covered by leaves did make it a bit more interesting. Unfortunately the single track wasn’t that long and we were soon on fire road again for the final descent to the valley. When we reached the valley the cycling was still beautiful, but we certainly had the wrong bikes! However this gave us the opportunity to chill out and recover some energy prior to the big ascent up to Enningalm. An ascent of 900m on my. Read the full article…