Blog Posts in Category: Mountaineering

Mayrhofen Klettersteig

Alastair BegleyAustria, Via Ferrata Short Link

Having spent a week and a long weekend in Zell am Ziller, it was inevitable that we would end up doing a number of the klettersteigs above Mayrhofen. The topo is like nothing I have ever seen, with 5 klettersteigs on a single topo, four of which start from the valley and finish near an alm, and the other climb the cliff above the alm. On the first day we ended up wanting a relaxing day off paragliding, so didn’t head into the mountains. This did have the unfortunate effect that it was very, very hot! We started on one of the easier routes, the Huterlaner Klettersteig, which had the added advantage that it topped out at the alm. The route itself was nothing to shout about, but given that it was straight out of the valley, and a 5min walk from the train station it was pretty good. On the route we had wonderful views down the valley, the smallest wire bridge that I have ever seen and plenty of sun. When we got to the top we were not sure if we wanted to continue up the higher. Read the full article…

Weißkugel

Alastair BegleyAlpinism, Italy Short Link

With a brief weather window coinciding with a weekend we knew that we wanted to do another Hochtour, the challenge was finding something where a hut still had free spaces, and was a bit more technical than some of my more recent Hochtouren. As Becky was back in the UK I was heading out with Jana and her friend Jakub who was visiting. We decided to climb the Weißkugel from the Schöne Aussicht, via the rock ridge which joins the standard south ridge near the summit. After a much longer than anticipated drive we arrived in Kurzras where we dropped out bags at the Materialseilbahn, and made the short, but steep walk up to the Hütte. It was a delight to be walking up with a small rucksack which only contained some water and food, rather than an alpine bag! After a very hot ascent we arrived at the hut in good time, chilled out with a drink, and then when the sun went in went and enjoyed the Sauna which was certainly a novel experience in a mountain hut. After a terrible night’s sleep we woke up for breakfast. Read the full article…

Vöcklabruckerpfeiler Climb, Brunnkogel

Alastair BegleyAustria, Rock Climbing Short Link

We had planned to head to the Allgäu for the weekend, but a lack of campsite spaces and a stormy forecast meant that we headed in the opposed direction from Munich to the Attersee area of Austria, near Salzburg. We ended up deciding to go for the Vöcklabruckerpfeiler climb on the Brunnkogel, as it was in a nice area, was a good length easy route (7 pitches, UIAA 4) and had a Klettersteig nearby for the next day. We knew that there may still be afternoon storms, despite the good weather forecast as the general trend seemed to be for unstable weather in the alps. This meant that we had a very early start, however as we stayed in the car park it wasn’t too unbearable! Despite the early start the walk in was very hot, and very steep! After much longer than the guidebook time we made it to the start of the route, thankful that it appeared to be in the shade! Becky stated the route by leading us up the first pitch, which was a good warm up for the next four pitches. The next four pitches. Read the full article…

Fluchtkogel

Alastair BegleyAlpinism, Austria Short Link

After a few days of bad weather we were lucky that a very brief weather window coincided with the night we had booked at the Vernagthütte. As we only had a brief weather window we drove down in the car from Munich, which is just another reminder of how great a place this is to live. Walk into the Vernagthütte Last time we did a hut walk from Vent it was on the way into the Martin Busch Hütte for the Similaun and we got very, very wet! This time could not have been more different as we were treated to sun and blue skies on the walk in. We had treated ourselves to the luxury of rucksack transport using the hut’s Materialseilbahn, so we only had a short walk up the valley with our full packs. This was very pleasant with wonderful views, waterfalls and friendly horses. After dumping our bags we made the ascent up to the hut, which felt very easy without the heavy packs. After an enjoyable walk we arrived at the hut in time for a few beers and a shower before dinner. It was. Read the full article…

Achensee Fünf Gipfel Klettersteig

Alastair BegleyVia Ferrata Short Link

After bailing on an alpine route due to heavy rain on both the walk in and the summit day we were at a bit of a loss as to what to do the next day. After much deliberation looking at multiple weather forecasts, and the Austrian Klettersteig book we decided to head to Achensee to do the Fünf Gipfel Klettersteig as the forecast was for a sunny day until mid afternoon. Unfortunately the forecast did not come to fruition as we had a largely cloudy, albeit atmospheric day until as we descended from the third summit it started to rain very heavily. Up until the point the rain arrived the route was brilliant, a short walk from the cable car station took us to the easy Klettersteig up to the first summit of Haidachstellwand. The descent from this was a fairly long Klettersteig which took us a while, but it was constantly interesting and great fun. A short walk then took us to the main Klettersteig of the day, up the obvious face of the Roßkopf. This route was fairly steep, involved a lot of cable pulling and lots of. Read the full article…

Similaun

Alastair BegleyAlpinism, Austria Short Link

With a short weather window in the very unsettled summer we decided to climb Similaun which sits high above Vent in the Sölden valley. I have actually climbed the Similaun before, as when I was in Sölden 20 years ago on a family holiday I climbed it with my parents and our family friends. Due to the unsettled weather we were not able to wait for a nice day for the walk in, which meant that we got very wet on the dull walk in from Vent to the Martin Busch Hütte. Thankfully the walk wasn’t too long, and we were soon in the warmth of the hut and able to enjoy some warm drinks and beer. Following Covid it was strange being back in a hut, sharing a table with strangers and not having any mask requirement. Unfortunately all the small rooms were booked, so we were in the lager room in the roof which didn’t even have a window! The next morning we woke up to clear skies and beautiful views, we had decided to climb Similaun via the Marzellklammspitze as this meant that we walked up a. Read the full article…

Fernau Klettersteig

Alastair BegleyVia Ferrata Short Link

With a terrible forecast for most areas it took us a while to settle on an objective. We knew that in some places we had a brief spell of dry weather in the morning, that we wanted to do a klettersteig, and if possible wanted to be high up in the mountains. We ended up settling on the Fernau Klettersteig which is a the end of the Stubaital and is a short Klettersteig directly from a lift station, which started running at 8am. There are two klettersteigs from the Fernau lift, a very difficult “E” graded route and an easier “D” graded route. As it was our first klettersteig in a while and the weather forecast wasn’t great we elected for the easier route. This involved a few hundred meters of climbing and a few short sections of “D” with the majority being “C”. In the morning there was much more cloud than we were hoping for, but this gave us some fairly atmospheric views on the ascent. The route itself was enjoyable, but due to the setting in a ski resort, and the fact it was fairly short was. Read the full article…

Kampenwand

Alastair BegleyBavaria, Walking Short Link

With another day of afternoon storms we decided to make the most of the forecast morning sun by getting up early and heading for a peak which was close to Munich, and almost out of the mountains in order to try and catch the best of the weather. We ended up deciding on the Kampenwand, as we could have a good day out with a reasonable amount of ascent, knew there would be wonderful views and that we could save our knees by getting the gondola back down. The ascent was initially up wide forest tracks, which meant that we made good progress, but in order to traverse under the impressive cliffs of the Zwölferturm we took the smaller path which ascended towards the Zwölferturm’s cliffs from the north. While the path was pretty steep up through the woods, it was certainly worth it for the initial views out towards Chiemsee over Erlbergkopf, and to see the impressive cliffs from up close. As the skies were still clear we didn’t hang around once we got up to the Steinlingalm, but instead headed straight up to the Kampenwand. This meant that. Read the full article…