Blog Posts in Category: Rock Climbing

La Bellezza Della Venere (Arco)

Alastair BegleyArco, Rock Climbing Short Link

We decided to climb a route which we had previously climbed on our first day in Arco, as we knew if was an enjoyable route and some friends from Munich were also planning on climbing the route. The route is a 9 pitch UIAA 5-, which is adequately protected by bolts. Unfortunately being a both a high quality and easy multiplitch climb, the route is very popular. We didn’t arrive particularly early and found a long queue to get started on the route. Eventually Becky and I managed to get started and made our way up the first pitch which was an enjoyable warm up. As we were waiting to start the next pitch the team of three in front of us were not doing anything at the belay for ages, and appeared to be adding an extra pitch from their tree belay to the official belay, so we decided to overtake, which would turn out to be a very worthwhile decision. The next pitches were enjoyable with no real queuing and fun climbing. Unfortunately there was a major traffic jam at the base of the crux pitch due to. Read the full article…

Aggenstein Linke Südwand-Platte

Alastair BegleyAustria, Rock Climbing Short Link

Having walked up Aggenstein with James last year, I knew there was plenty of climbing on the large rocky faces, so this was an obvious choice of where to head with Rob and Win, as the walk in wasn’t too long, the climbing was easy but sustained, and was relatively well protected with bolts. We decided to climb the Linke Südwand-Platte up the south west face, which is, I think, mostly what we ended up climbing! Some of the descriptions online suggested that it was very easy to end up on the routes to the right and the left, and we certainly found that. I don’t recall spending so much time looking at a topo and feeling confused before! The walk in was fairly pleasant in the cool, shady morning air and we arrived at the start of the route in relatively good time. After quickly eating some food and gearing up I set off up the first pitch and the route finding was initially very easy, until I got to the belay. At this point I had no real idea where the second pitch went, and I didn’t find. Read the full article…

Stripsenjoch Climbing

Alastair BegleyAustria, Rock Climbing Short Link

As the risk of thunderstorms reduced we upgraded our plans for today from a walk to some short multi-pitch climbing in the Wilder Kaiser. We decided to head to the Gamswand near Stripsenjoch in the Wilder Kaiser, as it was a relatively short drive, followed by a 90min walk into a crag with lots of two pitch UIAA 4 and 5 routes. Our walk in was very warm, but we made excellent time, and were at the crag in just over 70mins, or so we thought…! Our guidebook only had a single crag in it, so when we saw climbers in about the right place we simply headed to where they were, little did we know we were on the wrong crag, 200m away from where we should be! After looking at the topo in a confused state for a while, we set off up a route as it most closely matched what we were expecting, however it certainly wasn’t the easy 3+ warm up which were were expecting, but actually was a really enjoyable UIAA 5 pitch with lots of delicate slab climbing. The second pitch was mostly easier,. 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…

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…

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…

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…

Hörndlwand Climbing – Die Gnadenlosen Drei

Alastair BegleyBavaria, Rock Climbing Short Link

With a day of hot weather and a good forecast we decided to head back to where I had recently been walking on another hot day, as I knew that it meant that we would be climbing out of the sun. We headed back to the Hörndlwand in the Chiemgau for some multi pitch traditional climbing. The crag is fairly complex which lots of corners, and routes which can be linked together. However from the guide we struggled to work out what could be linked, so decided to just stick to one of the suggestions at the start of the guide. We climbed “Die Gnadenlosen Drei” a two star UIAA 5 route which was a 200m 8 pitch route. This route linked the following routes: Nordwestsockel – UIAA 4+ – 80m – 3 pitches Merklriss – UIAA 5 – 35m – 1 pitch Mittlere Nordwand – UIAA 4 – 55m – 2 pitches The walk up was very warm, but thankfully mostly in the shade, and we were very glad to confirm that the route was entirely in the shade when we arrived at the Hörndlalm. We were also pleased. Read the full article…