Blog Posts in Category: Via Ferrata

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…

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…

After the morning flight, we headed up the valley to Mayrhofen to have some fun on the Klettersteigs. We started up the Pfeilspitzwand Klettersteig, in much better weather than last time, and we made excellent time as it was only two of us. The Klettersteig was as fun as I remember it, however certainly over sooner than we wanted. We decided to head off on the Astegg Klettersteig to the top, which was better than I remember it. Maybe something to do with the temperature being about 15 degrees cooler than the previous time! After a quick run back down we were soon back at the car, having had a brilliant few hours on the klettersteigs.

Having spent another weekend in Zell am Ziller, with a morning weather and time window, the obvious objective was the klettersteig up the Gerlosstein. As it involved a 40min walk in from the cable car, a 90min klettersteig and then a 60min walk out. As we got the cable car up the mountain we were treated to a fantastic cloud inversion looking back down the Zillertal towards the mountains above Achensee. Other than the inversion there was not a cloud in the sky, and we had perfect conditions for the route. The route itself was fun, with some strenuous sections, some great scrambling, wonderful positions and outstanding views, the only negative was that it was in the shade which meant we were chilly and the photos were not great! After a wonderful route we topped out into the warm sun and enjoyed some lunch with an outstanding view in every direction. After a relaxing lunch we started the decent, which was fairly abrupt, but was over soon enough and were down at the lift in good time. Unfortunately we had forgotten that everything shuts for lunch, and out leisurely lunch. Read the full article…

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…