Giovanni Lipella Via Ferrata

Alastair BegleyDolomites, Via Ferrata Short Link

Due to a deteriorating weather forecast we decided to relocate to the Dolomites. On our first day we decided to climb the classic Giovanni Lipella route up the Tofana de Rozes. As it was a weekend we had an early start to avoid queueing on the route, which worked out really well as we didn’t have to wait for anyone all day. The route starts from a car park up a gravel road at 2000m, which made for an excellent overnight van camping spot. We woke up in the morning to rain which was a bit unexpected, but left the van anyway on the promise that it would soon clear up. The initial walk certainly woke us up and got the blood flowing, but we were soon at the Gallerie del Casterletto. The Gallerie del Casterletto is a set of tunnels which were created by the Italian military during WW1, and were fairly impressive due to the amount of height that was gained as we travelled through the tunnels. We ignored the sign to our route which exited the tunnels before the end, and climb to the top of the. Read the full article…

Reinhard Schiestl Klettersteig

Alastair BegleyAustria, Via Ferrata Short Link

With a morning weather window we decided to climb our local klettersteig as we could easily walk to it from our campsite. The route was called the Reinhard Schiestl Klettersteig, and it was graded “D” which meant that it was much harder than the previous route. The route started off as it meant to continue, with steep and strenuous climbing from the off. The hardest bits actually seemed technically easier than some of the easier bits, but just very exposed. Despite some drizzle on the ascent we made excellent time to the top of the route, and managed to descent back down to the campsite before it started to properly rain.

Wildspitze Traverse

Alastair BegleyAlpinism, Austria Short Link

The Wildspitze was the main objective from our trip to the Sölden in Austria. I had intended to climb some other peaks first to acclimatise, however the weather had other ideas! We set off from a village high above Sölden called Vent. The day started with two chairlifts which gained us a considerable amount of height. We had elected to walk to the hut via another peak, the Wildes Mannle, this was a fairly short outing as lift station to hut only took us two hours. However it did get us a bit more mileage in our legs, and gave us a good view of the glacier that we would be crossing the next morning. After a lovely evening at the hut with fantastic evening light, good company and good beer we had an early night in the luxury of a 2 bed room. The next morning we woke up to dense fog which meant that we thought we were going to have to change our route to the normal route instead of the Rofenkarferner route. Thankfully after breakfast the cloud broke, so we were able to stick with our. Read the full article…

A weekend near Sölden

Alastair BegleyAustria, Via Ferrata Short Link

This year we started our alpine summer holiday in the Otztal in Austria. After driving out from Bristol we met up with some friends in the Sölden valley for the first weekend of the trip. After the long drive down we wanted a short day on the first day, we we headed for the classic Klettersteig Stuibenfall, a relatively easy klettersteig which climbs up next to an impressive waterfall. As it was the weekend, close to the road, and not too difficult we knew it would be busy, and we were certainly not wrong! We spent most of the route in some form of queue, but as it was such a nice day, and we were catching up with out friends this was certainly not a problem. From the top we decided to have an extended walk back down to the car along the valley. Unfortunately the Sunday had very unsettled weather, with just about no forecasts agreeing with how much rain there would be, or when it would hit. Due to this we made a plan in the morning to do a short walk up to a small hut. Read the full article…