Elfer Nordturm Climbing

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 the looks. The third pitch was V- and was pretty enjoyable after a technical start and then the final pitch started with traditional chimney climbing which felt pretty exposed, and then some technical balancey climbing up to the top.

The last 30m from the top of the route to the walking path was hideous, traversing across very loose scree, above quite a large drop, so the less that can be said about that the better! As we started fairly late due to a last minute change of plan we didn’t have time to head up to the summit, as we had 1h35 to do the 1h30 descent back to the lift. As it turned out we would have had time as we did the descent in 1h15, but it was definitely the correct choice.

The descent was wonderful, never steep, interesting scenery, wonderful views and a nice breeze to keep us cool!