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, apart from the sequence below and through an overhang. From the top of the second pitch, I could see bolts continuing above, but as I was only expecting 2 pitches we abseiled off at this point.
After abseiling down I opened the map and noticed that we were not where we were meant to be, and later on discovered that we were at Wildangerwand and climbed Lucky Six. Which is a route which I would highly recommend!
After getting very cold in the wind on the shady climb, and not knowing what any of the other routes were, we decided to head over to the Gamswand which was just getting the afternoon sun for a final route before heading down.
We decided to climb Weg der blauen Männer at the right hand side of the crag. The first pitch was UIAA 3+ and Becky led the very enjoyable pitch, the second pitch was wonderful but very unexpected, as it was climbing up runnels which were all about trusting feet with pinches as handholds, certainly not a climbing style that I am used to. However, the climbing was really enjoyable and I was soon at the top. After a quick photo we abseiled back down and made a hasty retreat to the valley due to the clouds ominously building.
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