Blog Posts in Category: Austria

Gerlossteinwand Klettersteig

Alastair BegleyAustria, Via Ferrata Short Link

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…

Mayrhofen Klettersteig

Alastair BegleyAustria, Via Ferrata Short Link

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…

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…

Fluchtkogel

Alastair BegleyAlpinism, Austria Short Link

After a few days of bad weather we were lucky that a very brief weather window coincided with the night we had booked at the Vernagthütte. As we only had a brief weather window we drove down in the car from Munich, which is just another reminder of how great a place this is to live. Walk into the Vernagthütte Last time we did a hut walk from Vent it was on the way into the Martin Busch Hütte for the Similaun and we got very, very wet! This time could not have been more different as we were treated to sun and blue skies on the walk in. We had treated ourselves to the luxury of rucksack transport using the hut’s Materialseilbahn, so we only had a short walk up the valley with our full packs. This was very pleasant with wonderful views, waterfalls and friendly horses. After dumping our bags we made the ascent up to the hut, which felt very easy without the heavy packs. After an enjoyable walk we arrived at the hut in time for a few beers and a shower before dinner. It was. Read the full article…