Blog Posts in Category: Germany

Wallberg to Bayrischzell Paragliding

Alastair BegleyBavaria, Paragliding Short Link

I wasn‘t 100% sure if the day would even be flyable due to strong winds forecast at all altitudes, but thought that I would head to Wallberg and find out as it wouldn‘t cost anything thanks to the Deutschland ticket. Conditions at launch were good, and very quickly I managed to climb up to 2200m, enough to head off on a short xc, but decided that I wanted a bit more height first. Frustratingly it then took me ages to get back up to 2200m due to the amount of cloud, and it was certainly pretty windy. Once I was finally back up at 2200m, I headed off towards Bayrischzell. As I headed to Brecherspitze it was clear that it was very windy and turbulent but the climbs kept coming and kept me well above the mountains, I ensured that I would always be able to glide down to the valley despite the wind, as I didn‘t want to get pinned in a venturi. As I was flying along to Bayrischzell I was feeling a little unsure about continuing, and watching a paraglider below me take a massive collapse, combined. Read the full article…

2022 in 100 Photos

Alastair Begley100 Photos, Alpinism, Arco, Austria, Bavaria, Dolomites, General, Landscape, Paragliding, Road Cycling, Rock Climbing, Scrambling, Ski Touring, Skiing, Via Ferrata, Walking, Winter Climbing, Winter Walking Short Link

Thankfully 2022 was a more normal year than the previous two years, and our first full year with our new lifestyle living an hour from the Alps. A high point of the year was the number of visitors we were able to host, for skiing, walking, paragliding and climbing. We certainly made the most of living near the alps, with most weekends spend in the mountains one way or another. Winter Our winter was fairly dominated with piste skiing, where Becky progressed from tentatively skiing easy blue runs to confidently skiing red runs with the odd short black run as well! This was great to see and I am looking forward to her continued progression this year. Despite the focus on piste skiing we also squeezed some paragliding in and I managed to get 4 days of ski touring as well. General Through the winter we managed to squeeze in some paragliding, and on one of our final days of skiing of the year, I am managed to combine a morning skiing with my first proper cross country flight on my paraglider which was a very memorable experience, as I. Read the full article…

Blauberg Überschreitung

Alastair BegleyBavaria, Walking Short Link

With another day of beautiful sunshine and unexpectedly warm temperatures we decided to head off and do one of the long ridge walks in Bavaria which has been on my todo list for a while, the Blauberg Blauberg Überschreitung. As Becky was heading off early the next morning, we wanted to ensure that we weren’t back too late, so we got up early and arrived at the car park at 8am. We were certainly not the first people there, but the car park was still pretty deserted. The walk in was pretty cool in the shade, and for a large amount of the very flat walk in we could see the towering ascent at the end of the valley, which was as steep as it looked! We were thankful that it hadn’t rained, as the approach was along a valley floor and involved multiple crossings of the river, certainly not one to do in trainers after lots of rain! We were soon at the start of the ascent, which was fairly brutal, but at least most of the ascent was then done in one go! Eventually we emerged on the. Read the full article…

Latschenkopf 

Alastair BegleyBavaria, Walking Short Link

We had planned to go paragliding, but when we woke up the forecast wind in front of the impending storm had increased significantly, so we decided that we would skip flying and head out for a short morning walk before the storm arrived. We decided to do a short loop from Brauneck up to the Latschenkopf, as neither of us fancied a large descent after the descent from the Watzmann two days earlier. It was a very hot morning, at 8am on the drive from Munich it was already 28 degrees! The walk was very pleasant with lovely views, little ascent and more importantly little descent! The wind on the ridge made us glad that we had chosen to abort paragliding and just enjoy a short walk close to Munich. It was a fairly short walk, and by 11am we were descending to the all below the Idealhang ski slope. So there was one obvious choice to have, a classic Weißwurst Frühstück. After enjoying brunch, we headed back to the lift and then went for a swim in our local lake back in Munich.

Watzmann Überschreitung

Alastair BegleyBavaria, Via Ferrata Short Link

I have wanted to traverse the Watzmann since first visiting the Berchesgaten a few years ago on a landscape photography trip, where I took the photo below. On our second summer holiday this year we had decided to stay around Munich and with a perfect weather forecast, and spaces in the Watzmannhaus we decided to head over to Berchtesgaden to do the classic route crossing the Watzmann. The route itself was absolutely wonderful, and it was also nice to stay at the hut given it was in such a fine position looking out over Berchtesgaden and the surrounding peaks. The route certainly had all the aspects required to make it a wonderful experience, great views, plenty of exposure and fun scrambling and it was great to look down to the impressive Königssee. The descent from the ridge to the Wimbachgrieshütte was pretty unpleasant and very long, but was worth it given how good the ridge itself was! We debated if we should do the route in one day or two, in the end we decided to stay in the hut and do the route in two days, as the guidebook. Read the full article…

Direkter Ostgrat Blankenstein

Alastair BegleyBavaria, Rock Climbing Short Link

With a cloudy forecast we set off to climb an easy multipitch route on the Blankenstein, near Tegernsee. I was keen to do this route, having previously admired the Blankenstein while doing a winter circuit of the Risserkogel and Wallberg with James. We were supposed to be meeting with some friends from the IMG, however due to S-Bahn cancellations they were very delayed, so we set off alone as we didn‘t want to wait for 90mins in the car park! The walk up was very straightforward and we made excellent time, the conditions were however worse than we were expecting! The temperatures were somewhat different to what we have had to become accustomed to recently! Despite the odd spit of rain, and the cold conditions we decided to set off anyway. One of the crux moves was the move off the ground, which was made harder by not being able to feel anything in my fingers having waited for the team in front of us to get to the first belay after getting lost! Once the first move had been dispatched, the rest of the pitch was a delicate traverse,. Read the full article…

Hochries

Alastair BegleyBavaria, Walking Short Link

Due to a very unstable forecast we wanted to do a short walk in the morning which was close to Munich. We ended up deciding on a circuit including the Hochries. As we set off in the morning the weather was lovely, however as we approached the ridge the cloud started to build and we found ourselves in the cloud hoping that this wasn’t a sign of an impending storm, earlier than forecast. Nonetheless we continued and enjoyed some fleeting atmospheric views and some wonderful views in the brief moments without any cloud. As we descended from Feichteck the cloudbase seemed to lift slightly and meant that we had enjoyable views while walking along the ridge to Hochries. Here we enjoyed an early lunch at the Alm on the summit, before making a hasty retreat back down to the car.

Kampenwand Climbing & Paragliding

Alastair BegleyBavaria, Paragliding, Rock Climbing Short Link

Due to the potential for afternoon storms, we wanted to find a route which was easy, relatively long and not too far away from Munich. We ended up settling on heading to the Kampenwand, which had the added advantage of being able to get a lift up to the route! We linked up multiple routes along the ridge to have a full day out, climbing in the sun with wonderful views. We did not end up climbing exactly what we had originally planned, due to a mixture of ending up at the wrong start place, not wanting to do 6m of climbing to have to abseil back down (and then ending up behind a group of 3 who would have caught up) and a pitch being harder than expected, damp and runout. In the end we linked the following routes, with a few abseils along the way between the different crags: Westgipfel, Westseite, Torweg, 80m, f4 Westgipfel, Westseite, Westgrat (top section), f2 Teufelsturm, Nordwestkante, 45m, f3 Hauptgipfel, Nordseite, Nordwestverschneidung, 70m, f4+, DNF Hauptgipfel, Nordseite, Ostgrat, 150m, f2 It was a great day out in the sun, with some enjoyable climbing,. Read the full article…