Blog Posts in Category: Mountaineering

Schellschlicht

We had planned on doing the Gartnerwand traverse, but due to wind gusts in excess of 100km/h on the Gartnerwand while we were heading there on the train, we decided to abort to a plan b (or was it c) to head up the Schellschlicht, hoping that the larger mountains to the south would protect us from the strong southerly wind. The walk up was mostly in the forrest, which was surprisingly still full of beautiful autumnal colours, and when we were treated to glimpses out of the forrest the views were wonderful. As we ascended we eventually climbed out of the forest and were able to appreciate a view uninterrupted by trees, which just became better and better as we climbed up. The summit provided us with an excellent panorama, where we enjoyed (a quick) lunch while everyone appreciated the view. The reason for the quick lunch is that despite the wind being significantly weaker than to the south, it was still fairly strong and was very cold. The descent was down a relatively gentle ridge, which provided us with a lovely backdrop looking south to the larger Austrian. Read the full article…

Brecherspitz – Neuhaus to Spitzingsattel

We headed back to the classic circuit of the Brecherspitz with some friends who were visiting Munich as it is very easy todo with public transport and is also an enjoyable route with an nice ridge, wonderful summit views, an excellent Alm on the descent and a bus to save the knees from Spitzingsattel. We made quick time up to the Ankel Alm, which was unfortunately shut in the week due to it being the end of the season, although this did mean that we could eat our lunch by the alm. It was here that we started to see some lovely autumnal colours appearing on the deciduous trees. Once we joined the ridge the views were wonderful, and just kept improving as we climbed higher. The north ridge was fairly quiet which was pleasant, although this did give us a shock when we arrived at the very busy summit. After admiring the views and a few photos we started the descent down to the Obere Firstalm for a well earned beer and Kaiserschmarrn, before the easy descent down the road to the Spitzingsattel.

Col Pelous Hike&Fly

With the forecast for XC not looking that great, I decided to do a Hike&Fly instead as this would be a more enjoyable day than sitting and hoping for good flying conditions. Although as it turned out, the day was great and I should definitely have gone to do an XC as an hour after I landed I could count over 50 pilots above Marmolada, and as I parked up for the night in the Sella Pass there were another 50 pilots enjoying the evening thermals on Saas Pordoi. I decided to head up Col Pelous as it was a decent walk to the summit, which promised fantastic views, and it certainly delivered. Despite there being no rush on the walk up I endured a pretty fast pace and did the 4.6km walk with 860m of ascent in 1h32m elapsed time, stopping only for a few photos on the way up. Due to the fast ascent I arrived at the summit a sweaty mess, with most of my clothes soaked in sweat. Therefore I decided to enjoy a chilled out lunch on the summit in the sun while everything dried. Read the full article…

Ettore Bovero Via Ferrata

With Becky needing to be in Brixen for an early evening train we needed to have a relatively short day. We ended up choosing the Ettore Bovero Via Ferrata, as we could park overnight at the start of the walk, the climb looked good and it wasn’t too long a day. In the morning when we set off it was very cold, and I misjudged the length of time we would be walking on the flat before we started the ascent to warm us up, which led to a pretty chilly walk down the valley. Thankfully when we got to the start of the ascent we quickly started to warm back up and were soon at the col before the path led us up to the start of the via ferrata. This was a very small path which weaved its way up an improbable looking route around cliffs and old military lookouts. We arrived at the start of the via ferrata in about book time, and quickly geared up to start the route. After the crowds on the day before, it was wonderful to have the entire route to ourselves. Read the full article…