Blog Posts in Category: Rock Climbing

Cinque Stagioni & Spigolo Sud (Arco)

Alastair BegleyArco, Rock Climbing Short Link

After the success of the previous day we set off for another three star multipitch route, but this time one within walking distance of the campsite. This route was significantly harder than the previous day’s route, however it was also advertised as a well bolted sport route. The route was an 8 pitch route with sections of UIAA 6, along with an A0 pitch in the middle. As we arrived at the climb there couldn’t have been a starker contrast with the previous day, as there was nobody else around at all. As I set off up the first pitch, which wasn’t difficult, I was slightly alarmed at the lack of gear and hoping that this was just inconsiderate bolting of easier pitches, rather than the definition of a well bolted climb! Thankfully as we moved towards harder climbing on the subsequent pitches the bolting significantly improved. The climbing was really enjoyable as it was a mixture of slab climbing and steeper feature based climbing up excellent limestone. As we made our way higher we could see the daunting aid pitch towering steeply above us, which became more intimidating as. Read the full article…

La Bellezza Della Venere (Arco)

Alastair BegleyArco, Rock Climbing Short Link

We decided to climb a route which we had previously climbed on our first day in Arco, as we knew if was an enjoyable route and some friends from Munich were also planning on climbing the route. The route is a 9 pitch UIAA 5-, which is adequately protected by bolts. Unfortunately being a both a high quality and easy multiplitch climb, the route is very popular. We didn’t arrive particularly early and found a long queue to get started on the route. Eventually Becky and I managed to get started and made our way up the first pitch which was an enjoyable warm up. As we were waiting to start the next pitch the team of three in front of us were not doing anything at the belay for ages, and appeared to be adding an extra pitch from their tree belay to the official belay, so we decided to overtake, which would turn out to be a very worthwhile decision. The next pitches were enjoyable with no real queuing and fun climbing. Unfortunately there was a major traffic jam at the base of the crux pitch due to. Read the full article…

Aggenstein Linke Südwand-Platte

Alastair BegleyAustria, Rock Climbing Short Link

Having walked up Aggenstein with James last year, I knew there was plenty of climbing on the large rocky faces, so this was an obvious choice of where to head with Rob and Win, as the walk in wasn’t too long, the climbing was easy but sustained, and was relatively well protected with bolts. We decided to climb the Linke Südwand-Platte up the south west face, which is, I think, mostly what we ended up climbing! Some of the descriptions online suggested that it was very easy to end up on the routes to the right and the left, and we certainly found that. I don’t recall spending so much time looking at a topo and feeling confused before! The walk in was fairly pleasant in the cool, shady morning air and we arrived at the start of the route in relatively good time. After quickly eating some food and gearing up I set off up the first pitch and the route finding was initially very easy, until I got to the belay. At this point I had no real idea where the second pitch went, and I didn’t find. Read the full article…

Stripsenjoch Climbing

Alastair BegleyAustria, Rock Climbing Short Link

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,. Read the full article…