TR: Climbing Ice in Austria

[Alex]

My wife and I headed over to Austria to hang with the folks and also do some ice climbing. On the 26th Dec we rented a car and headed out on our little adventure, using ice climbing topos and info gleaned from http://www.bergsteigen.at (well done).

 

The first day we went to the Blue Box in the OetscherGraeben. It was a really neat place, but nothing significant had formed. In what would reflect every climb we did this trip, the ice was too thin to protect, usually less than 10cm thick. As such, only lower-angle stuff had formed well enough, so we ended up doing a 30m WI3, and some ice bouldering. It is easy to imagine that with a little more cold (it is still early season after Christmas in Austria), Deep Blue would be an awesome route. That evening we spent some time in Maria Zell, then found a cheap place to sleep in Katschberg.

 

The second day we went down into Steiermark and climbed a route named Atlantis, at easy WI4. The Austrians have a funny idea of what WI 3 and WI 4 are, the pitches we did were no harder than 2, and even the top "WI4" pitch was probably 3. The "WI4+" variation we TRed at easy 4. Still, a fun day with temps around -12C (the coldest temps of the trip).

 

Day 3 we left Bad Aussee and went over to Hallstatt to look at the SchleierFall, perhaps one of the largest routes in Austria. It is very big (5 full length pitches?!?!) but the middle crux section was not in...we headed up the valley and ended up climbing through this really rad ice cave, up through a small hole in the limestone ice cave for about half a pitch. Then we headed over and TR'ed a very difficult and wet 45m 5/5+. It was brutal and scary, super exposed over a raging high waterfall!! The 6/6+ across the valley looked absolutely sick! You had to rap in and climb out, or else we would have tried it too...we were not convinced we could actually get out on that one..! Of course Hallstatt is one of the most beautiful towns in Austria, with the Dachstein in the background, so certainly not a wasted day! Still warm though.

 

The next day was also warm, with drizzle. We left Bad Aussee and headed over to the Woerschacher Waterfall, which we had seen from the road the day before and it had looked awesome. It looked alot longer from the road than it turned out to be. Again, thin thin thin ice was the rule, with the only servicable screw on a 50M WI3 pitch found just below the crux in a large mushroom of ice. Easy but heady climbing. The second pitch was falling apart even while we approached, and while it was only WI3, I backed off as I didnt think it would support body weight.

 

The next day we drove down to the Maltatal in Carinthia, which was a nice scenic drive. The Maltatal holds one of the two high concentration ice climbing areas in Austria (the other being the Rudolfshuette), with perhaps 30 routes in the valley. Again warm temps (+2 even at night) dashed our hopes, and we ended up driving up the whole valley and seeing one route in. Ironically, as we were contemplating the one route in the upper valley, a snowplow and snowblower came by and told us to immediately turn the car around, the av danger was too high and they were closing the road.

 

Discouraged by the medioche climbing and warm temps, with nothing forcast that would give us any hope of finding better conditions in all of Europe (Switerland, Germany, Italy et al were all experiencing mild temps, from -2 to +10C - the Foehn was in full effect) we decided that rather than blow money on a few pitches of (while fun, not particularly stellar) WI3, we would save our cash and head back to Vienna.

 

Back we went, and spent a last few leisure days before returning stateside.

 

Notes:

* Its very annoying that no one ice guide exists for Austria. At best, you can find "Select" guides to each province if you are very lucky and visit many of the small climbing shops in Vienna, but our information we got from the Internet was most of the time equal or better than that in the guide books. We found that several days navigating http://www.bergsteigen.at was the most useful way of getting route info, besides talking to the local ice climbers (of which there are very few!)

 

* Ratings in Austria are soft. Keep this in mind when selecting objectives. I selected alot of WI4 routes (mostly 3, with a pitch or two of 4), as I would for the Rockies, but these turned out to be mostly cruising/soloing terrain (even the "WI4" pitches with the thin ice conditions) and not particularly challenging. In retrospect I should have searched for options around half to a full grade harder for my wife and myself. For those used to Canadian Rockies ratings, the ratings in Austria are typically at least half a grade easier. The only exception are perhaps the most recent "grand cours" routes, such as "Maenner Ohne Nerven" and "Mordor".

 

* There is alot of climbing, but the season is short - reliable ice outside of the "alpine" routes only from mid Jan to mid Feb.

 

* If you are going for a longer trip, take AT skis. Limiting yourself to the lowland routes is ok for a week, but would be limiting for 2 or 3.

 

* Cheap places can be had pretty easily, once you get into the swing of things. Do not rely on youth hostels, they are chock full during ski season. Instead, you will have to get by on "B&Bs". In Austria many people speak passable English, so even if you do not speak German its possible to get by.

 

* There are really no handy climbing shops like North Americans are used to, outside of Vienna and perhaps true mountain climbing towns like Cham. Bring spare parts with you (picks, files, a spare set of crampons, etc) and do not expect to be able to maintain eq in a timely manner unless in one of these towns.

 

I see its been cold around here! Can't wait to climb locally again!

 

[Alex]

Finally got some pics up

 

http://www.mountainwerks.org/alexk/climb/TRAustriaIce03.htm