Saturday, February 4, 2012

Holiday Snaps from Austria

On my winter hols in Austria, ice climbing with Neil Gresham. Very Cold here, -17c today so lots of ice but a bit brittle. Our first day we visited Thun-Klamm a gorge with an El Chorro like walk way i.e. large parts of it had fallen down. We did a couple of short ice pitches to get our minds warmed upNeil on Relax given WI5 but probably WI4 and bolted too!Me on Kerze WI5 at Thun-Klamm

Today we made it to Gasteinertal - the main valley that had inspired this trip. We drove about 200 yards before we spotted something we wanted to climb:
This is left to right Rock and Roll WI7-, M8+, Wet Dreams WI6 and Ruinenorgel WI5+. We choose the latter as the sensible option but hope to return for West Dreams.
Me on the long first pitch of Ruinenorgel WI5+

We then in search of something for tomorrow and came across this madness right in the middle of the town of Bad Gastein. It's called Gasteiner Wasserfall WI6 although it's twice as thick in the photo in the guide with the big icicles on the left having touched down. Not sure whether we will get brave enough for this, by the end of the week.
Eeek! and yes that is steam from the hot springs

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