Last week, Stefan Schöndorfer and I bolted some two rope-length sport climbs on the Gaisberg crag. These routes complement the easy single pitch routes we bolted last fall. The topo (click on the topo to enlarge and copy) above shows the nine well bolted routes (in bold). The doted lines indicate existing routes that are not up to safety standards due to various reasons. The three two-pitch routes are bolted with a two-bolt belay at the mid-point. there are rappel anchors for each of the routes. Additionally, we also bolted a near by rock outcrop that is designed for rope technique practice or for young children to climb on.
This time around, we worked for a total of about 11-12 hours, replacing lower-offs, cleaning vegetation and loose rock and of course putting up the routes. All together we put in 12 lower-offs and easily more than 50 bolts. The hardware was donated by Stefan through his climbing school denkundstein, and we donated our time, energy and know-how. We will be using the new routes for Kletterhalle Salzburg outdoor courses. The course offerings include a basic outdoor course called, Baseclimbs, and a course for those wanting to do multiple rope-length bolted routes, Mutipitch.The main compact wall of the Gaisberg is made up of a number of bolted routes of varying safety standards and quality. Stefan was one of the first to bolt the early sport lines on the wall almost 20 years ago. These routes are 6b/6b+ (5.10d/5.11a) or harder and are generally a bit under-rated. The descriptions and topos are published in a number of area sport climbing guide books.
denkundstein was granted permission by the city of Salzburg (and other responsible government and private organizations) to monitor and develop the Gaisberg for bolted sport climbing. This is part of a two or three year old initiative on the part of the city to make the Gaisberg a local natural get away on the outskirts of the city for sport and nature activities. We plan on further cleaning up the older routes and putting in more new ones (single and multi-pitch) on the various crags.
"You have to decide what you love the most, I think. And go for that. And don't believe people who say you can't do it. I semi-believed those people and it really held me back. It turns out they were wrong. They're still telling me I can't do it even while I am actually actively doing it! This is kind of comical."It's funny the things you say in response to people. I teach myself a lot that way, which is why I like doing Q&A sessions and interviews. But it's really true. There seem to always be naysayers who delight in cutting you down and trying to make you feel like you're not capable. It's important to know how to tell those people to go fuck themselves. Sometimes you have to say it politely. Sometimes you have to say it only to yourself. But it's important to be able to say it.The above came from Bard Warner's Hardcore Zen site. It is something I have learned in the few years since I decided to concentrate full-time on earning my living though working in mountain sports. I have thought of writing about the nuts and bolts of how things have worked out for me, but It always seemed too self-promotional so It's never happened. (That's why I not a big facebook type of guy.) Anyways, how I am able to earn a living doing what I do is a question I get quite often, the last time was just yesterday. The answer could be explained in a very complicated and involved manner on one hand, on the other, I am just trying to responsibly do what I love, feel an honest goodness about myself and, as author Joseph Campbell said, 'follow my bliss'.I also have to emphasize that my good fortune is due to many circumstances that have allowed me to follow my path: my family and my wife's family, friends, and most importantly my wife. However, the process of life is always changing and the pressure to fit into what general society deems is "right", or for that matter what other types of organizations stipulate is always present. Sometimes I catch myself saying, "why am I doing / worrying about this?"I think a lot about how my life has turned out in comparison to that of my ten-month older sister. We were both rebellious, fiercely independent, stubborn, anti-authority, non-conformists, etc. Her energy ended up being channeled in a direction that has caused her untold problems in her life. My energy generally has led me in a positive direction.I think, to be more punk about it, I have been more successful at the proper application of the fuck you attitude.
After a week of guiding and running ice climbing courses at the beginning of February, I got to ice climb for a week on a short road trip through southern Austria, South Tyrol and into the Dolomites. In the course of the week, my partner Toni and I climbed for five days with one travel and one rest day. Each climbing day had at least one ice fall with pitches that were rated WI5 or harder. So the trip was a great opportunity to climb hard, sustained, steep ice.
On the right is the Hinterer Maralmfall, WI5/210m in the Malta valley of Carinthia. On our way south, we stopped in the Malta valley to climb some of the classic harder falls including Kathedrale, WI5+/305m. The conditions in the valley were very good with regards to the amounts of ice on routes, however the temps were on the cold side, so the ice was at time brittle and hard. I had wanted to climb the Hinterer Maralmfall for the past three years. Due to conditions and orientation of the fall, it had not formed with any margin of safety until this season.After a couple of days of climbing in the Malta valley, we took a rest/travel day to drive into south Tyrol and further into the Dolomites past the Tre Cime di Lavaredo, Cristallo, (cappachino stop in Cortina), Le Tofane, etc., with our end destination on the south east side of the Marmolada in a concentrated ice climbing area of Sottoguda.
By this point the snowy conditions in the north eastern Alps had given way to warm and sunny conditions with cold temperatures in the Dolomites. The friendly skies gave a false impression to the seriousness of the avalanche conditions. The danger scale was at 3, which gave us pause to make the long approaches in very narrow valleys to get to some of the more remote ice climbs. Therefore the small village of Sottoguda with its very attractive gorge full of ice routes perfectly fit the situation. The photo on the right shows Toni seconding the last pitch of Cascata del Sole, WI3+/120m, (yes, finally getting to the "Sole" part of the "Cascata" ) which was our morning warm up climb for one of our long days in the Serrai di Sottoguda.The gorge of Sottoguda offers climbs in the moderate range to harder athletic sport climbing-like lines. There are also some short and intense dry tooling routes that are bolt protected and mixed lines where natural protection is called for.
The gorge is dominated on the right side by the wide ice fall La Cattedrale, WI 4+-6/100m. In the two-picture sequence below, Toni is on the first pitch of the two-pitch middle line which is rated at WI5. The central line is an elegant, direct route that is continuously steep with a nice shelf at the mid-point for the first belay anchor at about 50 meters into the climb.Of the many climbs in the gorge three stand out because they were excellent climbs that had interesting ice features. "Excallibur", WI4+/110m, had a very sustained first pitch with the third pitch having super fun climbing on cauliflower ice, tubes, and mushrooms that was like the ice equivalent of Kalymnos limestone. "La Spirale della Contingenza", WI4+/110m, was a thin line that was deeply embedded between rocks. It had some great steep climbing with the possibility to stem out on the rock bordering the ice flow. The line, "LaSpada nella Roca", WI5/45m is a sustained endurance climb up a steep ice pencil.On our last day we decided to drive back through Cortina and continue further east to the village of Somprade. There, we had hoped to climb a couple of routes before heading back to Salzburg. We spotted the lines form the road and checked them out with binoculars. The ice was already in the sun and was that frothy white color of rotten, deteriorating ice. The climbs on the other side of the valley were in the shade, but full of powder snow in the less steep sections and were threatened from slides from above. Plan "B" was then to drive on past the east side of the Tre Cima and climb something in East Tyrol on the way back to Salzburg.We settled on the "Mittewald Eisfall", WI5/80m, in the Puster valley near Silian. The two-pitch route ended up being much more serious than its rating due to the nature of the ice. The ice had built up in large mushrooms and cauliflower pedals that were very brittle. Finding and placing screws was labor intensive. Route finding was also challenging because there was very rarely a direct line. We had expected a laid back cruise. It wasn't.That brings me to the whole subject of ice grades. Some very well known alpine ice and mixed climbers have said that WI5 is really as hard as it gets when climbing ice. Will Gadd recently wrote this related to grades:"Grades are increasingly sort of the same to me; beyond "it's steep, not steep, whatever" ice grades generally have far less to do with how technically hard something is than what's going on in the leader's head. And, speaking personally, my head is a confused place while leading tenuous water ice... I think ice climbing grades past, "It's kinda vertical for a good distance and therefore WI 5" are likely useless. Almost all "hard" ice routes are some version of water ice 5 with bad gear. So all hard ice routes, ..., are "grade 5" plus the stories and photos... Yeah, I just rated something WI10, ha ha!"Ice climbing is such a mental form of climbing because it demands honesty on many levels. Why are you climbing this route? Are you ready technically? Are you ready physically? Mentally, can you stay calm and focused and do you have confidence in your ability, fitness, etc.?In sport rock routes you can get in over your head with almost no risk and consequence. You can get on routes and push your levels in a controlled environment that does not have, and purposely avo
ids, the mental stress that you find in ice climbing. Learning and developing skills in ice climbing demands a lot of volume climbing ice and building up technical and mental strength along the way. How? Climb ice at every opportunity. Focus more on building your ability with volume on lower graded climbs. Climb "easy" routes in "bad" conditions. Run it out on easy climbs to develop mental fortitude. Train endurance (general, strength, power) and recovery while your in a route in the climbing gym.Oh yeah, I almost forgot, while doing all this ice climbing, keep your nose out of the way of falling ice!
Mark Twight posted this comment on is Gym Jones site the other day:"If someone were to ask why we bother posting what we do and what we think on the web I might answer that this is the reason: to communicate to others we would not otherwise reach, to inspire, to influence, to affect. If I didn't think the group that formed and coalesced here was special I wouldn't bother with the broadcast. If the members of the group did not consistently demonstrate this unique character I wouldn't bother. But I do believe it and they do show it and it proves to me that, with the right attitude and the will to learn and to work hard and smart, others can do the same. If they only believe themselves and believe in themselves, if they only allow themselves, if they would simply raise their expectations of themselves. So get on with it."I find this comment personally inspiring as well as mirroring my philosophy behind what I put on my website and what I try to accomplish in courses and guiding.When I began learning how to get around in the mountains years ago I felt very much alone. I also had a number of very disappointing and dangerous experiences with so-called knowledgeable partners. Despite everything, I learned through all these various experiences and continued to teach myself the skills needed and became fitter in the different sport-specific aspects related to climbing, skiing, hiking, etc.But I seemed to be more alone underway than not, mostly because 99.9% of everyone else was just following the herd in regards to mountain activities, training, nutrition, etc.This is where a person like Mark Francis Twight (MFT) comes along. Through his writing (books and articles) and information through his websites, I was able to feel as if there were others out there like me - and more importantly - others that I could related to and identify with.
Last Saturday on the 23rd of January my partner Toni and I wanted to complete a long standing project of mine by linking up two steep couloirs in an isolated area of the mountain group Steinernes Meer ("Sea of Stone") in Berchtesgaden.
The plan was to climb up the hidden couloir in the left center of the picture below (500m, 60 degrees / AI3/III, first ascent J. Fratianni 31.03.2008). Then we would ski down the more visible central couloir (slanting from left to right, 600m, 50 degrees). To the best of my knowledge, I did the first ski descent also in March of 2008.
I had attempted this link-up last March on the 18th/19th, but was turned away by too warm weather and loose snow slides.
The picture above is in the first couloir at about 1850m. The slope is 40 degrees. To this point it felt like we had already done a hundred switchback turns.
The first crux of the left couloir is a short ice step at AI3. As is clear in the photo above, there is very little ice. When I climbed this in March of 2008, the ice was fat but very hard and compact. On the first ascent, I left my skis and pack here and soloed the remaining climbing, rappelling over the ice pitch from a snow bollard reinforced with rocks that I broke off from the side of the wall above the ice fall.
Because of the less than desirable conditions on Saturday, Toni and I changed plans and decided to ski down the first couloir from in front of the ice step and then climb and ski the central couloir. We skied down the first couloir to a protected spot behind a large boulder at about 1500m and deposited all the technical gear that we would not need for the second couloir.
This is the view down the second couloir from about its midpoint. It is about 40 to 45 degrees steep and fairly wide, so therefore we could continue to skin up zig-zagging back and forth.
Soon the couloir narrowed and became even steeper so that we put our skis on our backs and boot-packed up the upper couloir as it wined around to the left.
The crux of the couloir is about 50 degrees. The snow became a bit firmer here so going up was somewhat easier. When skiing down through this section, the steepness really got your attention.
As we got to the top, the couloir leveled where we could comfortably put our skis on and get everything set for our descent.
The couloir is regularly flushed out with small soft snow slides that come of the side walls or directly down the center of the couloir. The constant purging acts as a regular natural stress on the snow pack which stabilizes the snow by causing it to settle. We had previously had about a ten day period of little to no snow accumulation and consistent cold temperatures of a high pressure system. Toni and I were very cautious when evaluating the avalanche conditions in the couloirs. I was particularly concerned about buried depth hoar in the snow pack as the sun never reaches into the couloirs until around the end of March or beginning of April.
Conditions are dangerous in this type of terrain when there is a lot of unsettled new snow, when the snow is wind deposited (cross loaded) from the sides, depth hoar forms and persists as the snow pack becomes thicker to the point in which the weal layer can no longer support the heavier snow above it, or when the air temperature increases together with higher humidity increasing the potential for large wet snow slides.
Canadian climber Will Gadd recently climbed ice for 24 hours to raise money for a charity. On his blog he has posted some reflections on his experience with regards to training, nutrition, equipment, etc. He posted this the other day, and better words on basic ice climbing technique, movement and volume could not be written."The basic move of ice climbing is a staggered hands low-weight pull-up with the balance of your weight in a basic air squat. Feet at the same level (this is the most common mistake in ice climbing--your feet should always be at very close to the same level), hike feet up with straight arms, push up with legs, place high tool, repeat to the top. Feet always at the same level, tools never at the same level, twice as many foot placements at least as tool placements...""I learned a lot about ice climbing fast and efficiently through all of these thousands and thousands of feet. When you're doing huge volumes of ice little differences in movement patterns add up quickly. I developed huge calluses on my little fingers from hanging onto the Cobras and new Fusions. I learned so much about dynamic movement on ice, momentum, and a subtle hip push very similar to the finish of a good squat that, when combined, really helped a tremendous amount. I've now been ice climbing for over 25 years off and on, and perhaps the most important thing I've learned is that being a good ice climber is all about mileage on ice."In the book Outliers, Malcom Gladwell states that it take 10,000 hours of practice to achieve mastery in something. That is a lot of ice climbing. Focusing on efficient body movement is often overlooked when ice climbing because the climber is separated form the ice element by crampons and ice tools, not to mention the gloves, heavy boots (when compared to rock shoes) and layers of warm clothing. All this leads to getting disengaged from feeling good climbing movement when on ice.Climbing is movement and when you see someone move fluidly over ice instead of the wooden, Frankenstein style, you know that they have gone along way into putting in their 10,000 hours.
Am 16. und 17. Jänner bin ich mit 5 hoch motiviert Eisklettern Neulings unterwegs. Wir sind in Berchtesgaden / Königsee bei der Eisfall "Damenstart", WI 3 bis WI 4 und in Gasteinertal in der "Eisgarten" (zwischen Böckstein und Sportgastein). Dort sind wir in die Routen "Liebelei", WI 3+ bis WI 5 und "Eisgarten-Couloir", WI 3 gewesen.
Glücklicherweise haben wir gutes Eisverhältnisse erwischt. In 2 Tage sind die Kursteilnehmerinnen sehr viel geklettert und haben auch sehr viel gelernt. Es war einen wunderschön Wochenende mit einen super Kursgruppe.
Klick auf die Slideshow in der Fotoalbum zum kommen und Fotos zu downloaden.
Last week, Stefan Schöndorfer and I bolted some two rope-length sport climbs on the Gaisberg crag. These routes complement the easy single pitch routes we bolted last fall. The topo (click on the topo to enlarge and copy) above shows the nine well bolted routes (in bold). The doted lines indicate existing routes that are not up to safety standards due to various reasons. The three two-pitch routes are bolted with a two-bolt belay at the mid-point. there are rappel anchors for each of the routes. Additionally, we also bolted a near by rock outcrop that is designed for rope technique practice or for young children to climb on.
This time around, we worked for a total of about 11-12 hours, replacing lower-offs, cleaning vegetation and loose rock and of course putting up the routes. All together we put in 12 lower-offs and easily more than 50 bolts. The hardware was donated by Stefan through his climbing school denkundstein, and we donated our time, energy and know-how. We will be using the new routes for Kletterhalle Salzburg outdoor courses. The course offerings include a basic outdoor course called, Baseclimbs, and a course for those wanting to do multiple rope-length bolted routes, Mutipitch.
denkundstein was granted permission by the city of Salzburg (and other responsible government and private organizations) to monitor and develop the Gaisberg for bolted sport climbing. This is part of a two or three year old initiative on the part of the city to make the Gaisberg a local natural get away on the outskirts of the city for sport and nature activities. We plan on further cleaning up the older routes and putting in more new ones (single and multi-pitch) on the various crags.
