Oktowasunn (VII-)

Published on 2014-10-10 by Michael Stanton

Pitch one

Thomas and Julia, old friends of Georg, came visiting from the north country. We decided to climb Octowasunn (7-) on the Vorderer Karlsspize. The grade seemed a bit burly, but we had our secret weapon, Georg :).

After some initial scrambling, we climbed pitch one, 6+, and rather exciting. There were some dicey moves in the middle, and a long stretch without gear. Georg and Julia headed off first, and I followed with Thomas. Happily, I had a few cams, and used the both in a crack below the anchor. You should definitely bring some extra gear for this climb, it's not pure bolted sport!

The next pitch at 6 or 6- was just plain fun. Then the crux slab (7-) followed. I got scared and asked Georg and Julia to drop a rope! So much for my rock climbing hero badge, LOL. Feeling a bit safer, I enjoyed the pitch a lot. Really interesting and powerful moves.

Georg on the crux pitch

Julia at a belay

P3 begins with a short traverse

Thomas coming up

Thomas arrives at the belay

Difficult routefinding

Julia on P5 (IV+)

Thomas on P4 (IV+)

Georg rappels from P6.

It was quite cold!

Julia, undeterred.

The Vorderer Karlsspitze

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Pitch four was 50 meters long, at grade IV+, and felt rather insecure. Georg had to climb down a significant amount on the route-finding adventure. There was only a single bolt and I used all of my little store of gear. Pitch 5 was very nice (I forgot the grade, maybe 5?). We were getting really cold. Georg and I climbed one more pitch, a pretty burly grade 6. Then we all rappelled together. I think three rappels were enough due to the traversing nature of the route.

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Mountain fashion

Thanks to Julia, Thomas and Georg for a great day!