The Martinswand

Dan P. and I had the day to climb. With recent snowfall, we needed to stay at lower elevations, preferably south facing. I chose the Martinswand. I'd been there once before to climb a via ferrata which was kind of "blech." Sorry, but it's just not a mountain experience when you are endlessly pulling yourself up metal cables, not touching rock at all!

Here is the wall:



First we did a 5 pitch route called "Flying Grass." Rated VII- (5.10b/c), it's completely bolted. There were some interesting moves, though the VII- crux was too hard for us! We could pull past it, and enjoy several VI/VI+ pitches in better style.




Above this route, we scrambled a ways to the west to reach the start of the Ostriss, rated VI (5.9). This is a 4-5 pitch vertical crack climb. The first pitch was a little scruffy, but had a nice character all the same. The second pitch had the first real crack climbing. This being limestone, there were only a few good jams, but I loved the steepness. At the top of this pitch was an airy semi-hanging belay. Dan took off for another steep pitch while I admired the Inn River far below, and the noisy autobahn. Across the valley the snow on the Stubai Alps was melting visibly. I combined the last two pitches, which had a slab, then another steep corner pitch.

We hiked down to the car, then moved west to climb the Auckenthaler Riss (Auckenthaler Crack), rated VII-. It took quite a while to find the start of this route, and unfortunately we ran out of time to finish it. We climbed 4 interesting pitches. The last one, at grade VI-, gave a foretaste of the consistently hard pitches that would follow. Alas, we'd have to wait for another day. With our single 50 meter rope we had to be adventurous in our rappels to the base. A long downclimb back to the car ensued.

All of these routes are either completely bolted, or just need a small selection of small/medium cams to protect. The Auckenthaler Riss is 9 pitches, climbing almost the entire wall. Not bad for a "climbing garden" right beside the road!

Lago di Garda

We went to Gardasee for 3 days, for our first camping trip with the boys. It was great! We stayed at a campground right on the beach in Riva di Garda (click on the link to visit a map to show you where this is exactly). The Lago di Garda is a huge lake on the edge of the Alps. It's far enough south, and low enough that it has a warmer climate, which is perfect for fall and spring when the northern alps are wet. The drive is about 3.5 hours from Munich.







We thought the boys would be scared to sleep in their own tent but they loved it. Every night we'd walk along the beach in the moonlight. In the day we'd get gelato, which is this amazing Italian version of ice cream. We'd ride a ferry to another town, or go for a drive up the mountain. The boys loved climbing up the town tower, or one day, when we went to Arco, they walked steeply uphill with me for 20 minutes to the castle above the town. I'm really impressed with them!

Later we visited our friend Daniel and his family in Bolzano. They took us out for Pizza, and we had a great time catching up with them. I'm amazed by Daniel's bike racing schedule. He has raced up the steepest passes in the Alps.

I did one unusual thing, climbing the Via Ferrata d'Amicizia in the moonlight one evening. It was fantastic climbing ladders up vertical cliffs with the lake and town far below, all bathed in blue moonlight. I reached the summit at midnight, and came down a different way that led me to a sort of shrine in the middle of the cliff face. The townspeople built this chapel to the virgin sometime in the 40s or 50s.





We got climbing harness for Elijah and Rowan too. Climbing and camping, here we come!