Early season conditions for the first tour of the season and I joined the Alpenverein for tour+hike to the Kitzsteinhorn summit. Nice to see the top of a peak I'd skiied beneath so many times before, but also covered in an obscene amount of metal cables. Sometimes the Austrians go a little too far..
Stupendous ridgeline ascent of Traunstein Südwest Grat with Matt Blackmore after waking from our bivy on the Barmstein in the morning. 500m of vertical climbing in just over 2 hours across some very atmospheric pinnacles and ridgelines, not bad for a man who twisted his knee six days before (Blackmore, not me)! The next day the winter snows arrived, what a way to finish the summer rock season.
Another trip up my favourite local scramble to the summit of the Kleiner Barmstein, this time with Erinna and Blackmore for company. We took bivy gear (including sleeping bags this time...) and awoke after a -8° night to a beautiful sunrise on the summit. Great to have Sweep the dog for company too. Woof.
Our final outing in north eastern Uzbekistan was a trip up the local hill Little Chimgan, followed by a descent into the Gulkham Gorge beneath. We continued down the steep drops until progress was stopped by a narrow ravine near the Gulkamsay River confluence.
Our main mountaineering objective in Uzbekistan was a route on Big Chimgan. After aborting our first attempt the day before in torrential rain, we set off in beautiful winter conditions the next day with Vladimir and Demenskaya. After many hours of uphill ascent we reached the bivy cave and geared up for the snow to come.
Sadly the heavy overnight snowfall was bonded terribly to the warm rock beneath and we we decided to bail a few hundred metres from the summit. The two locals were great company and also demonstrated some rather curious short roping techniques, although fortunately Erinna's first winter abseil was conducted a little more safely. It's a honeymoon, not an expedition!
A small warm up to mountain life in Uzbekistan with Erinna - climbing at the local crag near Chimgan. Forget the tick marks here, you can leave the whole guidebook at home and just follow the huge paint lines up the route! We rode a lap of the Chimgan Cable Car to finish, an experience far more scary than top roping on dubious anchors and loose rock.
