George Cave

Backpacking in the Steinernes Meer

Steinernes Meer - a sea of stones. I'd spotted this large, high plateau on the map some time ago and wanted to explore what was here. The area lies at around 2000m and sits on the Austrian/German border between the much more popular areas of the Watzmann to the north, and Hochkönig to the south.

Erinna and I started from Hinterthal, and slept the night on the approach in heavy rain, before hiking up to emerge from the clouds and traverse the ridgeline to a high point at Brandhorn. The entire landscape is devoid of greenery and consists entirely of limestone boulders and water-worn slabs, plus a (fortunately) well marked trail. We descended to Totes Weib and a beautiful campspot just outside the National Park, waking to an amazing view of the Watzmann and his children. Our final descent took us down to the boat back across the Königssee and the finish to a beautiful three days backpacking.

Rainy Schafberg

Quite a contrast to Saturday, a rainy ascent of Schafberg as far as the Schafbergalpe Bahnhof. Very wet.

Grosser Donnerkogel Klettersteig

The iconic, photogenic bridge on the Grosser Donnerkogel Klettersteig had been a route I'd wanted to do ever since moving to Salzburg. Cat and Louise visiting for the weekend provided the perfect opportunity to visit the area. Despite the crowds on the early part of the route, we had an amazing day out - the route might be quite easy overall, but don't underestimate the overall length if you want to catch the lift back down again.

Frison-Roche

I'd wanted to climb a route on this iconic, vertical face for a long time, and we had a perfect forecast for it on our final day in Chamonix. Not wanting to miss our flights home, Blackmore and I caught the very first bin up and raced down the track to ensure we were the first party to the starting belay.

Our haste paid off, and we had the route to ourselves in the glorious sunshine. Blackmore led the awkward chimney pitch, which left me to enjoy the wonderful final corner crack to the summit. Very cool climbing in an amazing situation.

Crakoukass

With L'index chair out of action we were limited to picking routes off of the Brévent. Matt and I made our way across the three buttresses of Crakoukass, all of which provide excellent climbing across a fine mix of puzzling moves. I had to french free the 6a/b crack, but of course Blackmore dispatched the moves with no real difficulty beneath me.

Voie Princesse

Another poor forecast that turned out to be quite a nice day after all! I introduced Matt to a bit of short-roping at the long, rambling routes up Les Mottets, aka taking our rope for a walk. After a quick transfer in to Vallorcine, we managed half a route before the downpour came.