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.
Afternoon city cragging in Salzburg. About 10x shorter than Bristol’s Avon Gorge, but at least 10x as pleasant a setting.
When we set off from the carpark at Gaflei, we had no idea that the "Fürstensteig" would be quite as dramatic as it turned out to be. A steep, meandering path chiselled across the cliffs, reminiscent of the approach to Shimshal in Pakistan. We had just enough time to traverse to Kuhgrat, the highest peak of the ridgeline.
Our new favourite (tiny) European principality. Liechtenstein was absolutely gorgeous this weekend, a double land-locked nation of rocky peaks and green pastures. Erinna and I hiked from Malbun around the ridge to Naafkopf, the third highest peak and triple point where Austria and Switzerland both meet on the border.
A wonderful day, which began with the stiff hike from Hinterschießlingalm, past the Sonnenstein and up to the ridgeline at 2100m. Our plan had been to traverse the airy ridgeline across to Scheffauer, but we stopped at Wiesberg and chose to retrace our steps, leaving the rest of the ridge for another day. One to return to in winter perhaps?
Erinna wanted to explore a new part of Austria so I thought it time we headed to the wild towers of the Wilder Kaiser. A very misty first day made for an atmospheric scramble up to the col at Kleines Törl.
