Ascents in Egloffsteiner Gemsenwand

Alpine adventure, rope management is key, but also not ripping off holds in the brittle but beautiful middle section.

Oh boy. Chossy as hell in the first third, then a little dirty in the middle. The upper part is actually in decent rock and not the worst climbing, but there are much better choices here.

Natural line, good climbing. Not sure about the rock, some sections seem a bit fragile.

Also a good route here, quite airy bolting. Pristine rock in the upper part.

Bit grassy, but still an enjoyable warmup in the sun.

The quickdraws (and one nut) were already in, which helped a bit.

I led the first pitch, Alex led the second. Right before reaching the first anchor, a trusty looking hold suddenly gave way, sending me on quite a sideways whipper into the fixed sling. I got lucky and landed square on my feet, it was a bit rough though. Apparently I managed to unconsciously put the fist-sized piece of rock nicely on the grassy ledge right before falling. Awesome route, even with all that choss.

That was really hard! Almost didn't make it.

A nice, strong line and good climbing, too. A bit of grass in the route, but that didn't bother me too much. A few nuts/tricams/slings are recommended. #lastrouteoftheday

A great line, a bit around the corner but not to be missed! Follows the big flake/crack/dihedral structure, which is a treat to climb, then continues straight up over the overhang on brilliant, hefty jugs. #warmup

Fantastic route! Well-protected, too. The first pitch is a jugfest that draws up in a big arch, first left, then up, then right, on big, but fragile structures, to a comfy belay on a ledge. Pitch two then follows the obvious crack on the right, reached slightly boldly via a short slab. Turns out the crack is a jugfest, too! Climbing out over the little bulge seemed like the hardest part of the route at first, but I sort of chimneyed my way up to jugs.

The more relaxed of the two "Gemsenwege", but still with a lot of alpine feel (that is, falling not recommended :-D). Great rock structure in the lower half. The dihedral at the top felt so much easier than when I climbed it as the top section of "Direkter Gemsenweg" in much more adverse conditions a few months ago. Careful when lowering, I barely touched the wall and ripped off a huge flake in unclimbed terrain.

The first half can be climbed as a sport route, but anchoring off at the last Bühler bolt would have left a bad taste in my mouth, so I pushed on through the upper part, roughly 20 meters runout with one or two sensible (and one or two not so sensible) opportunities for some gear. Quite adventurous this way. Definitely rewarding, but you have to be really careful about loose rock. The bolted part is a challenging 6+ with great moves, all in all very rewarding.

The finest dolomite choss around. Yeah, there's a lot of loose stuff, but oh, those jugs! Nice, slightly technical traverse after the easy start, then a juggy (but brittle) section with phenomenal rock structures, lots of quartz crystals and nice exposure to the belay in the little cave. The jug glory continues in the second pitch, with improving rock quality. Tricky little dihedral at the end.

Slighly intimidating overhanging dihedral in the upper part, that turns out to be a real treat. No anchor except for the one at the very top, I jumped back into the last bolt (there's a solid tree, too).

Not as chossy as the name suggests. The two bolts in the direct start (which is absolutely recommended over the original start which probably hasn't been done in ages) make it an enjoyable undertaking. I was only a bit wary of the big block in the dihedral at the exit (which is also the hardest part of the climb), which seems to be fully connected to the wall, but some parts sound a bit hollow.

Still a delight. The lower part was a bit wet, but that didn't really matter.

A pure classic. The hardest part for me was the bridging at the very start. ;-) Once that's taken care of, you can enjoy yourself with every single move. The protection seems a bit scarce at first, but turns out to be fine with one or the other additional nut. Perfect rock (especially for this here crag).

Small crimps and sidepulls at the beginning, where it's unfortunately slightly chossy. But that doesn't do much harm, the rest of the route is really cool, with lots of balance and footwork and unusual moves. Also, it's nice to climb the exit of "Mathias-Bauer-Gedenkweg" a second time.

Maybe the direct start is even a bit better, but this deserves at least 2 stars. Not for brutes, though: you should be careful with each hold, since a lot of them are loose. That aside, it's wonderful, long climbing with a brilliant view. The actual "Ka.-Mau.-Weg" is the overhanging crack in the upper part of the wall and it's a great finish.

Good wall climbing mainly on crimps. Tricky part in the uppermost section.

FFA.