Ascents in Streitberger Schild

Had to fight with vegetation on the first 8 meters a bit, but triumphed. The first piece of protection is a rusty peg with a ring, not exactly trustworthy, but not a lot of good placements around, so it's best to wrap a sling around it. A meter above, there's a mediocre slot for a small silver Dragon cam. Beautiful traverse to the left to the first actual bolt of the route. From then on, it's well-protected and worthwhile. In fantastic, pristine rock up through an overhang to a narrow ledge below a roof. The book case is sadly missing. Another traverse to the left below the roof on jugs, then airy bridging via a block into the chimney, which is unfortunately quite brittle. It's best to crawl up to the vista and walk down.

FFA. #yo-yo

Polished feet at the start make it a bit scary to reach the first bolt, but then it's nice, easy climbing. Possibility to top out, but unfortunately, there's no rappel point on top.

Actually a good line along obvious cracks. Can be protected nicely with mostly nuts and one or the other cam. The upper half, however, is terribly chossy to the point of risking to throw head-sized chunks down into the chasm. Understandably, there's no anchor, so building a belay is a bit complicated (I climbed down to the rappel ring in the chimney, extended it up above the route again, then threw a loop of rope around the south east end of the summit for a tension belay). Therefore not really a recommendation, unfortunately. Which is a bit of a shame because it's surprisingly easy (didn't even feel like 6- to me).

Apparently the route starts in the dihedral further to the right, but I went to the first bolt of "Südostkante", then up and right via two rusty pegs to the ledge at the end of the dihedral (I think). Quite bold this way, especially due to the dubious rock structures, but actually a nice variant. Solid Bühler bolts from there through an overhang. According to old guidebooks, the finish is via "Südostkante", but there's another Bühler bolt in the east face a bit to the right, reachable via a grassy ledge; I went that way and it feels logical, too.

Good climbing, sadly in slightly brittle rock. Put in a small cam after the second bolt, but I'm not sure it would have held a fall. The first part of the actual arête is athletic on jugs and really fun to climb. After a no-hand rest in the middle, the holds get smaller and you're climbing slightly left of the arête for a few moves. Then a slightly scary finish along the arête on rusty old Sticht bolts (the anchor is a good Bühler bolt, though).

Starts off easy enough after a short wall section with good holds in the bulge, then a tricky crack section. The easy flake afterwards leads you directly into the compact, vertical section of the wall, with a very similar feel to the crux section of "Schildkröte", just easier.

Perfect weather … if it wasn't for the gashing wind. Started out relatively quiet, but I almost retreated when I was in the middle, just before the actual crack. Felt much scarier than it probably is (relatively good nut and cam placements), so I was glad when I was back on the ground.

The only dry piece of rock we could find today. The finish, however, was still wet, took me a while to commit to the slippery handjam.

Summited for the #warmup (as if I wasn't already warm from the searing sun). Always a pleasure.

Actually quite a fun route. The crux awaits at the very end, but you can put a decent amount of gear in before you climb up and right over the bulge. Had no idea how to climb this section in my first attempt, so I bailed to the right into "Erdenkäuferriss" and had a look from above.

Tried again, just knowing that it might be possible to reach above the bulge to some bad slopers and then somehow move up and right to reach a mediocre block. After some up- and downclimbing, I found a sequence that got me up to the sloper and it worked indeed! Hard.

Felt hard for the grade, but then again the upper part was a crack (the lower part is shared with 3 other routes and is roughly 6-/6). Take a set of stoppers/friends, especially to protect the way to the first bolt.

Der Speck macht es leider wirklich schwer, die Tour noch gut zu finden. Ansonsten natürlich genial...

Climbed it in two pitches, I lead the first one ("Alte Talseite" P1), Tobias the second. Went up all the way to make an entry in the book. #jahreserste2022

The polished start scares me every time, even in top rope. Interesting traverse along the ledge in the middle.

I tried using hand jams as much as possible in the lower part. Turns out that's incredibly useful to deal with the polish.

#lastrouteoftheday in the evening sun. Felt easy today, despite the soapy holds.

Foot popped just one move before the anchor. Wouldn't have found the clipping hold, anyway.

Straight up in the line of the pillar next to the big crack in the middle. A bit brittle around the point where it drives off right from "Via Carmen". Crux just before the anchor, almost fell again.

Stiff! Hard crux at the beginning of the long crack.

Finally came back to this one. I still feel that the slab/crack section in the middle is harder than 7-, but I don't know, maybe this gets easier if you do it a hundred times.

Cannot really call this a flash, since I had done the upper part (which gave me the most trouble) before, as the route is joined by "Via Carmen" after the bulge. The overhanging "crack" after which the route is named is short, but pumpy. The sharp finger-pocket is nice. The upper part with its slab balance layback polished-feet gave me the same uncomfortable feelings as the first time … but I prevailed!

FFA.

fantastic line

Great route with sometimes far distance to the next bolt, but safe. Very challenging, but great fun. The crux is a little traverse to the left with small footholds on two relatively good crimps (once you realised they're there) into a good sidepull. But it's not over 'til it's over!

This time I needed to place the draws instead of just clipping them, which increased the challenge even more, because I couldn't clip after the crux traverse, but only after going up into the sidepull/undercling. And in the end I didn't see a big jug for at least a minute, growing weaker and weaker while searching for the holds. I guess it'll take me some tries until I get this thing clean.

Still no success. Got through the crux this time, including the scary clip, continued for a few moves, then didn't find the holds … bummer! Forgot my chalk at home, too, so the rest felt even harder as my hands started to sweat.

For some reason, I didn't even get to the crux … the passage shortly before is so strange, I'm always worried to mess it up. Cannot remember the sequence for some reason. Also didn't find the foothold in the crux again. Better luck with chalk next time.

FFA.

Finally made it. So happy Putting it down as 8+ without hesitation. One of the hardest routes I've climbed so far, despite the grade. Proud to have done it without draws in.