Ascents of Talwand

Finally! When I passed the point where Christoph Rauch bailed yesterday, I could fully understand why. The climbing could actually be nice without the thick moss and dirt over every hold and foothold.

I couldn't leave my gear behind, so I just had to return as soon as possible and finish what I started. The first part went much smoother today, since we had already removed some of the moss from important footholds and more importantly the thorns. Set up belay in the original position, then I relatively quickly went up to the place where I had bailed yesterday, but realised that I had to sit in the gear at the ring to dig out a few more footholds. Everything was still slimy and full of dirt, but in the end I found a relatively reliable foothold to gain the big flake. However, what looked like the edge of the summit from below turned into steep grass with some protruding icy rocks. But I found another solid placement for a nut which gave me the courage to finally heave myself up onto the summit. Not exactly the best conditions, but maybe warm, dry moss would have been even worse? First party on the summit since 2014! I should come back some time and clean the route some more since it's actually really worthwhile! #jahreserste2020

I seconded until the first bolt to belay Christoph Rauch, but we had to call it a day at that point.

From the ground, it looked like the first ten meters would be the problematic part of this endeavour. Oh what wrong an assumption that should turn out to be. Despite it being chossy and dusty, it was easy and you can place a few solid pieces before reaching the bolt on the ledge. There, I already had to set up belay because the way up was blocked by thorns. Bovist brought up scissors and saw, so the journey could go on. Interesting passage up the diagonal ledge to the little rock chamber (original end of pitch 1). From there on, most of the holds were initially covered in (frozen) moss. Dug around a lot and finally found a good cam placement next to the slightly unreliable rock tunnel, so I pushed on and reached the slab beneath the final wall. Unfortunately, the slab, too, was covered in frozen moss, which broke away after standing on it for a few seconds. I quickly put a carabiner in the rusty ring at the end of the slab and backed it up with a small cam. By this time, I had slipped quite a few times already and I realized that I didn't have any more sensible gear on me for the last few meters of climbing. I tried a few times to get over the last steep bit, but had to retreat in the end; lowered off my cam and the rusty bolt.