Ascents in Piazwand

Easy but dusty slab at the start. Then a bouldery overhang with nice moves. Barely made it through.

Another dusty slab (why doesn't anyone climb these any more?) with a boulder on top. I somehow juggled a bit too much at the big pocket so it took me too long to get the undercling with my right hand. Almost got thrown off when I reached for a sloping edge below the anchor, then quickly realised there was a mono in front of me, so I used this to pull myself up a bit to the good crimp next to the anchor.

What a line. People have likened this arête to what you'd find in the Elbe sandstone mountains, and I couldn't agree more. The protection is spaced, but good (and the clipping positions are fine). And the climbing could hardly be any better. If only this was climbed more, so that there was no more dust coating on the holds … A true gem. Please, don't hesitate to get on this one if you're solid in the grade!

Enduring and hard to read, but very rewarding! I wanted to clipstick the high first bolt, but it was too far away, so I had to climb it. It's not too hard to get there, still scary because of a the dirt though.

Great natural layback line with a cruxy section over the last bolt. Untypical, yellowish rock colour in the lower part.

I belayed Ellen a bit beyond the first bolt, which is already like half the route, so no onsight. Great line!

The overhang actually isn't the hardest part here! Once you've clipped the last bolt, it's basically over if you know where the holds are. Technical face climbing in the lower part. Just like everything here, this should be climbed more often. The protection is even very good!

Once you know what to do, it's not even that hard.

2nd go

Still just awesome positions at the arête in the top part. Fantastic line. #repeat

Some hard moves in the overhang, was way too exhausted for it. Should try again, but I guess it's a tad harder when you have to put in the quickdraws as well.

Overlooked a jug in the overhang and fell.

Got through the technical crux but than I didn't realize that the overhanging finish goes a bit to the left, where there are easy jugs. Wasted onsight, but well...I liked it a lot considering that it is not really my style.

Oh boy … I sort of climbed "Durstgräber" or "Goldstrecke", because I tried to follow the most natural line instead of looking at the wall before. Ended up at the arête, couldn't go back any more so I had to finish it like this. Merged back into Durststrecke, but was a bit exhausted and also disappointed, so I rested a while before committing to the finish. The actual crux would have been where I went off route …