Leben Was Geht

Hi Northwallclimbers!
Last day, Matthias Mollner and me (Bernhard Gruber), we drove to Untertal near Schladming to the Gasthaus Riesachfall. We went with our Snowshoes and all Mountainequipment to the Base of the Hochgolling Northwall with the goal to climb on this day the whole Northwall of the Hochgolling.
We needed 2.5hrs to hike up. we had avalanche warning level 1 and not too cold temperature, not a big snowfall forecast. so there must be really nice conditions.
The Southwesterly wind was blowing and the mountain top of the hochgolling was covered in clouds.

The hochgolling winkel is according the sign near the hochgolling hut the best nature amphitheatre of the world. woww – and we want to do some iceclimbing there….

We slept 10 hrs during the sylvester party night.
And we were happy to “celebrate” in our small tent in such a great and quiet nature the new year’s eve with some winter mountaineering task. wonderful!
The night was bloody cold for me because i thought for some minus degree during the night it must be possible to sleep in and thin summer sleeping bag. brrrrr. that was really not the best idea. but only the roughest will survive. Life is a bitch 😉

First i wish you a Happy New Year!!!

We got up at 6 o’clock in the morning. During the night we had some little snowfall, that’s not worth mentioning….
So after the small breakfast we dismounted the tent and then we slipped into the “ice climbing suits” 😉
we had to walk uphill about 150metres of altitude to the start of middle northwall icefall of the hochgolling nordwall.
Thats 300 metres height and climbing difficulty grade WI6- and M5+ (E3).
That does mean it is and icefall with difficulty grade of 6- and a mixed passage with difficulty grade 5+ and a sincerity grade of 3 (nothing for wimps).
The Ice condition was really good. Little bit snow, most of the time mellow ice sometimes hard ice, more or less good safety possibilities. we started to climb at 8 o’clock on the morning.
the first pitches weres about WI 3 then a 4 and a 6- pitch.
Then i got some pains in my loose shoes, i had a salomon shoe with inside extra shoe. it is very warm but not really the best for “hard” ice climbings…
we needed on average about one hour for one pitch, not really good… but it was our first icetour this season.
We had sometimes some powder avalanches but not a danger.
At pitch number six there was the great mixed 5+ traverse on thin ice and much rock. what a feeling to use only some small hooks for the ice tool. unfortunately we could find any fixing point, so we some metres without safety, under us a great ice overhang….
it did work and you can imagine the adrenaline rush.

we finished the icefall at 1pm so we had no chance to climb the whole hochgolling northwall. but the conditons to the mountain top seemed to be really great! so if somebody is interested – just do it! 😉
we went to the left side of the wall and abseiled down on 2 beaten by ourself fixing points.
After 6km’s of walking down we arrived at 17:30 the parking lot.
what a great new years beginning.

thx matthias for your really great iceclimbing skills and motivation!
For those who are interested in ice climbing and want to to some training before to climb some “nice” icefalls just go to the bighorsetower in kirchbach.
Stay safe, stay lovely, peace and respect from Losenstein.
Bernhard

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This entry was posted on Friday, January 1st, 2010 at 22:05 and is filed under Iceclimbing, Sport. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.