January 10th, 2010
Hi adrenaline junkies and windaddicts again!
This day we rocked with our kites the kürnberg near steyr at westwind from 11knots up to 20knots.
The team from windgeschwindigkite showed on their homespot some really nice and high jumps – amazing!!!
That was a fine sunday afternoon – what a life…..
Cya asap
bernhard
One day later i’m feeling aching muscels at my thighs – its not possible to do a yoga session! i cancelled it! crazy action!
3 Comments | Snowkiting, Sport | Permalink
Posted by grubernhard
January 1st, 2010
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
P.S. All Photos from the ice climbing tour i did with my handycam and not really in a relaxing position… Sorry 😉
2 Comments | Iceclimbing, Sport | Permalink
Posted by admin
November 22nd, 2009
Hi Caveseekers.
Last Day, Heli Steinmassl, Ralf Cassebaum and me (Bernhard Gruber) we went to Hinterstoder for exploring a “new” cave near the Eislueg.
We named it Scheissmauertichter because it is in the scheissmauer and the entrance looks like a cone.
first we climbed uphill with our equipment to the eislueg, we had a look some metres inside. we could not see a lot of ice in the entrance. perhaps after the winter the cave get more ice again.
then we went to the scheissmauer and abseil down to the cave entrance over a mountain pine. the firs abseil pitch is about 80m’s inside the cave on a 43° steep snow hill. the snow was not hard frozen, but we used crampons.
then we go climbed without any rope the left corridor about 250m with some narrow canyons and nice climbings with the back and footings method.
We saw many bats also mummies and carcasses from bats.
we also climbed down a hole but everyone ended for us. everyone said, thats good otherwise we had to carry all the equipment like ropes and so on over this “difficult” and hard and narrow corridor.
so we went back and did the measuring (length, horizontal and vertical direction) and drawing a map.
at the main hall we went to the right side there was a very flat ground with gravel. we explored here a corridor we we thaught to here a waterfall. i climbed in this really narrow corridor with the feet at the beginning and then there was such a big wind stream, but unfortunately the noise was the wind and not the water.
so we didn’t found any possibilities to continue the cave.
we could see also some stalactites and stalacmites.
after some photos we climbed uphill to the entrance.
we measured 455metres at all in this cave.
we arrived at 10pm the parking lot after a warm but hard hike through our loved mountain pines 😉
Wonderful cave, the access way is not the best, but perhaps the next time i can fly down with a speedglider ;))
have a nice week
bernhard
No Comments » | Caving, Sport | Permalink
Posted by grubernhard
November 15th, 2009
hi caveseekers!
last day, i went with heli steinmassl caving to the brotfall near the großer priel in hinterstoder.
first we walked uphill 1800 metres with the snow shoes and the tour skis and carried the whole caving equipment including a 200m dynema 8mm diameter rope.
at 12:45 we arrived at the cave entrance.
then we abseil down about 40metres in a snow cave and did the measurement and drew a cave sketch. there were some nice icecles but in 40metres depth there was the temporary ending because of too much snow inside the cave. perhaps of the last big snow falls 3 weeks ago. shit happens.
then we climbed around the overhang and explored another big cave with many entrances. this must be the correct entrance, where a missing mountaineer falled down in the cave some months ago.
the time was about 15:45 so i walked down with the snow shoes to the hut and enjoyed the beautiful sunset while heli was drawing the cave sketch. what an amazing sunset! after the prielschutzhaus it was dark and finally we went down together to the car. at 18:20 we arrived the car.
then i had a nice bath in the cold river because at 19:30 thomas huber was coming for presenting his slideshow im vakuum der zeit…
thx for the great day!
No Comments » | Caving, Sport | Permalink
Posted by grubernhard
October 27th, 2009
This day i did a afterwork running tour with my company collegues from engel in sankt valentin!
Thomas A., Franz D. and Richard C. managed this great tour. For me it was a really flat tour compared to our running tours in the ennstal…
16km in 1hr 35 min. with one small mountain and a great sunset – nice pathes in the forest and it was really not crowded.
its amazing!
i can recommend this tour.
cya bernhard!
No Comments » | Sport | Permalink
Posted by grubernhard