Buchstein, 20th March 2010

The Roßstein and Buchstein are two little mountains, or even one mountain with two summits, above the Tegernsee to the south of Munich. They are easy to get to, even early in the year, and have got short sunny south faces with scores of climbs of all difficulties. Michael Stanton and I wanted to take advantage of the warm spring weather to start the climbing season early.

The Roßstein (left) and Buchstein (right)

First of all we climbed the Südverschneidung or Südwandschmankerl on the Buchstein. This is an old climb which follows a corner. It has solid rock, although it gets more vegetated in the upper pitches, and has been re-bolted almost to climbing wall standards. The hardest pitch was graded VI-, although this was generously graded - a V in the Wilder Kaiser is harder.

Michael Stanton on Sahnestückchen

After this climb we abseiled back down again and climbed Sahnestückchen. This is a totally different style of climb, a modern eliminate up the compact slabs to the right of the Südverschneidung and the sort of climb only made possible by bolts. The first pitch, graded VI, is wonderful - tricky technical slab climbing on rough compact rock. The second pitch, graded VII-, is the crux. This turned out to be a one-move wonder, with a desperately hard move which neither of us managed free. At the top we continued up a slippery snow gully to the summit of the Buchstein, which certainly was not pleasant in rock shoes, but gave us a wonderful view out over the Wetterstein to the south, the Karwendel to the southeast and the Rofangebirge to the east.

Bayerische Alpen Nordtirol

Selected climbs guide with 100 of the best-known classics in grades IV - VII from the Oberreintal, the Schüsselkarspitze, the Wilder Kaiser, the Karwendel, the Berchtesgadener and the Salzburger Alps, and some less well-known mountains. Each route receives a hand-drawn topo and a black and white crag photo with the line of the route. Approach and descent are described in German. For the publication date of 2004 the guide does not seem very modern. It has no climbing photos, and even the cover photo is a less than inspiring bum shot. Set against that, it is probably the quickest way to get to know the classic routes in this area.

A second slightly revised edition was published in 2009.

Author: Richard Goedeke
Published: Rother (2004)
ISBN: 3-7633-3016-X