Zwoelferkopf, 4th July 2010

The Waxenstein (l.) and Zwölferkopf (r.) seen from Hammersbach

The Zwölferkopf and the Waxenstein are two of the most prominent mountains above Garmisch. When sitting in a cafe in the town centre or going for a stroll over the meadow it is these two mountains which dominate the view more than any other, despite the higher Alpspitze and Zugspitze slightly further back.

Letterbox on a tree in the middle of the forest on the walk in

I had heard tales of loose rock on the Zwölferkopf, but wanted at least to have sat on its summit once. Michael Stanton and I had planned a trip to the Wilder Kaiser for this weekend, but a bad weather forecast for there together with a slightly better one for Garmisch led to a quick decision to climb the north ridge or Zwölferkante.

Michael crossing the small snow field before the start

The original start, by the red sling marked in the guidebook, turned out to be as loose as its reputation. However, after two pitches we found the first of the newer bolt belays and with them also solider rock. The middle pitches turned out to be as good as can be hoped for on a grade IV route in the northern limestone alps. The pitch lengths between the new bolt belays appeared at times to be longer than marked in the topo, or we might simply have missed some. We had 50m ropes, but if doing this route again I would take 60m ropes.

One of the new bolt belays

The weather forecast we had chosen to believe turned out to be a little optimistic in its prognostications over the arrival time of the thunder storms. Whereas these had been advertised for the evening, it was about two when we heard the first peals of thunder. From this point our interest in taking photographs of the climbing waned and we concentrated on getting to the top. Somewhere around pitch 11 we lost the route, and at exactly this point the cloud came down, the thunder claps became more frequent, and the storm broke loose. Michael made a heroic lead of three pitches of anonymous terrain in pouring rain and hail to get us to the summit.

Michael on one of the upper pitches

It turned out that our difficulties were not yet over. At first we descended easily over solid scrambly terrain in the direction of the Höllental. Very quickly, however, the descent led leftwards and then out over steep grass slopes in the direction of the Mittag Scharte, the saddle between the Zwölferkopf and the Waxenstein. Beneath us the slope steepened and dropped out of sight into the Mittag Schlucht hundreds of meters beneath us. From the saddle we then traversed southwestwards at the same height as far as the Riffelkar, and found our way down in more or less continuous rain to a very welcome plate of Kaiserschmarrn in the Höllentalangerhütte. Finally at nine o'clock we got down to the valley again.

In summary, a nice climb and a full mountain day out, but a descent not for beginners or for those of a nervous disposition.

Schüsselkarspitze, 24th May 2010

Michael Stanton approaching the Schüsselkarspitze

After a month of May during which it seemed to have rained almost every day we finally got a good weather forecast for the weekend of the Pfingsten (Whitsun) holiday. After such a long period of forced inactivity I was keen to get up into the real mountains again, and so suggested, unwisely as it turned out, the Schüsselkarspitze for another attempt on the Meßner/Sint.

My attempt on the first pitch of the Meßner/Sint

I had walked up the Puitztal on my own a month earlier, and lower down there was now less snow. However, on the summit ridge of the Schüsselkarspitze there was a lot of new snow which had not been there then, and great black streaks of water covered the entire face as the sun melted this snow.

An avalanche coming down the middle of the south face

Armed with slightly better information than on my previous attempt we found the start straight away. However, our attempt was to end half way up the first pitch at the first difficulties, which were soaked with melt water. Cabbage-sized snowballs fell through the air from the ridge above as I climbed, landing some distance out from the foot of the face and burying themselves in the snow field. I climbed back down again, and it took little discussion for us to decide to abandon our attempt there and then. This was probably a wise descision: as we descended in the warmth of the late morning sun the central face was swept by several avalanches.

Descending through old avalanche debris

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.