Hans von Haid Steig

Regular readers of this blog will hopefully recall what a Klettersteig is. In english, we (or at least I) call it a via ferrata, because we don't really have any in the UK so we use the italian name. Basically it is a scramble up a path far more precipitous, rocky and vertical than you would normally attempt unaided, made climbable by various miscellaneous pieces of ironwork and ladders, as well as a cable bolted to the rock which you clip to to prevent yourself falling off the mountain. Note to would-be Klettersteiger: not falling off the mountain is NOT the same as not falling, it isn't like climbing with a belayer and toprope, you really shouldn't plan on falling off!

The start of the route

For this reason, Klettersteigs are usually a lot less extreme than climbs, so that the lowest grade of them probably would be called an easy-ish scramble in the UK (where mountains are one of the few places where the golden rule of responsibility for oneself remains). My friend and I had already completed the easy routes up the steep limestone ramparts bordering the the Rax plateau (neighbour to the Schneeberg massif, about an hours drive southwest of Vienna). We wanted to try a harder route, for the challenge but also to understand exactly who the grades were aimed at. Probably sensibly, the Hans von Haid Steig (graded C/D, A is easiest) comes with a huge bunch of warnings attached when you look it up. Were we the 'experienced climbers only' that the description spoke of? Only one way to find out!

Just under half way, looking up into the cleft which is the next part of the route. Tiny climbers are visible on the full res version!

After a sweaty trek to the base of the route and a leisurely lunch to give the large group ahead of us time to get out of our way, we donned our helmets (the most important piece of Klettersteig equipment!!!) and harnesses and set off. I was considerably distracted throughout lunch as the route began at then followed an absolutely beautifully exposed example of a limestone fault zone ...

Klettersteiger, Steigbaum/ ladder type thingy and incidentally a beautiful fault zone.

The route was indeed much trickier than any we had attempted before, but did not present an insurmountable challenge. I am really out of practice with climbing, so I climbed very inefficiently and certainly tired myself out more than necessary. The climb led up two dramatic single-poled ladders (dunno what to call them in english, see the picture!) and through a deep cleft in the rock, with the biggest difficulty being polished wet and slippy patches of rock. In this cleft I spotted a Rock Thrush, a new bird for me!! After the tricky parts came a reasonably long grade B section to finally get to the top, the length rather than the difficulty definitely took it out of me and I was quite exhausted when we finally made it. The Rax plateau always offers great views off its lip and across to the nearby peaks, and we soaked them in before heading a far less steep route back down the mountain. Mission accomplished!

The very last part of the Klettersteig.

The photos are at this link, with a cheeky photo from the Schneeberg which I climbed again a week or so before the Klettersteig. Didn't take more photos then as they would have been repeats from the first time!

Der Tom

Return to the Hochschwab

You may or more likely may not recall that last year I went on a 3 day hike in the Hochschwab area. It turned out to be a really great hiking route. When my old friend from scouts Dave contacted me about going hiking in the alps, I decided that I didn't want to expend the effort on planning a whole new route, especially seeing how great this walk was the last time. The only change I made was to the first day, extending it from 3 or so hours to a proper days walking, now that we didn't need to set off on the friday afternoon (thanks to one of the 3 bank holidays that follow easter here).

The major difference was that we were hiking the route a lot earlier in the year. This meant much more pleasant cool conditions (though it hit 30 in Vienna while we were up there, we were in the low-mid 20s tops and had lots of cooling snow around). It also meant not all snow had melted yet, which turned out to be more a help than a hindrance.

Day one, typical scenery

We finally got off the bus at around midday on Saturday the 7th of June. The new route began already quite high at 1200m, and the highest point of the first day was a measly 1700m or so. Thus the whole thing was an extremely pleasant walk mostly contouring along the sides of slopes or across limestone plateaus. Up above 1400m there are lots of these, full of little damp clearings, dotted with hoofprints of passing cows, green with grass and in early June bristling with wildflowers and buzzing with insects. In between there are stretches of thin conifer wood, mossier and with much more lichen than you get at ground level. Every so often we would reach a high point, saddle or cliffside where we could look back over the way we had come so far or spy the distant peak of tomorrow's target, the Hochschwab. We arrived at the first hut on time, gobbled down dinner and a few shandys, got down to some serious card playing then all too soon were banished off to bed.

View from the summit

The next 2 days hike followed the route described in the previous blogpost, and with the bright sunny weather the whole thing felt enormously familiar, apart from the snowfields we occasionally had to tramp up and over. The ascent to the Hochschwab summit (2277 m) was tiring but not too difficult, and we were rewarded with the amazing view, enhanced by the patchwork of bright white flecks of unmelted snow visible even on the furthest mountains. The snow was also a huge help on the descent, instead of a monotonous, knee-jarring and steep plod down, we were able to half-run, half-slide ('glissading' you can call it apparently) straight down the snow. We were in the valley in no time, with little or no plod required! And once in the valley we were cooled by the snow, instead of baked. There was even water at the hut to wash with this time!

Perhaps my favourite shot, a distant Dave enters the snow filled valley, compare with the same valley in august...

The final day was a straight descent, followed by a multi hour wait in a completely asleep little alpine village for the bus to the station. Once down out of the mountains everything was really hotting up, and the 30 degree weather once we got back to Vienna really lent a very surreal feeling to the 3 days. Once we were back, it was as if they had occurred in a completely parallel universe...

Hope you enjoy the photos, I have tried to avoid repeating views from last year but inevitably the odd one crept in!!

Till next time,

Der Tom