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