UKC

Where to go in Austria for easy access and alpine rock climbing?

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 KA 27 Aug 2023

Does anyone have any recommendations for where to go in Austria for a mixture of easy access multipitch as well as alpine rock routes?

 TurnipPrincess 27 Aug 2023
In reply to KA:

I would recommend Hollental within the Rax-Schneeberg Region in Lower Austria. Excellent rock quality, long routes, amazing views and not far from Vienna. I did my first multi-pitch climbs there and would like to go back again.

 Bergsteigen.com is an excellent, free website for browsing regions, routes etc. I used this website a lot in Austria. Didn't even need to buy a guidebook in the end.

https://www.bergsteigen.com/gebirge-1/?tx_webxbergsteigen_bergsteigen%5Bact...

Post edited at 09:01
 tjekel 27 Aug 2023
In reply to KA:

If hut based - Stripsenjochhaus in Wilder Kaiser; Hallerangerhaus in Karwendel, Klinkehütte for shorter stuff in Gesäuse and many others. 

Valley based: Zillertal / Breitlahner; Maltatal; Höllental as recommended above ... 

 alex_th 28 Aug 2023
In reply to KA:

The main multi-pitch climbing areas are, from west to east, Rätikon, Tannheimer Tal, Wetterstein, Karwendel, Wilder Kaiser, Berchtesgadener Alpen (lots of areas around here, like for example Loferer Steinberge), Hochkönig... and it goes on further after that, but that's the furthest east which I have been climbing.


I am not sure what you mean by easy access. You have got to walk for pretty much all of them. The Stripsenjochhaus  in the Wilder Kaiser does have many climbs which start very close by, but the hut itself is an hour and a half's walk from the car park. The climbs on the Wetterstein south side, for example,  (Schüsselkarspitze / Scharnitzspitze) are about three hours' walk from the valley, or one and a half from the hut (Wangalm), while the most worthwhile climbs on the Wetterstein north side are those reachable from the Oberreintal Hut, itself about a four hour walk from the valley. There are some valley-level crags with multi-pitch routes on them, for example the Martinswand near Innsbruck. However, I wouldn't even drive the sixty miles from my house to climb there, much less come all the way from Britain to do so.


I see from your profile that you climb E3, which means that you will have lots to go for here in the range of UIAA VI and VII., and these are the grades you need to be climbing to get the most from the multi-pitch routes here. My suggestion would be to take a few days climbing the classics on the Schüsselkarspitze south face (e.g. Rainer / Aschenbrenner, Peters / Haringer, Bayerischer Traum), and then a few days at the Stripsenjochhaus climbing the Wilder Kaiser classics, e.g. Dülfer on the Totenkirchl and the many routes on the east face of the Fleischbank.


One area which I don't know much about but which looks great if you are climbing E2 and above is the Hochkönig massif. Start by looking into the routes Gloria Patri and Dientener Weg on the Hochkönig itself. In total there is almost a lifetime's worth of climbing in that area alone, and easily enough to fill one whole trip just picking off the best known classics.


To finish, not exactly a tip, but more of a challenge: The Rebitsch / Spiegel and the Rebitsch / Lorenz on the Laliderer north face in the Karwendel. First climbed in the 1940s, no UKC ticks, and I don't know anyone here who has done them either. Apparently not routes for the married man.

 tjekel 28 Aug 2023
In reply to alex_th:

... and it goes on to the East with Dachstein, Gesäuse, Hochschwab which are just as good but less well known in UKC circles, and Lienz Dolomites in the south. All of which have routes between 5-20 pitches, many of them with bolted belays.

I once put together a very subjective ticklist that might get you some ideas: https://www.ukclimbing.com/logbook/ticklists/northern_limestone_alps_east_i...

OP KA 28 Aug 2023

Thanks for the detailed replies, it's really appreciated. We were intially going to Slovenia, but much of the climbing sounds so loose that I think we'd have a far better and safer time in Austria. 

 McHeath 28 Aug 2023
In reply to KA:

If you want to avoid loose stuff, stay clear of the Karwendel - brilliant stuff, but not for the faint hearted!

 tjekel 29 Aug 2023
In reply to McHeath:

That's explizitely not true for Halleranger.

 McHeath 29 Aug 2023
In reply to tjekel:

Aha ok, good to know - I´ve only done stuff around the Karwendelhaus/Falkenhütte.


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