UKC

Hi Myself and a friend are planning a trip, it would be our first time on Via ferrata but are both very competent in the mountains.
We would be flying into Innsbruck and hiring a car but thats as far as the planning has really got.
My questions are, which area should we head for and can anybody recommend any cheap campsites that would be near said area? (I know camping is more expensive in europe but all I seem to be able to find is big family sites)

Thanks in advance
Lee

In reply to leeangell: bump

In reply to leeangell: We will be going to start a trek from Innsbruck in September we will do the Innsbruck Klettersteig at either the start or the finish. If you google that name there are loads of results. I don't recall there being that many in that area last time we went. There are loads more over the border in the Dollies. We had a superb week based in Cortina and thats where I would head for the Via Ferratas. I did a little write up for our club and if you wanted it I could probably Email you a copy. It describes the routes we did. The guide books give some good recommendations. I would say however that some are fairly short but some of the longer ones like the ones on the Tofana De Rozas are quite a long trip. Take a look at the link below it shows one of the routes we did. It has a bail out half way as the top sometimes gets iced up. Have a good time.

/www.everytrail.com/guide/ferrata-lippella-to-tofana-de-rozes/map

In reply to leeangell:

There are lot of klettersteigs in Austria. You find them almost everywhere. Popular areas are for example Karwendel,l Stubaier Alpen, Grannatspitz-gruppe Gailtaler Alpen and others.
Good info is at http://www.bergsteigen.at

Take your climbing gear with you in case you are disappointed from insensitive way which some klettersteigs are build. And beware incompetent people in klettersteigs!

Austria is friendly country and I don't care about camping sites usually when I go there. Sleeping in car (or next to) at mountain car park is tolerated generally. If you need shower, it should not be difficult to find 10 E for night camp.

In reply to leeangell:

Seebener & Tajakante at Ehrwald. Topos & details on http://bergsteigen.at

In reply to AlanLittle: Thanks everyone, any recommended guidebooks?

In reply to leeangell:
Hi, probably the best guidebook for the area is: Klettersteigfuhrer Ostereich, by Alpinverlag, ISBN: 978-3-9500920-8-0.

In reply to leeangell: check out flying to munich with easyjet, it's probably cheaper. Ryanair do Memmingen but the 15kg allowance won't be enough. The book above is great, but the author prefers modern sport VF and rates things accordingly. He's also a climber rather than the walkers that write the cicerone guides.
Recommended VF:-
Austria
Lachenspitze klettersteig (in the book above)
Mittenwalder Hohenweg (may not be in the book, but is really good oldskool)
you have a car so can do Dolomites easily. Do you want old skool long walky VF properly up in the mountains, or modern sport VF lower down?

In reply to leeangell:


http://www.climbers-paradise.com/klettern/location-details/location/kletter...

In reply to Toerag: Thanks for all the replies, I think we're looking more old skool VF, the longer the better, realisticly we are going to have about three days to spend in the mountains so want to spend as much of that time as we can actually in the mountains not going up and down small routes, if that makes sense?

Cheers
Lee

In reply to leeangell:
Here's a brief account of a 3 day route we did from Innsbruck. Just one day of VF, then another day walk/scrambling to a couple of summits, and a final day on a fine high level walk.
http://yorkalpineclub.org.uk/tripreports/2003/austria/week2/index.htm

In reply to leeangell:

Have a look at the routes on Zugspitze and Alpspitze.