UKC

In reply to robin mueller:

Perhaps this is worthy of being a news item?

In reply to robin mueller: agreed - have emailed Jack with link.

In reply to robin mueller: Was only there a couple of weeks ago and is such a beautifull area. Probably one of the few places in Europe that has amazing bouldering, sports and alpine climbing all so close together and all of such a high standard and in such quantities. Would be surprised if the quarrying did get the go ahead as is so many business there which depend on the tourists and massive quarries would kill there business.

In reply to robin mueller: I was there a couple of years back and remember watching my 2 year old daughter stuff her self on wild blue berries wile I bouldered,an amazing place (well worth a trip).

In reply to robin mueller:

yeah, amazing place. Well recommended.

To everyone....

As an English guy who has been living in Austria for the three years now and made it my home, I can safely say, this place is an awesome climbing spot - it is quite unique! The whole of Zillertal has so many incredible climbs and bouldering, that to see it quarried like this would simply be terrible.

Unfortunately the politicians in Austria are particularly weak and money seems to talk - the quarrying companies are amongst some of the wealthiest here and they've already done untold damage to local crags and communities.

(If anyone is familiar with the Martinswand on the outskirts of Innsbruck you'll have seen the damage which has been done - it's been a real saga for the people living around here. The quarrying company destroyed the main road in their over-zealousness to dig and then in the interests of 'stabilisation' work were paid even more to go further resulting in a closure of one of the most famous Klettersteigs/Via-Ferratas in the area and the destruction of whole climbing crags).

Please take the time to sign the petition at "http://www.stonemonkeys.com/protest.html", consider a holiday here in the near future .... perhaps if the people in charge of such things saw how important climbing is to the tourist industry they would change their minds.

To whet the appetite, here are a few links to some of the awesome climbing hereabouts....

http://www.bergsteigen.at/de/touren.aspx?ID=420
http://www.bergsteigen.at/de/touren.aspx?ID=417
http://www.bergsteigen.at/de/touren.aspx?ID=689
http://www.bergsteigen.at/de/touren.aspx?ID=652
http://www.bergsteigen.at/de/touren.aspx?ID=1478

... in fact, just look at www.bergsteigen.at and search for 'Zillertal' in the search box... there's loads at every level...!!!!

If anyone is interested in visiting, let me know and I'll post up some more tips....

Happy climbing
Mark.