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via ferrata in Southwest Germany vs. Stubai Austria

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cliff4012 04 Dec 2012
We plan to go in mid July to Germany - myself and my 2 daughters aged 28 & 33, who are fairly competent climbers but not so strong as to do E rated via-ferrata.

I see lots of via-ferrata in and around the Zugspitz area and wonder how that area might compare to the Stubai valley - south and maybe a bit east of Innsbruck in Austria.

It would be preferable to go to the more concentrated area of climbs to minimize travel time, thus climbing more. I do find myself a bit overwhelmed with the information I've found being in German (which I don't understand) and have a hard time sifting through all the source material I have found.

We have a delightful place in Garmisch-Partenkirchen we've stayed in and enjoy the area - but have not been at all to the valley below Innsbruck - only the Insbrucker via-ferrata.

Thank you for your help with anything related you may know of.

Cliff Thomas
cliff4012@gmail.com
 Stephi 04 Dec 2012
In reply to cliff4012:
If you stay in Garmisch, it is definitely a great day going up Zugspitze via the "Höllental". This is a fairly easy via ferrata with a glacier crossing (but no big crevasses, no rope needed, in summer, crampons are a good idea). Beautiful trip but can be quite crowded on weekends (http://www.ukclimbing.com/logbook/c.php?i=77677).
Another amazing tour is the "Jubiläumsgrat", the ridge from Zugspitze to Alpspitze. You can either walk up Zugspitze or take the first cable car up (8 am). It's a long day and exposed scrambling (up to UIAA 3). Some passages have cables and you can use your via ferrata gear but there a many unprotected scrambling passages (http://www.ukclimbing.com/logbook/c.php?i=77675).
There are various harder via ferratas in Ehrwald (30 min drive from Garmisch) - the Tajakante (http://www.bergsteigen.at/de/touren.aspx?ID=630 ). Definitely worth to check out. Send me an email if you need more information.
Cheers,
Steph
 Toerag 05 Dec 2012
In reply to cliff4012: hollentalklamm up to the hollental hutte is well worth it - not hard, but interesting. Dunno how much snow there will be high up, certainly in the Dolomites you will still have old snow in July which could be an issue on the higher VF.
Mittenwalder hohenweg is a fantastic ridge - old skool VF, plenty of info on the web. either go up from the brunnstein hut and down the cablecar, or start at the cable car, go to the tiroler hut(?) and return to the cablecar to avoid the knee-destroying descent via the brunnstein hut.
Lachenspitz klettersteig is also good, but busy due to proximity of the Landsberger hutte.
Mauerleufer klettersteig on alpsitze is apparently physically hard and rockshoes are recommended by the garmisch mountain guides. Let us know what you do as I'm a regular visitor to the area.
 kenr 05 Dec 2012
In reply to cliff4012:
> I do find myself a bit overwhelmed with the information
> I've found being in German (which I don't understand)

Not sure what you mean by "information I've found" -- I'm guessing it's what you could find on various websites. No wonder you're confused.

What works better is to purchase a well-organized modern German-language guidebook. I have the www.AlpinVerlag.at guidebook for Austria (also covers southern Germany) very helpful (tho not infallible). Every climb is described with numbers and symbols, so it's easy to compare climbs and _regions_ even without a sophisticated reading knowledge of German.

So even tho I haven't done any VF in the Stubai area, it takes only a short amount of leafing thru the book to determine that there's 10 or more good-quality VF climbs in the greater Stubai region.

Tho I have to say that if I were picking an alternative region to the Garmisch area for VF, it would be the Dachstein. Here's my report from a couple years ago:
www.roberts-1.com/c/v/e/11d
(also includes a couple nearer to Garmisch)
and here's a report on the Jubilaeumsgrat:
www.roberts-1.com/c/v/e/11b

Ken

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