We went on a bit of a jinxed mission on Sunday. Anita had to work in the morning so I was babysitting Leonie. I handed her off to Anita shortly before 11 in front of Anita's colleagues. I earned curious glances and a question: "Why are you not in the mountains?!". Pointing out the obvious that someone had to take care of the little one led to a bit of a "doh!" moment. Anyway, kinda funny that I have to justify myself for not going climbing on a weekend ;-)
Winter storms have wreaked havoc in the forests and cleanup is just getting started. Fallen trees everywhere.
Even the approach is no joke for this wall.
The long preamble is meant to explain why Mark, Andrey and I only made it to the base of our chosen crag, the Wildhuser Schafberg, around 2pm. Ordinarily much too late to start on a multi pitch route, but we figured at this time of year we'd have daylight till 9pm... But first there was a steep patch of snow to overcome in extremely exposed terrain. The approach to this particular crag is not to be taken lightly even in good conditions and I have retreated because of too much snow before. This time Andrey decides to bail. The weather forecast was anything but certain and he really didn't fancy the idea of having to negotiate the snow again in the rain, in the dark.
The snow patch. I've cut steps for Mark to follow...
...while Andrey is trying to find his own way around the patch.
After some scrambling around Mark and I find the start of our route, "Sandi in the Moon". I lead the first pitch. A beautifully steep and at 50 meters super long 6a+. The rock is just structured enough that you can find good holds with a bit of careful planning and I find it a joy to climb. Mark gets the second pitch, which is really just an easy scramble to bridge a wide ledge before the wall gets steep again. Thus he gets to lead the third pitch as well.
Still going strong on the third pitch.
It's another 6a+. Mark makes good progress on the first few meters before he gets stuck. Standing a bit above his last bolt he's too intimidated to trust his feet and commit to the tiny imperfections in the rock that count as footholds. He tries a few variations and takes a few controlled falls before finally deciding to give up. We reconvene at the anchor before I give it a shot.
Top of the third pitch after switching lead with Mark.
I like this kind of limestone climbing and have been on this wall for two previous routes (Sandührliweg and Langstrasse). So I struggle less with the crux section and make it to the next anchor without too much trouble. This pitch is less homogenous than the first one and has a few sparsely protected traverses. It makes sense to take advantage of the natural cracks and hourglasses in the rock to place some extra protection.
The remnants of winter and an ominous sky.
Mark follows me up and we decide to treat this as our high point and bail. We have climbed slightly more than half of the route but the hardest pitch is yet to come. With a menacing sky, a very uncertain weather forecast (rain either any minute now or in the early evening, depending on which forecast you choose to trust), one person already retreated, and Mark's struggle on the previous pitch, we just aren't in the right headspace to continue.
My rope didn't like the rock treatment.
Being one of the first parties on a wall after winter means there's still a lot of loose rock lying around. So it happens that we swipe a big head sized boulder off the ledge while pulling our rappel ropes. The rocks whizz past us but smash into one of our ropes, nearly severing it. Luckily we just need one more rappel and that's doable on a single rope. This could have gotten annoying...