Our final outing in north eastern Uzbekistan was a trip up the local hill Little Chimgan, followed by a descent into the Gulkham Gorge beneath. We continued down the steep drops until progress was stopped by a narrow ravine near the Gulkamsay River confluence.
Our main mountaineering objective in Uzbekistan was a route on Big Chimgan. After aborting our first attempt the day before in torrential rain, we set off in beautiful winter conditions the next day with Vladimir and Demenskaya. After many hours of uphill ascent we reached the bivy cave and geared up for the snow to come.
Sadly the heavy overnight snowfall was bonded terribly to the warm rock beneath and we we decided to bail a few hundred metres from the summit. The two locals were great company and also demonstrated some rather curious short roping techniques, although fortunately Erinna's first winter abseil was conducted a little more safely. It's a honeymoon, not an expedition!
A small warm up to mountain life in Uzbekistan with Erinna - climbing at the local crag near Chimgan. Forget the tick marks here, you can leave the whole guidebook at home and just follow the huge paint lines up the route! We rode a lap of the Chimgan Cable Car to finish, an experience far more scary than top roping on dubious anchors and loose rock.
Rebecca took me for a big bike+hike trip to the Kleiner Watzmann in Berchtesgaden. 1700m of ascent for a spectacular view - next time I'm here it will be for skiing!
Next spring she'll get married in sight of this summit, and it was the only peak she could see from the balcony of the wedding venue that she hadn't yet climbed...until today. Congratulations!
A day out to the Plombergstein with Martin a.k.a Mr So Solid. Two routes with many pitches of smooth limestone, interspersed with a couple of pitches of dense jungle.
Afternoon city cragging in Salzburg. About 10x shorter than Bristol’s Avon Gorge, but at least 10x as pleasant a setting.
