The Austrian Alps are in amazing spring condition right now, perfectly timed for Will Bourne's visit to Salzburg. We caught the first lift up to the glacier and then took the longer klettersteig from the base of the rock ridge to the summit of Hoher Dachstein. The wind loading on the skis, plus lack of cable under some exposed buried sections added a bit of spice, but overall it was a very awesome ski-klettersteig combo.
Today we hiked to 4600m, just below the sacred 5000ers on the route between Labatama and Panka. The famous "Thousand Lakes Trek" finally delivered some lakes, along with endless vistas of the surrounding high peaks.
The approach to Damavand took two days. We first walked and skinned from the roadhead to spend our first night in the mosque at 3200m. The second day we climbed steadily up to the main camp at 4200m - a cold but well built hut which we were fortunate to have to ourselves for much of the trip.
The ascent of Damavand took around 9 1/2 hours from hut to summit. I was fortunate to have acclimatized very well and felt brilliant storming up the 35-40 degree hard ice. The mountain gently smokes sulphur from a large summit crater and we dodged this to enjoy some brilliant views from the rocky mound on the top. The descent was a little easier, a fast 40 minute ski back to the hut below.
Our move to Salzburg coincided with a spell of superb weather. Over the course of one week, I watched the morning sunrise three times from the summit of the Barmsteine - kleiner and großer. An early start but a great warm-up to the working day.
A subdued day of climbing at Shorn Cliff after the recent sad news. I joined Steve "no worries chicken curry" Gibbs and friends for only my second ever visit to the cliff and managed to squeeze four great routes into a morning of climbing.
