Its rare to get a whole Friday to climb on a long weekend so Al and I made the most of the fine weather on Dinas Mot. A couple of good quality starred VS routes in preparation for tomorrow's enchainment.
A brilliant 13 hour day traversing the Dirndl on Dachstein with Sanna and Nadège. We decided to skip the lift and hike the vertical km up to the glacier and around to the start. 12 pitches and 8 abseils later we'd missed the last bin down so reversed the approach including the initial (easy) klettersteig. 5* route, exposure and friends all day.
A major expedition for three weeks to the Djangart valley in Kyrgyzstan. With five other friends, we climbed seven new alpine routes on unclimbed peaks in the range. For further details, please see the Djangart expedition website.
DaveO landed at 10:30am and we were on the approach hike within 30 minutes. After a heavy night's leaving drinks in London, he asked for an easier day out, so I figured 7 hours of hiking/climbing should be quite manageable. We climbed Doriweg beneath the summit of Berchtesgadener Hochthron - a lovely shaded rock with amazing rock and wonderful views over the Salzburg valley.
A beautiful day across the West Highlands. With hindsight, our first route choice of Observatory Ridge was never going to be in condition, so we switched across to the Douglas Boulder. Al and I had a stunning day climbing a pair of opposing mixed routes: South-West Ridge and East Ridge. Both were full of hard, technical, mixed climbing which was right up our street.
After the excitement of yesterday's tour, Will & I had hoped for some steeper gully skiing on the edge of Berchtesgaden. But the mid-season thaw was well underway and the warmer weather had stripped most of the snow on the lower summits.
So we returned home and re-packed for klettersteiging, finishing our long weekend with a lap of the Drachenwand. Next time we'll take shorts!
