Will and I first aimed for the Glocknerwand überschreitung, then switched to the Stüdlgrat as the weather window closed, before finally turning back in the early morning with storms on the horizon and bad weather all around. Not all trips to the mountains are successful.
The pointy Nockstein summit is a distinctive landmark on the drive back from the east into Salzburg city centre. Laurence and Rebecca joined us for the weekend on the descent from Gaisberg over this photogenic summit back to the valley floor.
Day 2 in Lyngen and the weather as brilliant as ever. We skinned up the gully towards the summit ridge to Nordmannviktinden, a steeper and more interesting line than the day before and superbly atmospheric in the mist.
A brilliant alpine expedition up the north ridge of Vagakallen. The climbing varied between scrambling and exciting crack climbing (with a huge dirty chimney thrown in too) and after many hours of moving up through the thick cloud, we emerged to a stunning panorama of the surrounding mountains. The climax of the route, a leap of faith across the chasm, is quite something too!
Al and I began the weekend at Cyrn Las, ticking Main Wall after an awkward start going off-route within the first few metres. On Sunday the rock dried fast so we first climbed Superdirect (perhaps more appropriately named Not-so-direct) on Milestone and then whizzed around to the Pass for a trip up Nexus. Many thanks to Jack Geldard, who's typo had listed the third pitch as 4b. The hand traverse felt a little more spicy than that.
A great day out with Becky, which began with a rainy lap of Tryfan, before we escaped to the Llanberis Pass for some lower crags. We began on Nea which has a superb 3rd pitch, followed by Diagonal on Dinas Mot which had a pair of excellent first pitches, although we sadly abb'd off after that with darkness impending.
