My vertical world: February 2020

Quest for ice without snow and rain

Weather forecast for the Alps was pretty bad – when Jeroen and I met last tuesday. Only light of hope: the Dolomites. But where to go? Finally we booked a small appartement in Ahornach (Val Pusteria) and went there without having any info about conditions.

The first day we climbed an easy route (couloir Kofler, WI3+) close to the road. We used rest of the day to find out more about other ice routes. In the afternoon we climbed a short but nice mixed route at the Eisklettergarten Angerer in Rein.

Next morning we went to the Tristenbach (WI4+) and after a cappuccino we went to the Gelltaler Fälle. Really nice climbing (two pitches WI4+ and WI5).

Thanks to mountain guide Veit Bertagnolli we went to the pretty cool route “Eiskaffee”. The route had been climbed for the last time 10 years ago. Now, the first pitch had enough ice to climb on but on the crux no ice for protection. I had to climb 4-5 metres above my last piece (short ice screw) but it was really nice climbing. The final pitch WI4+ was well chopped but looong (70 metres or so).

We stayed at the Roanerhof with Annelies and Hans. We had a great time with them and I definitely can recommend staying their (https://www.roanerhof.com/de).

Couloir Koffler on the left, the right hand route got sun very early, we decided not to climb ...

Jeroen on the first pitch of couloir Koffler, nice climbing, no traces, makes even the easy routes more demanding, we climbed the route in 3 pitches, there are two bolted belays (one after 50m en the other after 60m climbing if you climb it in two pitches, we made two ice belays and used the bolted belays for the abseils).

Mixed climbing at the Jausestation Angerer... most of the ice climbers we saw during our trip in the Rein valley were climbing here, almost nobody else on the "real" routes...