Durststrecke

Ruska came to Austria

 Durststrecke UIAA 7 (or 7- A0), 630 m / 16 pitches. We simul climbed the route with two stops. Here I’m on the fifth pitch, which was the first hard (7-) pitch of the route.

 It was a bit wet, but since I just came back from Yosemite, I was used to switching into "french free” mode. But even when pulling on gear, it's still mandatory to climb a bit run out 7- on Durststrecke. “Good bolts, but not overprotected” as the guidebook says. 

 Starting the 10th pitch. We simul climbed the first nine pitches before I run out of the gear. 

Overhanging juggy limestone. This was the easiest grade 7 pitch, but I still managed to screw up my onsight.

 Pitch nr 14. The whole route is bolted, but bolts are sometimes a bit far apart. I got lost many times simply because I didn’t see the next bolt and had no idea where to climb. It was also difficult to know what first ascensionists had been thinking. Sometimes the route follows the weakest line, sometimes it goes where the best climbing/rock is.

 Richterweg

 Someone on Kessels neue Kleider UIAA 7. 

This is the route we did the last time. It’s a very good route and a bit easier than Durststrecke.

Anu on the top of Durststrecke

 Some mandatory scrambling to the top of Stadelwand.

We have been simul climbing quite a lot in the summer, and it’s been nice so to see what’s possible for us. Sometimes simul climbing on hard terrain (for us) can be a lot of fun, but usually it’s not. In Durststrecke it would have made more sense to pitch normally the most difficult parts. I’m pretty sure this would have also been a faster way. We did the route now in 5:20, which is not very fast by Austrian standards.


Our gear:

50-meter rope
33 draws, (8x60cm long),
8 extra biners
4 x 60 cm slings
3 x120 cm slings
2 x 200 cm slings 
8 ropemans/tiblocs with screw biners
Grappling hook

Link-cams 1 & 2
C3 #1

Link-cams were nice to have, even though there was only very few cracks. A couple of more draws would have been nice, but on the other hand we would have needed plenty more to be able to climb the route with only one stop. I think we had a bit too many slings. 40 meters rope would have been better for simul climbing. 50 meters rope allows 25 meters rappels if needed, but rope lengths on Durststrecke are up to 60 meters so the extra 5 meters would not help too much. A grappling hook was pretty pointless on wet slabs.