Dachstein South Wall

So, the end of the season has come, the guests are gone, the huts are too. And the weather? … Yes, the weather shows its unashamedly good side. Throughout the summer, ours struggles with snow drifts, uncertain weather forecasts, cleaging fingers and snow to the shin. And now that we are free, every day the sun laughs from the sky. What else can we say about this? I think you can hit it worse. On one of these almost inflationary dream weather autumn days, our schedules and family commitments meant it very well with the three of us. A target was found in the near future. It should be a classic, which we would like to include in our tour program afterwards. The Watzmann East Wall was postponed due to the rather late shipping times over the Königsee. Immediately the Geri came with the alternative Dachstein south wall ”Steinerweg” around the corner. This alpine crusher with its 900 meters wall height in the fourth difficulty degree was already on the shooting list for some time. The tour should suffice for a day-filling activity in a friendly setting. At about half past six in the morning that day we snorted after an almost unleashed near-local, who at least knew the access to the Erzherzog-Johann-Klettersteig in the Dachstein Südwand like Mutter’s candy drawer. The Styrian oak with the seven-mile boots was a wild Murtaler, which usually drives its shambles on the Obertauern or in the far north of Alaska. But when I suggested to him to climb the highest peak of his beloved nuclear oil motherland, the harmony was perfect. After 1.5 hours in the pig gallop we were already below the 900 meters of rock face. But hurry was required, as from the family technical side of Max and Geri and from the film premiere technical side with Mr. Bernd K. it was absolutely no option to miss the last gondola into the valley. With momentum we went through the first few enjoyable pitches in the fourth difficulty degree up to the slightly lighter ramps. At the same time, we were soon climbing on the so-called ‘roof gable”, where the whole thing gets a little more serious. Nevertheless, we made good progress via famous places such as the ”Salzburger Band” or the ”Steiner Kamin”, where you can enjoy the classic climbing of squeezing and scrubbing. In the amazingly good rock we soon reached the summit gorge and after an entertaining 27 pitches or 6.5 hours of climbing we already got out of the tour – or two minutes later – I would say – big enough summit cross at 2995 m. Without much time for cozy They were already pushing towards the gondola, so as not to unnecessarily strain the schedule. Thank God we just missed the current gondola and had time to quickly push away a cappuccino and an apple strudel. For the cable car ride, the Dachsteiner Bergbahn generously granted us 1 Euro (!!) Mountain guide discount, for which I would like to thank once again on behalf of my colleagues. For this we were able to enjoy the descent on the convertible upper deck of the gondola – you don’t do that every day. For me, a great day on the rock came to an end in exclusive company. If you have now also got the desire for such a classic, dare to report. But you don’t dare anyway … 😉