mirror of
https://expo.survex.com/repositories/expoweb/.git/
synced 2024-11-21 23:01:55 +00:00
136 lines
7.5 KiB
HTML
Executable File
136 lines
7.5 KiB
HTML
Executable File
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0//EN">
|
|
<html>
|
|
<head>
|
|
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf8" />
|
|
<title>Cambridge Underground 1985: Trisselwand</title>
|
|
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="../../css/main2.css" />
|
|
</head>
|
|
<body>
|
|
<center><font size=-1>Cambridge Underground 1985 pp 10-12</font>
|
|
|
|
<h2>An ascent of the Trisselwand</h2>
|
|
|
|
<p>by Andy Waddington</center>
|
|
|
|
<p>The Trisselwand is an imposing two thousand foot limestone face, which
|
|
dominates the view across Altausseer See, next to which Cambridge caving
|
|
expeditions have camped for several years. The sight of this apparently sheer
|
|
face over the lake has been a challenge for some time - a challenge which
|
|
Wiggy and myself finally took up during this year's expedition. The weather
|
|
was generally poor, restricting caving activities, but allowing a reccy to
|
|
the bottom of the crag during a break in the rain. The guidebook gives our
|
|
chosen route a III+ grade (around Hard V. Diff.), but describes 500m of
|
|
climbing in one short paragraph in German, so route finding looked like being
|
|
the major problem. The advance inspection showed the crag to be more complex,
|
|
but less vertical, than first thought, and we decided on an early start on
|
|
the first clear day.
|
|
|
|
<p>A few days later the sun came out, and our 'early' start got us on the
|
|
rock at 11am. The first couple of pitches were easy scrambling, though poorly
|
|
protected, and we set out confident that the guidebook time of four hours was
|
|
reasonable. More easy climbing ( but no more runners ) led to a big ledge
|
|
which took us into the 'Hauptschlucht' or main gully. From a distance this
|
|
had looked like a steep corner, but once inside, it proved to be a fine
|
|
clean-washed gully with - sheer luxury - both shady stances and reliable
|
|
belays. Wiggy led a pitch of excellent bridging to a belay below a huge
|
|
chockstone - a welcome relief from the now blistering heat. We had managed to
|
|
pick the hottest day of the entire trip to climb the dazzling white,
|
|
South-facing rock. The next pitch went out onto the face to the right,
|
|
becoming suddenly very exposed, and having avoided the direct line with a
|
|
fixed peg, I became a trifle concerned with the large quantity of unattached
|
|
rope dragging behind me. I reached for a piton. Since we had forgotten the
|
|
peg-hammer ( too heavy anyway ), I pulled off a convenient handhold with
|
|
which to bash in a peg. Any peg. Any crack. Please ! After what seemed an
|
|
age, one very tinny and insecure piton boosted my confidence enough to step
|
|
up on small, vaguely portable-looking holds to a better traverse line above.
|
|
Another peg went in, ostensibly to protect Wiggy as he climbed up to the
|
|
traverse, but quite good for my confidence too. The next pitch was easy
|
|
angled - a good job in view of its general mobility, but much looser rock
|
|
would follow.
|
|
|
|
<p>The guidebook says to go left for three ropelengths over 'Plättige
|
|
Schrofen', at which stage my dictionary gave up. We assumed it was some sort
|
|
of ledge system, but hadn't quite appreciated the amount of loose rock that
|
|
can accumulate on a five hundred foot long ledge ! I led ten feet up rock,
|
|
and the rest of the ropelength on scree to a dubious boulder. No other belay
|
|
for at least a hundred feet, so the boulder it had to be. Wiggy arrived,
|
|
found somewhere safish for the sack, and led another ropelength across scree
|
|
to an even more imaginary belay.
|
|
|
|
<p>At this stage the guide says 'don't go too high !', but there was real
|
|
rock up there, so up we went. That this was an error became apparent when I
|
|
reached a steep headwall and had to reverse 140' down a runnerless slab to
|
|
Wiggy, who was attached to one of the more esoteric pieces of modern climbing
|
|
hardware - a Friend - in an even more esoteric 'crack'. Suffice it to say
|
|
that we wasted about two hours getting across the ensuing slabs. The fact
|
|
that it got cooler as the sun went behind the rock didn't ease the nagging
|
|
feeling that it was later than it should be at this stage.
|
|
|
|
<p>Somewhere on the traverse we must have joined the right route again - I
|
|
found some litter by a belay in a crack with the peculiar feature of a strong
|
|
outward draught. A bit tight for a dig perhaps, but intriguing nonetheless.
|
|
Off to our left the world seemed to end, while above was impossibly steep. We
|
|
knew that round the corner was a steep ramp that would lead us to the summit
|
|
ridge, but where to go to reach it ? Wiggy thought I should drop down to a
|
|
notch in the corner, but I could see that this led to thin air, so I tied
|
|
myself to a rock and directed him upwards. A steep crack provided Wiggy with
|
|
perhaps the hardest lead on the route, but also with more protection than we
|
|
had had thus far. At the top were two fixed pegs, and a downward view to
|
|
infinity, or perhaps a little beyond. I found Wiggy seated comfortably on the
|
|
stance, and grinning as he pointed out an obvious line out over the drop. To
|
|
gain the ramp required either a long traverse out to the left, or the ascent
|
|
of an equally exposed steep little wall. I found a runner placement below the
|
|
wall which made my mind up. Above the step was easier ground and more fixed
|
|
pegs.
|
|
|
|
<p>Route finding on the ramp was a lot easier than below, and fixed pegs made
|
|
the exposure less unnerving. On the other hand, the pretty pink tinge in the
|
|
sky suggested that speed would be an asset. Three pitches up the ramp led to
|
|
a steep looking little headwall, but at the top was the summit ridge. The
|
|
headwall proved easy, but the ridge was a shock - the wall must only be a few
|
|
feet thick ! With three thousand feet of space each side, we were glad that
|
|
the four rope lengths of summit ridge were only a scramble. The final step
|
|
across to the summit overhangs our route lower down, and makes an impressive
|
|
finale. We hurriedly signed the summit book as the last rays of sunlight left
|
|
the sky.
|
|
|
|
<p>Having taken almost nine hours to climb the route, on the hottest day of
|
|
the trip, with just two litres of orange juice between us, we now felt
|
|
suitably knackered. The evening was hot and close, and the steep walk down
|
|
from the summit soon turned into an epic, with one light failed, and the
|
|
other absorbed by the inky blackness of the forest lower down. Seldom has a
|
|
litre of grapefruit juice vanished so fast as when we reached the campsite -
|
|
and it didn't spoil our appetite for beer !
|
|
|
|
<p>Summary: -------- Phil Wigglesworth and Andy Waddington climbed
|
|
"Stügerweg", a 500m grade III+ route on the Trisselwand, a
|
|
limestone face some 50 miles East of Salzburg in Austria. The route was
|
|
technically no more than Severe but exposed and lacking in protection, and
|
|
with loose rock in parts. The ascent took almost nine hours - more than twice
|
|
the guidebook time, but this was mainly due to routefinding problems. The
|
|
upper part of the route is very fine, with impressive situations. Especially
|
|
at night. God, it was hell up there.
|
|
|
|
<hr />
|
|
<!-- LINKS -->
|
|
<ul id="links">
|
|
<li>Cambridge Underground 1985,
|
|
<a href="http://cucc.survex.com/jnl/1985/index.htm">Table of Contents</a></li>
|
|
<li>1984 Expedition info:
|
|
<ul>
|
|
<li><a href="log.htm">Logbook</a></li>
|
|
<li><a href="stopp.htm">Stop Press report</a>, CU 1984</li>
|
|
<li>Main Expo report, Cambridge Underground 1985:
|
|
<ul>
|
|
<li><a href="report.htm">Austria 1984 Exposée</a></li>
|
|
<li><a href="cavegd.htm">Wolfhöhle</a> - A Guidebook Description</li>
|
|
</ul></li>
|
|
<li><a href="bcracc.htm">BCRA Caves & Caving Report</a></li>
|
|
</ul></li>
|
|
<li><a href="../../pubs.htm#pubs1984">Index</a> to all publications</li>
|
|
<li><a href="../../index.htm">Back to Expeditions intro page</a></li>
|
|
<li><a href="../../../index.htm">CUCC Home Page</a></li>
|
|
</ul>
|
|
</body>
|
|
</html>
|