Category — Austria

Recently I got an invitation to visit Kufstein in Tyrol. Kufstein is a nice provincial town and serves as the entry point to the Wilder Kaiser (2344m), a rocky landmark massif North of the famous winter sports town of Kitzbühel. The many peaks of this limestone massif offer countless rock climbing opportunities of all varieties. Well protected sport routes, base climbs and scary and dangerous alpine climbing routes with virtual no protection are all on offer.

The region is famous in the Alpine rock climbing community because it was there, where the late Reinhard Karl and Helmut Kiene opened a new Alpine route (Pumprisse, Fleischbankpfeiler and scaled it at difficulty level VII (UIAA). This was almost a sacrilege in the then very conservative community of Alpine rock climbers in central Europe which had declared the maximum level of difficulty for Alpine routes at VI.

My friend Manfred is an experienced climber and a busy member of the local climbing community. Hence, I was really happy to have him as my climbing buddy. We chose to do a short albeit really fine route named Via Gabriella in the North Face of the Scheffauer, a secondary peak of the Wilder Kaiser massif.

Scheffauer North Face, Wilder Kaiser

The Via Gabriella (diff. V+ UIIA) goes over four pitches and offers mostly slab climbing in fantastic limestone. In the middle of this well protected (bolt) climbing route is a fun overhang which needs some interesting moves. Luckily for me it was Manfred who led the pitch with the overhang.

Via Gabriella (topo), Wilder Kaiser

Two Bavarian Climbers in the Via Gabriella, Wilder Kaiser