29/08/2017
Day 60. The cunning plan part 1 and Kratzer reloaded!
Yesterday I mentioned a “cunning plan” and today was day 1 of this 2 day plan. The weather window I had been waiting for arrived and today was blue skies all day long. Tomorrow is set to be the same! As some of you may know with all the upsets to the project I slowly came around to realising not all 186 summits would be possible on this trip, for several reasons. I secretly harboured wishes to climb at least half of the summits, 93 to be exact. With weather issues I lost a lot of time, along with my approach of not using the mountain huts. Valley to summit and back down to the valley in a day is not only tough but more my style. Having said that I worked systematically through the mountains of Allgäu climbing the summits from the list. Only 6 summits are remaining, scattered in 3 different areas. 3 of these summits I fully believe I could climb alone. 1 summit even though grade 2, I would choose to do it with a climbing partner due to the steepness of the ascent. Finally, 2 summits which are known as being lethal “grass mountains” that are steep beyond belief scare the absolute be-jasus out of me and required a different approach. At a later date I might share more info on these 6 summits.
Today my mission was to climb at least 3 summits (not any mentioned above) and relook at Kratzer the summit with speculation on the highest point. If I could do this I would then be ready and setup for tomorrows day 2 of the cunning plan. I have a “summit rich” route in the Karwendel Mountains that would give me 6 or possibly 7 summits in the day. So, if day one I climbed 3 summits, I would need to climb the 7 summits on day two. This would bring me to 93 summits climbed in total, thus half way! Needless to say this excites me :)
And so today I set off at around 6.30am and made my way to the Öfnerspitze at 2576m. This mountain would have to be climbed via the Southwest ridge at only grade one scrambling. It would turn out that after the god awful gully approach that was loose and messy (as per usual) the scrambling was some of the best grade one I have done out here. Easy, well-marked but absorbing all the same. Not overly loose and yet you take a line that tacks back and forth over the SW ridge all the way to the summit. It has a big feel to the route. From the summit I proceeded down the NW face in a zig zag manor through unlikely cliff face but always marked and nothing harder than 1+ scrambling. From the saddle I climbed the east Krottenspizte at 2553m. Again straight forward and easy grade one scrambling. The views and the terrain you get to move through are pretty awesome.
I back tracked over the Öfnerspitze and descend all the way to the top of the gully that I didn’t enjoy climbing. On route I met a women scrambling up and I asked her if she knew much about continuing the ridge line to the Muttlerkopf, my next planned summit. As it turns out she came from that way and said there was only one section of grade 2 maybe easy grade 3 climbing up out of the gully and then it was all walking. I decided that not only did this sound more fun but safer and easier than going down the gully again. I climbed up with ease but not without problems finding the route. When I reached the top I thought to myself, “that lady was a legend for back climbing that thing”. I summited the Muttlerkopf at 2368m and took a well-earned rested.
As I sat there I toyed with the idea of just heading back to the car. I had a 2 hour drive to my next location I told myself. I was trying to get out of going back to the Kratzer summits. I knew what was waiting for me there. I descended the Muttlerkopf and told myself “lets see”, which meant I was going to Kratzer, I was going to try to climb the middle summit. One hour later I stood at the bottom of the steep grass ramps that lead up to the summit areas of Kratzer. I took out my drybag from my rucksack and cached all the things I didn’t need. I took my first aid kit (if that’s what one could even call it), phone, some water, a small snack and 1 walking pole to help me up and down the gully and grass. I put the helmet on and I started upwards towards the middle summit.
I aimed for the gully just left of the middle summit as you approach from the south. Again this was steep and loose near the top, something I never like. Once on the ridge below the rocky summit I looked up and surveyed what I had seen days before. This time I was closer. It was just as steep from the West Summit as from where I stood. My palms were sweaty and I needed to p*e. Great, “signs of nerves” I tell myself. There appeared to be no easy line of weakness. I first try climbing up the broken cliff through small ledges but meet a bulging near vertical section only 20 vertical meters from the summt. So close, yet so far away. I knew I could climb up, but the rock was that brittle limestone made on small stone sized pieces all compacted together. It was easy to kick stones out and it was naturally hard to trust anything. At this point it was grade 2+ scrambling and easy grade 3 climbing. What was above me, looked full on grade 3. There was no way I could back climb that with bad rock. I backed off, and with great effort found my way back down to the base.
As half my mind willed me to go down, the other half willed me to have a closer look at what I was scoping out. Just to the left of the near vertical face was a steep and nearly vertical gully. Very narrow and with a boulder stuck half way up. Total height of the gully was only maybe 15 metres and then it joined what I assumed was the summit ridge. If I could get over the chockstone (jammed boulder) I think I could make it work. I went up to “have a look”.
The jammed boulder was making the moves slightly overhanging but the holds were amazing. I practiced the moves a few times to be sure I could back climb them, and then committed to pulling over the top while stemming my feet on either wall of the gully, like I said, it was narrow. Once on the boulder, a short but tricky upward traverse joined the ridge. A few meters higher and I passed some abseil tat with a metal u-ring slung over a spike of rock. “Should of brought my rope” I nervously joked. I thought of taking the tat and using it as an aid point during my descent over the bulging boulder in the gully. I told myself I would decide on the way down. I reached the first little rock summit and a short ridge would take me to the actual summit about 30 meters away. Gaining the ridge proved hard and holds broke away as I tested them. The ridge itself was good and goes at about grade 2 scrambling. As I stood on the second and actual rock summit I could already see by looking at the west summit of Kratzer that the west summit was indeed higher.
With GPS analysis afterwards it would tell me the following. Kratzer west summit, max height recorded on the summit was 2427.8m and on the “main” or middle summit was 2423.5m. Of course GPS readings can vary and now at least I have climbed both and can count the summit as climbed. As luck would have it my descent would be down the north side of the summit via a butt clenching loose gully that proved far easier than what I had climbed up to get to the summit. The ascent was probably one of the harder ascents in recent weeks and as one can always tell by the lack of photos taken, it was tough going. Simon “was working” and thus photos or video were the last thing on my mind. Of course I snapped a few photos from the summit.
Now I am camped next to my route in the Karwendel Mountains, nearly ready for tomorrows big day. The drive from Austria through the mountains and valleys was as awesome as ever! I am now exhausted, as are you from reading this super long post. Hope you enjoyed and I bid you good night. Oh, and wish me luck for tomorrow….I might just get my 93 summits climbed yet :)
Simon