Berchtesgadener Hochthron weekend

Published on 2018-5-13 by Michael Stanton

NOW are we there?

Barbara, Chris and I climbed the Anfaenger Freude route (5+) that we'd done 2 years before, this time with Chris. Barbara was crabby, but Chris was super-chill. My lady had not slept well, and found the long hike and especially the steep and loose approach to the climb unpleasant. But! She did great on the initial grade 5 slab, and saw that the climbing at Bad Heilbrunn the week before had helped her prepare for such terrain.

Higher on the route, she was disappointed that she had to pull on the sling at the grade 5+ crux. I didn't know that, but when she told me of her disappointment later I had a pang of sympathy. Poor darling! I definitely know that feeling...

Making things worse, I didn't like the look of the clouds, thinking it was going to storm, so I made us walk down in our rock shoes instead of abseiling. The route is not set up for abseiling either, there are no rap rings at the anchors, and you'd have to leave gear. My bad for poor judgment! I also thought the climbing would be more fun if we didn't have to bring our packs.

Beautiful final slab

Barbara and Chris on pitch four

Barbara approaches Scheiben Kaser

Peace out

Insane beauty on the way down

Chris, off the rez

Just awesome

Wha? Rainbow forms in front of me?

Chris and his Mom

On pitch five

So, we picked our way slowly down with sore feet. Chris and I hiked up to the base to get the packs, then in light on and off rain we continued down. We were really thirsty, and found water in the forest that was so delicious, we all remarked on it days later.

The next day I went back alone to do the Klettersteig on the Berchtesgadener Hochthron. A sign warned of trouble with the moat between snow and rock at the start of the climb, but it wasn't a problem. This was a lot of fun! I hung out for an hour on my own grassy knoll near the summit.

The Watzmann

Just another day at the office...

A flower

Time to nap!

Hi folks

The top out on Anfaenger Freuden