Rigelekante V+

Published on 2018-9-8 by Michael Stanton

Update: Vaclav offers a report in Czech at the end of my description below, and just for fun, a hilarious translation of the Czech back into English which had us cracking up!

Vaclav and I climbed the Rigelekante (V+) on the south face of the Östliche Hochgrubachspitze. It was fantastic, despite rather a lot of clouds on the way up. Here is the story.

We hiked up in mist, which began to clear at the Ackerlhütte.

Peaks above the Ackerlhütte

Our mountain is on the right side of the picture, and the approach was pretty involved. We had to exit a trail that climbed into steep grassy slopes underneath the two Hochgrubachspitze summits, following a faint game path to the east. The scale of this face and the steepness of it was kind of awesome. We found the right place to head up, scrambling on grade II and occasional steps of III- or so, wondering if we'd need to get the rope out before we reached the climb!

Lots of scrambling on the approach

At a key point on the approach

On the involved approach to the Ostliche Hochgrubachspitze

But moving slowly, it all went okay. Soon we stood at the base of the climb. It was about 11:15, and we were hanging out at the hut around 8:45, so that says something about how involved it is. We were often in clouds, and were exceptionally careful to make good decisions about routefinding, being aware that in such conditions it would be easy to end up in the wrong place.

I climbed the wrong way right at the start, and had to retrieve gear and downclimb about 15 meters. Going back up I reached a bolt at an overhang, passed on the left side to easier terrain. We continued for several pitches, with clouds coming in and out. I had the impression from somewhere that the route was mostly bolted, but boy, that's not the case! I'm glad for the three cams and many long slings that I brought (I left the nuts at home). Every pitch required gear placements. But that was awesome!

Gradually we got a sense of climbing a great hogsback, which undulated in humps below us. Vaclav did a great job following pitches, retrieving gear, making jokes all the while. He climbed quickly, too. We were glad we had our jackets...it was pretty cold when the wind blew, especially.

Somewhere on the lower edge

On the Rigelekante

Finally we were at a fantastic perch below the crux 7th pitch. I tightened up my shoes, ate something, then started up. The first 6 meters have no protection, though it's pretty steep. I was happy to reach the bolt. The climbing was on small holds and edges for the whole pitch, and well protected with a couple more bolts and a fixed pin after the first bolt. Whew! Enjoyable and not easy ("nicht ohne" is a nice German phrase for this situation).

We coiled the rope to walk about 60 meters up to the last pitch, which was easier than the rating (IV) suggested. I put the rope around a block on the summit and belayed Vaclav up with a normal belay, then a hip belay for the last scrambling meters. The south was in clouds, but there was a heavenly view into the little valley with the Fritz-Pflaume-Hütte to the north, with gorgeous green mountains stretching out beyond.

We made it!

Looking down to the Fritz-Pflaum-Hütte

We put the rope away and scrambled down to the notch with the Westliche Hochgrubachspitze, then climbed up slightly right of the notch proper. We climbed this summit, then backtracked a bit and hunted around for the trail down, finding it over a little scrambling notch. The waz down, marked bz red dots was a long and excellent trail, often astoundingly steep...think vertical grass hummocks, and hold-rich rocky buttresses and chimneys. We reached our backpack at the place where we'd left the trail in the morning.

Descending to the notch

Ascending to the Westlich Hochgrubachspitze.

Descending

Entering the forest for good

And down, down, down, to the Ackerlhütte, then retracing our steps to the car. It was about 1400 meters up and down, 9 pitches (4, 4+, 3, 4-, 4-, 4, 5+, 1, 4-). Thanks Vaclav for the great climbing!

Vaclav's report in Czech

Celkem jsme lezli jenom devět délek (Rigelekante na Östliche Hochgrubachspitze ve Wilder Kaiser), ale s nástupem a sestupem nám to trvalo 12 hodin. Já včera nemohl skoro chodit, zato Michael jel lozit zase na Wilder Kaiser i v neděli. :)

Už cestou nahoru, v husté mlze, mi Michael z ničeho nic řekl, že když dole při jištění uvidím, že mi dochází lano, tak mám prostě začít lézt. Čistě teoreticky, haha. Taky se mě, v sedm ráno, ptal jestli mám čelovku.

Nebylo úplně jisté, kde vlastně ta Rigelkante začíná, ale Michael nás poměrně systematicky naváděl a trefil to dobře. Jenom ten přístup probíhal po příkrých svazích s mokrou trávou přerušovanou boulderovacími úseky. To jsme ještě pořád lezli v teniskách a s lanem smotaným na zádech, a míjeli jsme bórháky s nápisem Bergrettung. Když jsme našli Rigelkante a navázaní a přezutí jsme do ní nastoupili, zavalil nás mrak a až na pár protrhnutí s námi zůstal až do vrcholu. Tak měl člověk kromě strachu další důvod se třást -- zimou.

Ty délky byly většinou stupeň 4 nebo 5, a já původně myslel, že něco z toho povedu (na Braunecku jsem tehdy vedl 6). Mělo mě varovat, že v průvodci stálo: "Der V. Kaiser-Grad muss dort allerdings sicher beherrscht werden und ist A0 nicht möglich." Jednak mluví o "Kaiser-Grad" a ne UIAA, a jednak "A0 nicht möglich" znamená, že tam skoro nebylo na čem jistit (A0 je první úroveň aid climbing, kdy si člověk může pomáhat tím, že se vytáhne za jištění). Už u těch čtyřek Michael občas utrousil: "Watch me," nebo "This is somewhat difficult". Já měl co dělat s lanem nad hlavou, jak on to lezl bez, to nechápu. Ta délka složitosti pět byla skoro nahoře. Začínala na balkónku s ostrou hranou směrem nahoru. Pak byla kolmá plotna s mizernými chyty, a první možnost pro jištění asi po 7 metrech. Kdyby Michael spadl, tak mu bude moje jištění ze štandu na prd, protože by si rozdrtil kosti o tu hranu balkónu. Celkově tam kromě štandů nebyla skoro žádná oka na expresky a Michaelovy tři "fešáci"/friendi :) spolu s ovazováním smyček o šutry se stali zachránci dne.

Po té délce složitosti 5 pak přišla jedna složitosti 1. V podstatě zase klouzavý svah s drolícími se kameny a trávou, jenom ten let by byl o pár set metrů delší. Tak jsme dělali jištění v sedě za balvanem s lanem kolem zad. Tuhle jsem "vedl", takže jsem si seděl za balvanem, ten se mi zařezával do stehna, pode mnou střídavě mlha a nebo vzdálené suťovisko údolí a já se modlil, aby tenhle balvan zrovna nebyl z těch, které vyskočí a odkutálí se (Michael pak cestou dolů jeden podobné velikosti uvolnil). Lano kolem zad a zespodu veselý Michael za něj tahal a říkal: "Dobrý ne? Kdybych sletěl, tak to o moc víc tahat nebude." No a pak byla poslední délka, a na té došlo to lano, tak jsem spěšně vyhákl jistítko a pokračoval vzhůru, než se zjevil Michael. :)

Shora pak byl pěkný pohled do severní kotliny. Je to tam takové hezky odřízlé od civilizace, ale spousta lezení a nějaká ta chata se taky najde. My jsme ještě vyšplhali, už bez lana, jeden další vrcholek, na němž Michael objevil značenou cestu dolů, a pak už jsme jenom šli a šli, často pozadu a počtyřech.

Rozhodně to nebyla nuda a stálo to za to. Jenom mi to trochu opravilo obrázek o vlastních schopnostech, nafouknutý romantickou literaturou o himalájských prvovýstupech :).

And now, for a Google Translate job of that back into English, enjoy!

We had only nine lengths (Rigelekante at Östliche Hochgrubachspitze in Wilder Kaiser), but it took us 12 hours to get up and down. Yesterday he could not walk, but Michael was going to go to Wilder Kaiser again on Sunday. :)

Already on the way up, in a dense fog, Michael told me nothing that if I saw a rope down at the bottom, I should just start climbing. Absolutely theoretically, haha. Also, at seven in the morning, he asked if I had a headlamp.

It was not entirely certain where the Rigelkante is starting, but Michael has been systematically guiding us and doing it well. Only that approach was on steep slopes with wet grass interrupted by bouldering sections. We were still climbing in the sneakers and with a rope on our back, and we passed the burgers with the inscription of Bergrettung. When we found the Rigelkante, and we joined it, we clung to the cloud, and after a few ruins we stayed up to the top. So, besides fear, one had another reason to shake - cold.

Those lengths were mostly grade 4 or 5, and I originally thought I was going to do something (Braunecka was at that time 6). He should have warned me that the guide was: "Der V. Kaiser-Grad must be a clerk of allergins and beer workers who are not A0 of them." On the one hand, it speaks of "Kaiser-Grad" and not UIAA, and "A0 nicht möglich" means there was almost no guarantee (A0 is the first level of aid climbing when you can help by pulling out). Even at those fours, Michael occasionally said, "Watch me," or "This is somewhat difficult". I had something to do with the rope above my head as he crawled without, I do not understand. The length of complexity of five was almost up. She started on the balcony with a sharp edge up. Then there was a perpendicular plateau with grueling holds, and the first possibility to protect about 7 meters. If Michael had fallen, he would be my foolproof fool because he would crush his bones about the edge of the balcony. Overall, there were almost no eyeglasses besides the stunts, and Michael's three "friends" :) along with the tie-up loops became the saviors of the day.

After the length of complexity 5, there was one complexity: 1. In fact, a sliding slope with crumbling rocks and grass, only a few hundred yards would be a few hundred yards long. So we did the security in the sitting-behind the boulder with a rope around the back. I was "leading" this way, so I was sitting behind a boulder that cut me to my thigh, alternately fog or distant valley marsh, and I prayed that this rock would not be the one that jumps and jerks (Michael then down one similar size released). The rope around his back and the merry Michael below was pulling for him, saying, "Okay, no, if I had fallen, it would not be much more dragged." Well, and then it was the last length, and there was a rope on it, so I hurried out the guard and went up until Michael appeared. :)

It was then a nice view to the northern basin. There is such a pretty cut off from civilization, but there is plenty of climbing and some cottage to find. We climbed, no more rope, one more peak on which Michael discovered the marked path down, and then we just went and went, often behind and over.

It was definitely no boredom, and it was worth it. It just corrected my picture of my own abilities, infused with romantic literature about Himalayan primes :).