Logic Line

Published on 2020-5-17 by Michael Stanton

Jong and I climbed "Logic Line" on the Schärtenspitze (2153 m).. The conditions were cold and cloudy, but happily it didn't rain!

The first pitch was wet, which woke me up pretty nicely, however the rest of the route was dry. The first four pitches maxed out at grade 3+. We got a bit mixed up with the belays, but were in the right place for the exciting pitch 5 (rated 4+/5-), which featured some steep slabby moves at the belay anchor then a steep "Wasserrille" climb. Really great!

A mysterious image connecting to the Blaueisspitze. The people are on their way to the Eisbodenscharte (2050 m).

Jong walks to the Eisbodenscharte.

Me, Jong and two other fellows on the summit of the Schärtenspitze.

A "pano-rama" from the Schärtenspitze looking south.

From here it was easy climbing to the trail. We decided to tag the summit, so we walked up for about thirty minutes. On top there were occasional good views to snowy walls around us. We chatted with two climbers who planned on doing a technical traverse but were stymied by weather.

The Watzmann from the Hochalm.

We walked over to the Eisbodenscharte and descended into the neighboring valley. This was a bit harder than just descending the trail back the way we came, but I was keen for the extra exercise, and to see this mysterious second valley. Jong was worried about snow, and indeed, there were about 10 meters of odd/difficult downclimbing with one foot on steep snow and the other on crumbly rock. After much fairly easy snow descent, we were wringing out our socks on green hillside looking over to the Watzmann in the distance.

We followed the "Schärtensteig" back to the road which led to the car. Man, this was tiring! A very long walk around the hillside, seemingly more up than down. We distracted ourselves from our tired legs with hearty conversation about trumpism, nationalism, globalism, and all the other tendencies of people in the mass. I'd started a big discussion about the use of scientific models to advise government policy, and we had a great time exploring the corners of that subject. The many possibilities for bias and misuse on the part of not only the politicians, but individual scientist-advisors, too.

I'm really feeling sad that an individual can hold a tool in a very deft way, operating very skillfully and subtly, but that humble and inquisitive spirit-of-use rarely finds expression in the domain of mass communication and politics. Hmpf!

Thanks Jong for a great day, and thank you Schärtenspitze for not spitzing us off! a-Ha! A Ha ha ha!