Ascents in Brosinnadel - Drillinge

the best route to the summit

too hot

Second(!) ascent of this route from 1957. As you can imagine, the adventure factor of this one was maxed out. Basically no protection in the first pitch (a wide shoulder crack, later narrow chimney) and extremely dirty on top of that. I was quite glad that Raimund led it, wouldn't have dared to. Raimund brought me up on the best belay he could improvise (three wonky trees and a mediocre sling in the crack). The guidebook here then says you have to build a human pyramid on the left, then climb a wall to the arête on the right. After some vain attempts from Raimund, I gave it a shot and with some sketchy moves away from Raimund's shoulders, I reached a sort of secure position with my hand in a wafer-thin undercling and my feet on the least crumbly pieces of rock I could find. I was quite surprised to find exactly there the remains of a metal shaft. We assume that the first ascensionists placed it there with the intention of putting a ring in, but didn't have any rings left, and after completing the climb without it, they realized it's "only grade V", so they were ashamed to add the ring and left just the shaft. Lucky us, because without that shaft, I wouldn't have dared to continue. Placed another sling in a brittle rock tunnel, wrapped a runner around a chossy chicken head, then finally made the move to the right and rescued myself to a tree (which, according to my partner, wouldn't have held a fall as well, but I think it would have :-D). From there it got much easier, but still the dirt and vegetation made it a sketchy endeavour. Took us so long that we had to hurry quite a bit to catch the last bus.

The steep wall in the lower half is quite chossy, but easy (and can be protected quite well). The interesting part is getting into the upper groove, which requires hard thinking, especially for the grade. My solution was more painful than hard, so I guess it's viable for grade V.

Great line, a crack dihedral that looks easier than it is. Especially the top part, where the crack turns into a steep groove, requires some effort. #barefoot

Most people climb "Dietrichweg Dungervariante" as it seems, because it's a little easier (supposedly). The common crux seems to be to clip the first ring, though. It was apparently set from a "Baustelle", but it's unclear how this is possible. Climbed freely, you have to do a pull-up on mediocre, roundish holds (big ones, though) and lock off to clip the ring. There might be a good sling a little bit lower on the right but I didn't find it. From the ring it's an easy traverse to big holds on the left, then directly up to the second ring, where I brought up my second. The upper half starts off with a delicate friction traverse on tiny footholds, with barely anything to hold on to. From the first bigger hold in the crack on the left, you can place one or two tiny, but great slings. I didn't have any idea how to proceed from there and my feet started to hurt, so I reached over to the left into the other crack, which brought me into yet another perceived dead end. Put yet another sling in the left crack, then dared an athletic move with a tiny foothold and heelhook to my left hand, which worked out. Unclipped the left sling and placed a better one higher up. The rest of the crack is a great reward: juggy, getting easier meter by meter, with a final big sling placement below the last bulge. What a route. Can't even imagine how they could have climbed this in 1920.

#meisterweg