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| | Auf diese Nachricht antworten!  | Trip Report: Rossloch-Höhlen Klettersteig, Austria
Trip with Jancsi Medve and Marika Demjanics
Aug 17, 2008
It's funny because a month ago, we had planned to do the Konigsjodler,
but because of rain, two people bailed, and Judit and I wound up doing
the Kaiser Franz-Joseph Klettersteig on July 12, posted at
[externer Link] =
363
This time we were planning the same thing (the Konigsjodler), and once
again we've been thwarted by the weather, which has been less than
cooperative this summer. On every weekend we've planned something
this year, there has been rain. This time Judit stayed home while I
visited the Kaiser Franz-Joseph again with two others from the
Konigsjodler wannabes, Marika and Jancsi.
We got started late, somewhat after 8am, but since the morning was
supposed to be cloudy and Eisenerz was not too far away, what was the
rush, after all? Probably leaving an hour earlier at 7am would have
been better.
Of course you have to climb the Kaiser Franz-Joseph Klettersteig (KFJ)
to get to the Rosslochhöhlen Klettersteig. Well, you could take the
exit trail up, but why would you want to do that? Since I already
posted about the KFJ, I'll just reinforce three remarks.
The first is that the bottom section of the klettersteig really does
serve as an excellent cull. We encountered one Hungarian beefcake at
the bottom while we were putting on our harnesses who maintained that
he was too short for the route. This did not wash, however, as he
was taller than Judit. It's a solid D and there are a few awkward
strength moves on the traverse across - it's the awkwardness that had
gotten to this fellow. Then from overhead, we saw a woman not able
to pull herself up at the very start.
It seems to me that people have a natural tendency to want to go
straight up the walls, even when it's not in their best interests. A
person generally has far more leg muscle than arm muscle, so it makes
sense to climb with the legs whenever possible. On this climb, there
are several sections that are replete with pegs that you can almost
walk up like a ladder, when facing SIDEWAYS to the cliff. What do
people do? They face the cliff wall and pull themselves up using the
cable. Go figure.
It's generally more energy efficient to keep your center of gravity
closer to the cliff wall, which you can do by facing sideways. That
means you and your shoes are facing the cable. If the next peg is on
the other side of the cable, then I place the ball of my foot onto the
end of that next peg so that as I transfer the weight to that foot, I
will pivot on the ball of that foot to again face the cable (of
course, during the pivoting motion my center of gravity goes out from
the cliff wall and during that brief instant, I am using my arms to
hold myself).
Finally, you can save some time by heading up directly from the end of
the KFJ to the Rossloch-Hohlen, rather than first descending to the
trail junction as shown on the map. Just as the trail starts to head
back down from the wire bridges (well before the fence), head up and
right paralleling the ridge, but not at its edge - maybe some 30
meters
in from it. [externer Link]
shows
where the KFJ and Rosslochhohlen are, but I find the image misleading
considering that the 2nd klettersteig looks a long way from the first
while only being about 10 minutes away, while the walk to the upper
part of the KFJ from the main section looks short on the image but it
took us at least twice as long. Weird. You eventually get to a
secondary trail in a very pleasant grassy section, which trail leads
right to the cave exit, and a few steps further on is the initial
downclimb. Neither are readily apparent on the approach. The signs
all tell you that you should not downclimb the cave. Well, duh, but
now you've seen it here, too.
I've seen three different ratings for the climb, including one that
claims the initial vertical section up is rated E. At the exit to
the cave, you can't tell much at all, though it's a nice enough place
to sit down. We asked the two guys who had just blown past us near
the top of the KFJ and were now sitting at the exit how it was. They
said that today it was particularly difficult on account of the wet
walls. I asked what portion was the hardest and they said right after
the Nepal bridge where the water was dripping down the rock. Oof.
Not a good sign at all.
Well, there was not much help for it. We were here and going to make
a try of it, though I admit to being worried. A wet E section - not a
good thing. I figured it was better to cache the packs at the top
since we'd be returning to the same place, so we picked out some
shrubbery just below the descent start point. I had some nuts and,
more importantly, a candy bar (for a slightly delayed energy boost).
I put some chewy candies, klettersteig gloves, half liter Fanta (I dry
out fast in adrenalin situations), and some tissues into my zippered,
nylon training jacket/sweater's pocket, which I figured to wear. The
camera was the bigger problem since it is normally secured to my pack
for easy access. With its securing leash, I draped it around my neck
and inserted it into my shirt, hoping that I wouldn't be performing
any upside down maneuvers. Jancsi took even less - nothing. He ate a
spicy pepper (the spicyness was an accident) and drank a bunch of
water on top of that.
It is an unceremonious start - straight down. Mind the cable at the
top just before it heads straight down as it is not taught. The
various ratings differ on the downclimb - I'd rate it a C/D, maybe a
D, since there were some moves where I could not simply step down
(using pegs and natural handholds), but had to use arm strength,
albeit briefly. The route starts off straight down, then cuts left a
bit and continues straight down, and then angles back right, at a
steep angle down toward the lower corner of the cave. Though it had
not rained today, the rain of the past days was enough to ensure
slightly muddy (ie. slippery) rocks near the top, and lower down it
was of the positively dripping wet, sopping mud, yeach variety.
However, turning the corner, we alighted onto dry terra firma at the
bottom of the cave.
There's a huge amount of room to move about in, take photographs,
study the impending climb, and otherwise relax or become increasingly
worried. In particular, standing underneath where the main route
heads straight up, glimpsing a cable way high up, I had the impression
that it heads straight up forever. I popped a few Mike and Ike's Hot
Tomales (chewy cinnamon candies) for instant energy and swigged down
some of the remaining Fanta. In retrospect, I was quite pleased with
my food management.
I had Jancsi go first since he has far more arm strength. It's a
really nicely designed route. To set the tone, you have to cross from
one side of the cave to the other on a level 'nepal bridge', only the
far side is probably a vertical 10 meters up. The route proper starts
here, straight up. Now this is where the E portion is supposed to be,
according to [externer Link] , but I did
not find it to be so, nor was it wet as we had been led to believe,
though there was water dripping around us. More specifically, some of
the rock was wet, especially at the end of the nepal bridge, but it
was straightforward to place the (gloved) hands so that they did not
get wet. In the first movement (without getting wet) it was possible
to stand onto the middle cable of the nepal brucke, and from here it
was dry.
From the Nepal bridge it is straight up for several meters, but I
found that there were plenty of pegs to step on. It's described as
very overhanging, but I did not have this impression at all. Usually
in a D/E section I have the sense that I have to get through the
section rapidly to avoid my energy being sapped, but I did not have
this feeling here (there were a few such 3 or 4 step places further
along the route). At the top of this vertical section there are some
steps to the left with a nice rest place before the route doubles back
to the right, laterally for some few meters, and then up and to the
right nearly vertically. There are several places where I found it
expedient, as with the beginning vertical section at the start of the
route, to take large steps, in stepping from one peg to the next
(where the pegs are missing there are good natural footholds). There
are a few places where it is overhung and I pulled myself via the
cable, but this was probably no more than three steps at a time and
then there was a rest possibility. About halfway up the half drunk
Fanta bottle popped out of my sweater pocket and careened downwards.
So I'm sorry if your handholds are sticky (just kidding - the plastic
bottle was sealed) and perhaps pick up a piece of litter from the cave
bottom in my memory. I remember doing a few Hail Mary moves (where
you pray that the handhold you intend to fully rely on holds (and is
actually a handhold, for that matter)), but they were more out of a
sense of fun and convenience than of desperation. After a few of
these 'up, traverse', 'up, traverse' sections, we came very close to
the ground from the exit leading down, but the route would rather stay
on the rock for a little longer, so it continues for two more of the
up, traverse motif before allowing the dear climber back to the trail.
Jancsi and I did not relax, though, because we did not want to keep
Marika waiting. I figured to go down the regular trail while Jancsi
wanted to go back the way that we came up - that had to be faster,
after all. I wasn't convinced since trails are usually faster
because when you don't have to worry about picking steps, you
usually gain a lot of time. So we split up, agreeing to meet at the
merge point. It took me 10 minutes, Jancsi was there a minute to two
before me, he said. On the rest of the way down, Jancsi had similar
impressions to mine from my prior KFJ descent - "We came up this
far?", "It seems like we've been going a long time, but we're still
way the heck up here?" and one of his own, "Oh, my aching legs." We
stopped once for about 5 minutes to remove the harnesses, and later
for another 5 to rest Jancsi's legs. Total time down from the
Rossloch was an hour and a quarter, moving at a good clip.
Marika had arrived half an hour earlier, and said she had occasioned
quite the stir as she tried to get into my car (she couldn't get the
passenger side door to open), noticing that all conversation at the
Imbiss in front of which I was parked had ceased until she was finally
able to get into the car. Since we figured it was too late for Marika
to catch the last train back to Bratislava that evening, we stopped at
a Pizza / Pasta place in Eisenerz (in the upper half of town, on the
right) for a casual dinner. Marika later discovered that she had
picked up two ticks.
All in all, I thought the Rossloch was an exhilarating Klettersteig,
very nicely designed, with an easy D/E rating, certainly no E
sections. Of course it is not meant for everyone. I think if one
finishes the KFJ with, "Hallelujah, I made it" or "Thank heavens
that's
over" the Rossloch is best omitted, but if one finishes the KFJ with,
"That was nice, what's next?", the Rossloch is inviting. Certainly,
if the bottom part of the Kaiser Franz-Joseph gave problems, the
Rossloch should not be attempted. There were several moves where I
thought the steps were placed widely apart, but on the other hand, I
am not a paragon of limberness. The round trip took us 10 minutes for
the descent to the bottom of the cave + 5 minutes gawking + 15 minutes
up for a total of 30, but I'd allot an extra 20 minutes for
exploring + photos.
Happy klettersteiging,
Csaba Gabor from Vienna
=A92008 May not be republished, nor included
in a work for sale without permission
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