Climbing and Canyoning at the Weissenstein (14th Oct 2007)

Team: Andy, Marcel, Andrea, Joerg

The last promising autumn days had to be used for some more outdoor climbing.
I reckon it must have Marcel's third time he climbed at this place and my second for sure. We were stunned by the fact that we could not really remember what the path to the start of the climb looked like and indeed, we hit a dead end, as usual, but were able to correct for this in a timely manner.


This would have been just the day for 'white sky' spectrodirectional measurements: thick fog clung to the mountain side, visibility was about one length of a pitch. We started in two teams, I led the first pitch and noted the coldness of the rock, but this got better after we got a bit warmed up.

Pine trees in the mist

Marcel focusing on rope handling.

Andrea climbing on a ridge with the unknown below her.

Joerg having fun while belaying Andrea.

The crux of the route was of grade 5c/b and I had the chance to lead it. I was mightily pleased with myself at getting to the top without too much hassle, although I once held onto a quickdrawer, but I figured that this was no style contest ....
The gain in altitude was directly proportional to the increase in direct solar irradiation and we managed to get a glimpse of the solar disk above us in the sky, still fairly diffuse. By the time we got to the end of the route the sun had finally made it and revealed a stunning, sheer cliff to the left of us.

Cliff as seen from the end of the route.

The route took just about 3 hours, even a bit shorter than planned.
Our short lunch was followed by a steep ascent through a colourful autumn forest.

The team ascending towards a trail.

We then split up into two teams; Joerg and Andrea returned to their car while Marcel and I chose to descend through the canyon.
The little rivulet feeding the canyon with water during rain events was completely dried out and we thus avoided getting wet, a welcome fact as the temperatures were not that gorgeous anymore.

Me rappelling at the first drop.

This was Marcel's first real introduction into canyoning rope techniques and he seemed very much impressed by the efficient handling.

Marcel checking the setup before rappelling.

Me at the 30m+ abseil. Not as exciting as the first time, but still pretty cool ....

The canyoning took a good 3 hours to complete, thus we had a full day of adventures. I figure that bigger groups would take considerably longer, this should be taken into consideration when planning another outing with more people joining the canyon session.

Sunset near Ruettenen.