Last weekend I had the strong urge to spend some time away from my laptop. Well, one of my goals for this year was to do a few vie ferrate (yes, this is the correct plural [1]) and fortunately I bought a guide book a couple of weeks ago with a number of medium difficulty via ferratas in the alps.
I picked the “Innsbrucker Klettersteig” from Hafelekarspitze to Kemacherspitze then on the Langer Sattel and from there back down to the cablecar station.
Only the first 2 hours were recommended in my guide because it gets more difficult later on. I haven’t done a Klettersteig in 2 years and wasn’t sure how to handle these difficulties so I decided to follow the recommendations. The nice thing about this tour was that the most difficult parts were at the beginning. But even these bits were not exceptionally difficult, roughly 3 grades below what I can climb indoors and only a bit more difficult than what I had climbed up to Buchstein “free solo”.
Weather was good. Sunshine, just a few clouds but a lot of wind. I was happy that I brought my windshirt.
The Klettersteig was pretty busy, there were two groups of 2 and 3 people ahead of me but fortunately they were moving fast and I never had to wait for them to get out of one of the roped pieces.
Even the supposedly difficult part wasn’t very challenging. If you are able to climb 50 meters on a ladder you should be able to get by without any major problems, all difficult sections were defused by metal steps.
The Klettersteig runs along the ridge from Hafelekarspitze to Kemacherspitze and roughly two-thirds of it are fitted with metal ropes. I didn’t really keep track, but I would guess that I actually attached myself to the metal only half the time. Many places are not difficult and if I had seen them without the protection I wouldn’t have worried anyway.
The view down both sides off the ridge was great, the air was clear and I could look far, to the left over the Inn valey to the “Südkette” and to the right to Karwendel. Even though I stopped frequently to take pictures I still moved quickly along the ridge and reached Kemacherspitze.
Under the summit cross I had my first real break. Lying on a warm rock I enjoyed the sunshine for 15 minutes before I got up to finish the last bit.
It took another 20 minutes to get down to Langer Sattle where I took off my climbing harness after a little over 2 hours.
From Langer Sattle the trail went down parallel to the ridge back to the lower cable-car station. After perhaps 5 minutes I was surprised by an alpine ibex standing less than five meters to my left. Unlike all other ibex I had seen before this one slowly got up, turned around to face me and just looked at me. I slowly took out my camera and took a few pictures. I was surprised that the ibex wasn’t scared of me at all.
I slowly continued along the trail and all he did was turn his head to keep looking at me and scratched his back. This animal surely deserved the price for coolest alpine animal I have every met.
After 5 minutes I guess he was sure that I was no threat so he turned around and sat down again ignoring me.
I continued to the station, where I enjoyed a nice meal in the sun before I took the next cable car down to my car. Overall the Innsbrucker Klettersteig is a a lot of fun and should be doable for anybody with a little bit of climbing or Klettersteig experience.
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[1]: Via Ferrata (wikipedia)
A via ferrata (Italian for “road with irons”. Plural vie ferrate. In German, Klettersteig) is a mountain route which is equipped with fixed cables, stemples, ladders, and bridges. The use of these allows otherwise isolated routes to be joined to create longer routes which are accessible to people with a wide range of climbing abilities. Walkers and climbers can follow vie ferrate without needing to use their own ropes and belays, and without the risks associated with unprotected scrambling and climbing. They are found in a number of European countries, including Italy, Germany, England, Scotland, Wales, France, Austria, Slovenia, Romania, Switzerland, Spain, Sweden, Norway, and Poland (famous Orla Perć); and a few places in the United States, Canada, Malaysia and Singapore. The first via ferratas were built in the Dolomite mountain region of Italy during the First World War, to aid the movement of the Italian mountain infantry.
I like the spork. But during my last trip it broke after 3 or 4 days and eating out of the bags with just half a spork wasn’t that much fun. So I decided to replace it with the titanium version which arrived last week.