Schärtenspitze – Westgrat
It was going to be another rainy weekend.but good planning is important to help achieve goals. My partner Kathi and I decided to continue on our gumby multipitch summer of adventures and drove 2 hours after work on Friday, through a thunderstorm to Berchtesgaden.
Our objective was to hike 3 hours up to Blaueishütte, climb 600 meters up The Westgrat (a 5+, climbed in the 1920s by Allwein and Welzenbach) and hike back down to the base before the rain was to start at 5pm, the idea was to be at the car by dinner.
We strated with an early start, 5:15am from the parking lot. Things went well with the 3 hour hike to the base of the route. The morning sun was beautiful but the first 2 pitches of the route were wet.
It was a bit challenging to get the confidence up but then things dried out, my tears of fear being one.
It is a stunning place to be and being the only ones on the route was good because it does get spooky after the 10th pitch (loose rock) but another factor was added when the fog came.
We had to climb on, through grass, scree and dodge the few large rocks that came loose. Finally we made it to the summit and no rain yet.
We made a quick decent and 13.5 hours we were back at the car. Not a fast day but fun and somewhat dry.
moredaysoff 