Mountain Lifestyle: Climbing In Kufstein, Austria

Wednesday 22 July 2015

Climbing In Kufstein, Austria

It's always a good start to a day when you can roll out of the van and dive into a mountain lake.

And that's exactly how today started.

After a lovely quiet swim in the lake (and then having dodged a stampeding shire horse when we got out!) we drove a few kilometres down the hill side to where we had seen a signpost to a 'Klettergarten' - climbing area.

We didn't know what we would find, but took the fifteen minute walk through the forest, as directed by the sign post, to where we came across a nice little shady crag.

We still don't know the name of the cliff, but a local guy had a hand drawn sketch topo which he lent us! The grades didn't look too intimidating, so we just set off up the best looking ones!

By midday the sun was coming onto the cliff making it way too hot for climbing. We'd left the van in the sun and the thermometer read 44 degrees when we got back to it! With the aircon ramped up high, we set off for Italy. There was much less traffic today, but the roads twisted and turned much more as we drove past Innsbruck and up into the mountains.

The scenery was breaktaking as we crossed into the Dolomites National Park. Huge towers of limestone were suddenly in every direction. The driving was quite tiring, with so many gear changes and motorbikers, so we pulled out in a village called Solvea to stretch our legs and sample an Italian cuppachino outside a cafe in the town square.

Then it was up, over the Sella Pass and down to the village that will be our home for the next few weeks: Campitello di Fassa.

We can barely believe our luck once again. Our little studio apartment is totally gorgeous. It's a real upgrade from our usual camping setup. It's part of a big chalet and we have our own little balcony overlooking the main street, surrounded by big mountains. It's been a crazy journey, but we are both glad to have arrived in such a cool place and are looking forward to the adventures to come.