Another day down at the valley limestone. There are some enormous cliffs here, but quite a lot look loose and scrappy. While searching for the climbs on such a huge swath of rock, it was handy at least to find the names of the climbs at the bottom of the routes.
We set off up one route, but two pitches up, both decided that it was a bit sketchy, with loose rock and the bolts quite far apart. From the third belay, we fixed the ropes for a long abseil retreat.
Back on the deck, we walked along the cliff base to another route, but had the same luck there and soon found ourselves backing off after only one pitch this time!
We retreated back to the car, which was parked by a little shaded area below a vineyard. We got out the picnic gear and had a wonderful lunch, which led late into the afternoon.
Before leaving, the day was salvaged, by taking a short hike up to make a final investigation up at a clean looking slab of rock. This time we found what we were looking for. The routes were single pitch, but on compact, solid rock.
We climbed three great routes in the cool of the afternoon shade, before heading back up the valley for dinner. Oh, and there was some super wood calving at the car park!
Climbs at Simmering:
- Via Mattia, 4c, 5a
- Geko, 4a
Climbs at Geirwand:
- Turmflake, 4b
- Superdrop, 5a***
- Betty Gin, 6c (TR)
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