Climbing at Tieftal

 Down the valley and away from the higher mountains, we found some long (dry!), rock routes at a crag called Tieftal, near a little village called Nassereith. It looked a bit scrappy from below, but actually gave us a great day of multi-pitch climbing.

 

A scree covered approach was sort lived, then it was onto the rock. It was here that we found that there was a 'via fettata' (Kletterstieg), that runs above the crags, so not only was there some loose rock on the ledges, but there was also the chance of rock getting knocked down by people above you! 

Luckily for us it was relatively quite and only a few people passed overhead. It seemed a crazy thing to have done and we heard quite a few stones rattle down the face.

The belays were well equipped and the routes bolted well, so at least the climbing part was good!

The top pitches of the routes are all quite easy grades, so we avoided these as due to the lower angle, it meant a much higher risk of dislodging stones on the abseil descent. We buzzed off being super efficient with our rope work and were able to get up and down the routes really smoothly.

We climbed seven good pitches of limestone, in sheltered, warm conditions. Brill.

Two pitches up our last route, rain drops started falling! The rock quickly tuned dark, wet and slippery as Clare joined the stance. We rigged the ropes to abseil and were delighted to find that our 60m ropes just reached the base of the crag in one huge abseil.

We scampered off down the screes (quite carefully actually as I was wearing sandals!), then down over to the nearby village where we found a beautiful lake (pond?), to relax by as the sun came back out! Overall, it's a good cliff, but one to avoid on a busy day as the risk of stone fall felt too high!

It was late by the time we got home and we just had time for a rapid bite to eat before waling over to the village square in some beautiful light.

The village has a superb outside bandstand, where a brass band was giving a concert.

We thought it might just be a few players, but it was at least 50 people strong and the sound was superb in the crisp evening air. The whole band had a uniform of Leider Hosen, long socks, leather shoes and feathered hats.

We got into the spirit of things and even sampled some apricot 'Schnapps'! It certainly warmed the throat!!

The concert went on until dark with all sort of modern and classic pieces played. It's amazing the range of sounds that brass, woodwind and percussion can make - no microphones either. A great day.

Tieftal Climbs:

- Sudost Wandl, (4c, 5a,+, 5a, 3b)

- Rolling Stones, (5b, 5a)

- Leben im Sonnenschein, (4c, 5a+)