The RocTrip-poster

The Zillertal, a world of rock, water &... cows

This summer, Petzl had decided on the Austrian Zillertal as a venue for the RocTrip. Local legend, Gerhard Hörhager, had, together with Jorg Verhoeven and, I suppose, a number of locals, done everything in his power to make it the perfect climbing destination. Hundreds of new boulder problems had been brushed, climbed and given names and grade. Countless new routes had been cleaned, bolted and climbed. The grass had been painted green (this I think was a bit overdone, cause real grass can’t be THAT green), new holes drilled into the mountainsides to create magnificent waterfalls everywhere, the cows flown in and to give the valley the final “Sound of music”-touch, the surrounding mountains had been sprinkled with something looking like snow. Petzl had spared no expences and flown in a veritable who's who of climbing from both sides of the pond. Perfetto! In short, the stage was set for a climbing party extravaganza never seen before! Great success! Then, slowly, rain began to fall... 

The Zillertal means the Ziller valley, the Ziller being the river flowing through it. The valley metropolis, Mayrhofen, is situated on an altitude of about 600 meters and most of the climbing and bouldering can be found from a few hundred to about a thousand vertical meters above. The area is very much rural, with small farms and Gasthauses littering the entire valley where ever you go. And there are cows. Everywhere, and I mean everywhere, holy cows. Not just in the fields, but among the boulders and on the roads as well. These cows venture where no cow has gone before, believe me, and where there are cows (everywhere remember) there is cow shit...

But, of course there’s also rock and in the Zillertal rock means impeccable granite, or is it in fact gneiss? Geologists Evgeny Krivosheytsev and Lisa Rands are leaning towards the latter. Regardless of which it is, the quality is superior. And there’s a lot of it. Just hike into the woods of any given mountain slope and you will come across climbable rock. The potential is infinite.

A valley tour
On the day before the start of the actual RocTrip, we wake up with the cloud base at knee level. Beautiful to look at, but it doesn’t make me psyched to go climbing. Apparently the forecast isn’t bad though, and the word on the street is that it will improve tomorrow. We meet up with the Petzl-team and join them on their tour of the ultimate routes. The first stop is Schwarze wand (Black wall) near Häusling in the Zillergrund valley, a beautifully streaked wall of black and white 20 minutes walk or so uphill from the road. Today, however, it doubbles as a waterfall and some start speculating of ice climbing possibilities in the winter. Gerhard calms us down though, explaining that the waterfall is just temporary. Once the rain stops the crag will be dry in a couple of hours (...NOT!). The crag is home to one ultimate route, around 8c+, for the boys and two 8b+:s for the girls. We move on.

Our next stop is the "River project" at a place called Breitlahner Klamm (after the RocTrip, Kilian Fischhuber made the FA, naming it "Dolby surround") located far up in the Ziller valley, a couple of minutes walk from the ever present Gasthaus. The project looks great! A steep black wall above a river with a waterfall to the left and lush green on top. It is, however, wet... and we move on.

But before we enter the muddy hike from Ginzling up to Bergstation, we decide to pause for some toast and beer. The local restaurant owner, a British ex patriot, entertains us all for an hour or so with the true story about how Armageddon will strike in less than a year and that the UN and Bilderberg-group is conspiring against us, and that, by the way, was the reason JFK was assassinated... Anyway, next summer we’ll know (remember where you saw it first). Mere bagatelles like the world coming to an end doesn’t stop us from more important issues though, so we start struggling, "two steps forward - one slide back"-style, uphill towards Bergstation, where legend has it it will still be dry and climbable, in spite of the rain. The approach is long, steep, wet and slippery, but eventually we arrive at the crag. It’s tall, and for the most part, actually dry. Happy times! Now time is of the essence and moderate routes scarce. Those who were here first have already occupied the 6c (or thereabouts, more about grades later), but Dani Andrada wasn’t early, so he figures he can warm up on an 8b. The start doesn’t look that bad, plus he’s been walking uphill in clogs for 40 minutes. Venga! A muerte Dani! Slowly but surely he makes his way up, chatting casually to Daila Ojeda, his belayer, until he reaches the crux. He fights his way through a small roof by palming it, and then he’s stuck. Not knowing what to do, sounding somewhat desperate, he goes for it...and he’s off. It turns out he went for the wrong hold, and that the other one was a jug. After that it’s easy... bummer... 

My name is Mud...