Austrian Alpine

Above it all

With a date for getting my toe sorted we decided to push off for a quick (well five week) trip, but where too?
Something on UKC recently had caught my eye, about the Ōtztal valley in Austria being a great venue for rock climbing in the lower and middle grades. It wasn't a place that was on my radar, so a peruse of the book shelf in Outside was in order, where I discovered the 600+ page tome that was 'Sportclimbing in Tirol'.
After a quick flick to check the potential we started by booking the Hull to Zeebrugge ferry and a couple of days later we were aboard and headed south.
The upgrade to Club Class was as welcome as ever and the crossing was silk calm. Two easy half days on the autobahns and we checked into the very classy Allgäuer Appartementhaus in the lovely Bavarian town of Pfronten. (When I booked the place I actually though it was in Austria, though it turns out it was in Germany - hey ho!)

Day One, Crag One, Route One

We spent four days there, climbing, hiking and exploring the area. Being August, it is still pretty warm and everywhere is quite busy, but another week should see the masses heading back to work and everything starting to cool dow.
Then it was onwards to the Ötztal via few routes on the odd slabby crag of Arzbergklamm before we headed to our residence of the next couple of weeks - Top Tirol apartments, right in the middle of the valley. The rain started just before we arrive but the forecast is fine, hopefully it will be a bit cooler up here at almost 4000'

Ready, Steady, Go

FFS - raining again!!

 It has been six weeks since we arrived back in the UK, it is amazing how the time rolls buy.  It has been a sociable time with plenty of walking and climbing with the usual suspects though the weather has been a bit of disappointment - I guess some things never change.
One of the reasons we came back was to try and get an old injury to my big toe sorted out. I have seen my GP, had X-Rays, seen a specialist and finally got a date for him to shave the bone back to something like its normal size. I guess six weeks for that from the NHS for something so trivial is pretty good going. I had the same operation done 30+ years ago, but the wear, tear and pressure of too many tight boots and shoes means it finally needs doing again.

Toe the line

Anyway a date towards the end of September means we can shoot off for a month, so Switzerland and Austria here we come. Possible venues include the Øtzal, where we have never been, and the Val di Mello, where we haven't been for about 15 years.
After that it is back home to get the 'procedure' done with the hope I will be fit enough to push off to Greece by mid October - about three weeks later. We have appointments with Kalymnos and the Peleponnes and they won't wait.