4

 

2008 Alpine Meet Report

The meet this year was in Garmisch, Southern Germany at the foot of the Wetterstein Alps. Nine members attended namely; Brian and Jean Harrison, John and Margaret Harrison, Jim Roskell, Betty McGregor, Roger Mellen, Pete Holland and Pete Kelly.  Campingplatz Zugspitze proved to be a comfortable site if a little waterlogged from time to time. The Alpspitze and the Zugspitze are the major summits in this area and dominated the skyline above the site. The valleys are cut by fast flowing rivers and are wooded up to 1800 meters, above are green Alps topped by limestone peaks.  Aldi is the major supermarket.

 

Jim and Betty were first to arrive on 11^th July but had to contend with some very wet weather for a few days. The weather improved to give some warm days but afternoon thunderstorms were always a threat and often materialised in a spectacular fashion. It snowed on the summits a couple of times and in heavy rain the low ground on the campsite formed large murky pools; some of the more unlucky campers were washed out. However, there were also some fine days, and several multi pitch climbs were done on the Alpspitze. The mountain has lower and upper faces and a walk off from the routes onto a Via Ferrata. Easy access to Osterfeider on the Alpspitze cable car then a 10-minute walk along the Nordwandsteig to the start of the routes made this a very popular venue.

 

Pete’s Holland and Kelly did the seven pitch Sonntagsausflug on the lower face. This grade V took a series of ribs and walls with a wet open chimney pitch at half height just to remind them of home.

 

John, Roger and Pete Kelly did a couple of pitches on the Alpspitze lower face then scrambled to the upper face to complete 6 slabby pitches at gradeIV on the unimaginatively named BW3. The route emerged on to the NE ridge of the mountain in mist and 10 minutes on the Via Ferrata led to the summit at 2,628 meters. A quick descent was made in time for the last cable car of the day. The same team spent a

Roger Mellen climbing at Himmelsberg