Zsigmondyspitze (3089 m) with Arno on a dream early autumn day

Friday the 24.9.2021 was the Friday before the last weekend of my holidays. I really like the Zillertal as it can be reached in less than 2 h from Munich and reminds me of Scotland. The forecast predicted a last summer-like weekend with temperatures well over 20 degrees. Because of that, Arno and I met at 7 am at my place. At 9 am, we started walking from the car park of the Breitlahner guest house and walked towards the Berliner Hütte in the early morning sun.

Here is Arno with two stunning waterfalls which must be great ice climbs in winter. 

Here, Arno is leaving the gorge...

... and here is the Berliner Haus, a mountain "hut" (more a hotel) which retains the Gründerzeit charm of the 1880s.

The dining room is like over 100 years ago but we had a coffee and Apfelstrudel outside with glacial views. 

We then went Northwards and the Zsigmondyspitze, the Matterhorn of the Zillertal appeared. It is a 250 m high Gneiss pyramid. 

Here the view to the Southeast with a sad-looking glacier that will disappear in the next 10-20 years,

Here a view to the South. The highest point of that Italy-Austria border ridge is the Hochfeiler (3510 m) which I had climbed in summer with Marco and Heidi the dog. 

We reached a band of snow and ascended that under a deep blue sky to reach the bealach to the East of the Zsigmondyspitze. 

Here, we are nearly there. What a mountain!

Out of breath from the altitude, we took our time to gear up and start climbing. The rock is excellent Gneiss and it 

After two or three pitches, the easiest line is a walk and then easy friction slabs with some bolts to the left. Here is Arno in a sea of slabs. It is easier than it looks so not like the Etive slabs!

After that a rising walking and scrambling traverse back to the South ridge...

... followed by two more pitches up the ridge and an easy scramble on the right of the edge to the top. 

There are three abseil points and the rest is easy down climbing. Here is Arno preparing one of the abseils...

... here we meet the only other team on the hill...

... and here an exposed abseil back to the base. 

Some days cannot be better. But it was a long day with 1800 m of ascending and descending plus 28 km of walking plus some hours of climbing. 

HW

Zillertal Hoher Riffler (3231 m) in the snow

On the 28th and 29th of August Ana was busy. This meant that I had a weekend for myself but unfortunately the weather forecast was rain, rain & rain. So I checked my mountain books for a 3000 m peak because above 2000 m rain would be snow and snow is much nicer than rain. I decided to attempt the Hoher Riffler in the Zillertal, described as a walking mountain. 

The walk starts at the Schlegeisspeichere, a reservoir surrounded by 3000ers at the end of the Zillertal. There is a 14 EUR Mautstraße up to it, parking included. The first part of the walk goes to the Friesenberghaus. 

Lovely pine forrests and the grass and vegetation on this misty day reminded me of bonny Scotland. 

This is just around 2000 m.

Here some of the ubiquitous cows... 

... and here a view to the other side of the glen with a first dusting of snow. 

At around 2400 m of altitude, things turned white and again it all reminded me of Scotland. 

I reached the large Friesenberghaus...

... which was built in 1928 by the Berlin section of the German Alpine Club. 

I went past and brewed some Korean noodles under an overhanging boulder. 

The ascent to the Hoher Riffler was a long, long, blocky ridge under 20 cm of snow with little visibility. 

After several hours of scrambling I reached the summit of the hoher Riffler. 

After a long slippery descent I regained the snowline and as temperatures had risen, the snow melted and a lot water cascaded into the glen. 

Again, the misty, green glen reminded me of Scotland. 

An awful weather weekend but a great, challenging 3000 m peak that from time to time sent me down the Scottish memory lane.

HW