This day we decided to do a multipitch route in the Mael amphitheatre. Several WI3 and 4 routes seemed in good condition so we wanted an early start. The approach turned out to be a 'little' longer than the topo stated but we arrived warmed up anyway. This said we were only at the end of the road and we had to 'dive' into the forest to get to an abseilpoint from which we would descend into the amphitheatre. The abseil turned out to be unneccesary and we arrived at the bottom after an 20 minutes of bushwhacking or so. Here it became clear that we better should have abseiled anyway because now we were way to low and had to tramp a long way up to the start of the actual routes. All in all we arrived there two hours after we had left the car. So far our early start...
(Hans ascending to the start of the route)But here the scenery was truly awsome as several icefalls and one spectacular free hanging pilar in particular surrounded us. Four pitches in the grade of WI3 awaited us but the ice conditions made it a bit more serious undertaking than itnormally would have. Straight forward climbing turned out in sustained and good ice it probably was when the writers of the topo visited the area. Now loads of snow and thin and/or incoherent ice were our company on the way up.
(Me ascending the last part in the cirque with the Isroser being the left cascade...
(..and taking the first pitch)
(Hans arriving at the end of the final pitch)
A little battered we arrived at the top but still with enough daylight to orientate our way arount the amphitheatre. The only thing was that we had to plough our way through sometimes waistdeep snow. At the end our navigating skills turned out to be sufficient to get us to the road by which time it was completely dark. With our headtorches on we continued down where upon arriving at the car we considered it as a 'great day in the outdoors'.
...and Hans also.
Hans perfoming the famous Low-hanging figure of Four....