Day 28 - An adventurous way to avoid a dodgy bridge
Saturday 11th AugustWe have a dilemma. We want to get to the climbing area at the head of the Pitztal but the only bridge across the river says, ' No trespassing.'Mrs P, always on the ball, suggests that it's not necessarily the only way across the river. She points out that one of the Via Ferrata crosses the waterfall about 100m (300ft) up. Admittedly the glacier is kicking out a LOT of water and it might be a tad damp and a certain muggins here will have to carry all the heavy climbing kit but, she's right, as always, it will get us to the climbing area without having to cross the dodgy bridge.We just have to tightrope walk across the extremely dodgy, wet and slippery steel cable suspended 300 feet up in the air and directly over/through the raging torrent of water kindly provided by the rapidly melting glacier instead...Ah, what the heck. It'll be fun!The Via Ferrata is not very difficult...
...but it is exciting...
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We finally, after much fun and frolics, reach the climbing area. Somewhat damp but in high spirits. We then spend a splendid afternoon scrambling around on the rock.
For climbing aficionados it is like Derbyshire gritstone, without the grit. Sloping holds and a need for faith in friction. For non climbers; there are no handles.It's a Saturday afternoon in the height of the summer and we had the whole place to ourselves. Apart that is from a herd of Highland cattle who 'mooed' with slight Scottish/Austrian accents. Like Sean Connery in his oft forgotten film sequel, [Austrian] Pantomime cows are forever. Sorry, it's been a long day.FYI we still had to cross the dodgy bridge to return to Gandalf.POLITE NOTE TO ALL READERS: Please feel free to follow this blog. Select the Follow link at the bottom of this page and you will receive an email notification every time I publish a new page.Also, do feel free to pass on the blog to your friends, family and anyone else who you think might find it entertaining. Let's see if we can get Bear Grylls and Steve Backshall following me.Though I'd rather have Ray Mears as he always cooks nice food. That said, Mr Backshall only lives round the corner. Hmmm, tough choice...