[dave]

loads of scattered mountain granite. some roadside, some a little walk. nearest town for a base is Mayrhofen. the boulderig is on the tributary valleys around the town, some on toll road. all realy nice locations, variety of problems.

best season is spring/autumn, but summer is probably OK for the boulders i the trees. bear in mind June in the alps is still spring.

Real lack of online info, best being www.stonemonkeys.com and www.climbtirol.com

if anyone goes then PM me and i can try and give all the info i know.

some photos:

[Monolith]

Dave, where would one be looking to fly for Zillertal?

Seriously tempted to head out in April. Any camping/other beta gratefully received. Your photo's make the place look fucking awesome.

[dave]

the closest airport will be innsbruck, be we ended up flying to saltzburg cos there were more choice of flights going there. its a nice drive. camping-wise, fuck knows, just stay wherever in mayhofen. I would suggest doing some proper caution and research before going in april though - mayhofen is a ski resort, and bearing in mind all the bouldering is in little high alpine valleys you could get there and everything be under 3m of snow and full of germans in flourescent padded romper suits. I was there in June, which is spring in the alps, and there was still snow under some boulders in the woods. it was also boiling hot.

bouldering wise, the main problem is lack of documentation available. i was on a holiday and printed out some babelfished german webpages, which didn't even give you proper beta on anything really, we missed some main areas. I think with proper documentation this place could be better than magic wood by a long shot.

[Monolith]

Genius, cheers dave. I got the idea from a brief glance through a mate's guidebook earlier in the week. It's been leant to somebody else at the moment but I'm keen for such sagely beta in the meantime.

I think with proper documentation this place could be better than magic wood by a long shot.

That's exactly what was mentioned when perusing the guide and I'm keen to hit it before the polish kicks in. I won't be driving but could figure some other way of getting there.

[Monolith]

That one boulder alone could keep me amused for a while.

Oh, and the local music scene looks immense!

[dave]

i would have thought you'd need a car to get around there - the bouldering is in valleys that radiate outward from the town, some of which would mean walking for hours. there may be tourist bus services up the valleys though, what with some of them being toll roads. bear in mind some of my photos there are an area 40mins uphill walk from the car, which is parked at a point 30mins uphill drive from the town.....

I believe that photo is of the same thing as one of mine - the one with yellow t-shirt, feet crossed, i'm traversing away from the camera. its about a 7b fingery traverse L->R. straight up at the LHS is a easy 6b+ish thing. i think theres some 8a traverse thing from way round right which reverses into that traverse as a finish. If you're looking at the face and turn 180degrees theres another massive boulder with some stuff on. This area is right next to the road, and fairly popular. directly over the road by the river is some easier stuff, warmup area etc.

[Monolith]

The lack of transportation sounds a significant stumbling block eh. Will continue to look into it though, cheers.

[robertostallioni]

Visited Zillertal in '03 or after seeing a copy of 'No Comment' vid. the rock really is pristine. We were sport climbing on a big trip so had a vehicle. Not having one would be hardcore but possible. Think Ceuss-gap comestible commute. Crag finding quality crag finding was tricky. Went initially to innsbruck wall(fooking good-makes ours look archaic) and got Gerhard Horhagers number and got all the beta from the man. Monkey island for routes(lots of great 20degree 8's and some other good stuff developed further up the hill. Stunning steep crag in the river bottom too. Think the bouldering is a little higher up the valley generally right next to a wild campsite..(tents in a field in a 'Pass style') Spent 2 weeks sleeping on a carpark on a pad and bathed twice in the river-baltic does not come close. proper nuts in the throat territory in july! Maryhofen is expensive ALL year but good for pizzas, shopping and birdwatching on rest days.
must dash.
 
The Stallion.

[Monolith]

I fucking love the internet. Just got a message from a guy I contacted on couchsurfing.com who lives in Innsbruck but has bouldering friends in Zillertal he is going to put me in contacwwith and possibly a place to stay. (please excuse spelling, Firefox is being weird)

[Houdini]

My-oh-my what am I doing here when this honey is but down the road??



I want to assure you Gentlemen, this is going  to the very top of Arete Quest 2008/9.

Dave is this you, does it climb as well as it looks?

[dave]

its a 7b+ lip traverse ting (probably ultra classic) called hotel california. alas that day it was boiling so i was pulling for the pose only. the last bit from where i am to the top is fine, but the start is nails as the whole arete is pretty uniform, so the moves are probably a bit shuffley - like most things of this type it probably looks a bit better than it climbs.

Interestingly, when i was at the crag there was also a fella and a frauline turn up. didn't see them for a bit then i rolled up to try this problem to find the woman standing back from the problem with camera and the guy say on the mat looking a bit sheepish in the buff as i turned the corner, grabbing a t-shirt to cover his knackwurst.

heres another couple of photos from the net of it (its probably the most photographed thing in zillertal, for obvious reasons).





if anyone does go to zillertal try and check out the area called Ginzling Wald (its just up the road from where you park for sundergrund, where the above problem is) - i missed it apart from popping to the woods to have a look one day - a bit magic-wood-esque in terms of landings but was very cool in there while everywhere else was baking. looked good.

[Monolith]

Curiously, I had a quick search on youtube for 'zillertal' to which I was given the first result; a representative sample of the local night scene.

The video doesn't actually contain what it says in the title by the way.

[andy_e]