[bigironhorse]

Anybody got some beta for a trip to Maltatal? We will go for 4 days over this weekend.

I am looking for:

-Quailty sport climbing venues with a good range of stuff from french ~5 to ~7c.
-Longish multipitch stuff up to ~6b, alpine stuff would be nice but preferably not too much snow and definitely no galciated approaches or descents.
-Low key car sleeping locations or cheap campsites.
-Any other useful information.

THANKS

[JohnM]

I went to Maltatal a few weeks back. It is definitely a beautiful valley and a lot of the climbing is great. However, the volume of crags and good quality climbing wasn't as high as I expected and as far as I could tell from the guide there were only really two main sectors with good quality single pitch (Schleierwasserfall and Kreuzwand). These can get quite busy on weekends though. Kreuzwand is the best for 5s/6s and Graue Wand (really nice 6b and 6c), Rote Wand and the upper sector at Schleierwasserfall have really good routes in the 7s and 8s. I can't really help with the multi-pitch as we didn't do any in the end but I sure it would be really nice and quiet.

I can't help with the camping either, although I am sure people were sleeping in their vans in the main car park at Kreuzwand and there is a porta-loo there.

We didn't drive up to the end of the valley as it was 20 Euros (Kfz) on the Mautstrasse which is a rip off! We did however, park at the alm just before the toll booth and did the waterfall walk (worth doing in its own right) to go and look at a crag with a classic 8a+ (Crossing the Jordan) which climbs the lip of a big boulder over the river. There is also another boulder with a nice looking 7b+ in a nice river setting.

They didn't have the guidebook at the Tourist Info but you can buy it at the reception of the Hotel Platzer in Gmuend should you want to.

There are also some nice limestone crags closer to Villach (30-40 mins drive). We checked out Kanzianiberg which is an good venue. There were some nice routes in the 5s and 6s (albeit polished) and plenty in the 7s. 

[bigironhorse]

Thought I would briefly write up what we got up to incase it is useful to anyone else. We stayed at the Zechner campsite in Fischertratten - nice basic campsite, good facilities, cheap (~12€ per night), has a bar which serves really nice chips and is located about 10mins from the main sport climbing and bouldering areas. There is a decent and quite reasonable restaurant in the fort at Gmund.

We mainly did easy multipitch routes so I cant comment too much on the sport climbing and bouldering, the alpine stuff looks great - hoping to get back later in the summer to sample it.

Humuspfeiler & Schluchtwand

An impressive looking crag - the harder routes on the left hand side look really good.



Luftikus 6a, 6a+, 6a

Not sure whether this is granite of gneiss but good quality rock either way, particularly the first pitch had some pretty bizarre features which I haven't come accross before. Nice and steep all the way.




Vileda 6a, 6a, 6a+, 5b

Looks pretty dirty but don't let that put you off, there is some great climbing! Middle two pitches the best. Mixture of slab climbing with some steeper sections.

I also did a few single pitch routes at the base of the crag, they are quite nice for finishing off after a longer route but probably not worth a visit in their own right. Best were Beißer (6b) and Goldfinger (7a+).

Breitwand

This crag is not in Maltatal itself so probably a good place to head to if the weather craps out in the valley.

Seinerzeit 5a, 5c, 4b, 5a, 5a, 4c, 4b

Mainly good rock and decent climbing but some ledge shuffling involved. A little bit harder than the grades would suggest IMO. The line is not super obvious on pitch 5, you kind of step up into a slabby groove and then move up a leftwards past some foliage IIRC. There are some bolts further right but I think they are for a different route.



Kreuzwand

This is a good quality sport crag with quite a lot to choose from. Unfortunatelty we didn't get chance to sample that much but we did a few quality routes.

Gfiatach 5a, 6a+ Good second pitch with some nice jamming sections. Can be done in one long pitch but this requires multiple lower offs with a 70m rope - even then it was a bit tight!

Super Gau 5c, 6c+, 7a+ Absolutely amazing route, classy all the way. Pitch 2 has an awesome steep hand/fist jamming section. Pitch 3 has a bit of a weird start but then follows a discontinuous finger crack, bit of a heartbreak finish - I fell off two moves from jugs! I did it in one massive pitch with two lower offs.