Erstellt am: 18. 7. 2014 - 06:00 Uhr
Tackling The Iron Roads
I’m safely attached to a steel cable, but this is no time for vertigo. Below my boots, I can see the flat valley floor of Ramsau, and against my chest is the grey rock-face. I find the progress up the mountain absorbing and rather meditative, as I drag my karabiners along the cable, before unclipping and reclipping them one by one as I reach the fat bolts, or fixing points, that intersect the cable every few metres.
chris cummins
It’s simple and reassuring. If I fall I will only slip as far down as the next fixing point.
Climbing up a via ferrata, or a Klettersteig to use the German term, might be seen as climbing for softies, yet there is a undeniable adrenaline rush as I lose my rock face virginity. A small rock, dislodged by the boot of a climber higher up the cable, bounces down the mountain and hits my guide Elias on the helmet. It pierces a small hole above his forehead. The sport may be accessible and easy to learn but it can still seem like an adventure.
It’s no wonder the sport is booming. Many of us longed for an Alpine adventure beyond the gentle pleasure of hiking, but have never found the time, or perhaps the courage, to learn to rock climb.
To tackle a via ferrata all you need is a helmet and a harness attached to a Y-shaped “lanyard”, which is basically a shock-absorbing cord attached to the harness with karabiners at the two endings. It’s affordable - you can buy a complete set for fewer than 100 euros - you can learn to do it in a few minutes, and it feels safe.
Chris Cummins
There are more and more routes available. Already there are 250 via ferrata in Austria and more are built every year.
Ramsau claims to be the birthplace of the via ferrata. In 1843 a man called Friedrich Simony organised a popular route up to the Dachstein to be adorned with a permanent iron furniture of pins, hand hooks, carved footholds, all attached by permanent ropes. For the first time tourists were able to enjoy the views and experiences that had hitherto been reserved to the world’s climbing elite.
But feeling safe is not the same as actually being safe.
The simplicity and accessibility of the via ferrata can be deceptive – it is still a high Alpine sport which involves high Alpine dangers. Mountain rescue services are repeatedly called out to pull exhausted or terrified climbers off the cables. Beginners spend hours with their arms tensed and their biceps start to cramp half way up a climb. They lose their footing and find themselves too tired to continue either up or down.
Chris Cummins
Or they underestimate the weather. Heri Eisel a veteran mountain guide says some tourists had to be rescued this spring on the Seewand in Hallstatt after heading up the mountain at pouring rain which turned to snow above a certain height. Such is the naivety of some of the climbers that 5 years ago there was even a call in Styria for a moratorium on building new via ferrata. The rescue teams felt they were attracting too many tourists into dangerous situations and thereby risking the lives of the rescue teams.
The day before my first via ferrata climb, I watched an accident and rescue simulation held by the Ramsau mountain rescue team. When the crash dummy that was simulating the victim was allowed to slip the 5 metres down to the next fixing point, its body and head were slammed against the rock face. Properly harnessed and helmeted such a fall would be unlikely to kill you, but, with the added risk of hitting the iron rungs, steps and bars hammered into the rock face, you could do yourself a serious injury.
Chris Cummins
So Ramsau has introduced what it is calling its “Klettersteigführerschein” – an introductory course to the skills and pleasure of the via ferrata. If the idea of a licence sounds strict, Elias Walser from the Ramsau Tourism Board insists it is a purely voluntary scheme aimed at promoting awareness of the dangers and confidence in technique rather than restricting access to the mountains. It makes sense to me: it doesn’t take much skill to perfect the technique of ski touring but it makes a lot of sense to learn a bit about avalanches before you tackle the mountain.
Chris Cummins
After dodging the rock, there wasn’t much else that could go wrong on my ascent of the second easiest Klettersteig in Ramsau. I doubt that Reinhold Messner would have been impressed with me, but then again he rarely is. There was a zip-line to whizz down and some sections with only small toe holes where it must have looked, at a distance, as if I was attempting to make love to the mountain as I humped away trying to get more stability. But it left me with a taste of life in the cliff face and an appetite for more. Maybe I will do the climbing course next winter.
But, I promise this to the mountain rescue, if I head up the mountain on a rope or on a cable, I’m going to check the weather forecast first!