Großglockner North Face, Mayerl Ramp, May 28, 2018

Actually, it’s already summer in late May—at least down in the valley: it’s warm—hot, to be honest—then humid and stormy. Still, my guest and I had set this time slot more than a month ago with the goal of conquering the north face of Austria’s highest mountain.

The signs are anything but good: on the drive there, it’s sweltering heat; with the car’s air conditioning cranked up full blast, we arrive at Franz-Josef Höhe—where it’s rainy, wet, and cool. After some back-and-forth, we decide to make the climb to the bivouac. We’re struggling—the snow is soft, the trail is only partially visible, and our motivation… well.

The night in the bivouac is, at least for me, pleasant (there are only 7 people in the “box” total—I’ve never seen so few here before ;-)) and, while the sky has cleared up at least a little, it’s nowhere near freezing. Still, since we’re already here, we head to the start of the route. After crossing the (extremely fragile) snow bridge over the bergschrund, the decision was made—at least for me—that the climb is doable and we’re going to go through with it.

The conditions turn out to be surprisingly good, except that the center of the ramp is covered with about 10 cm of loose snow and hard ice underneath—this is just as bad as bare ice, or actually even worse.

The descent from the ramp was very good again: powder snow and grippy ice.

From the Grögerschneide onward, we were able to enjoy climbing the—believe it or not—fairly well-snow-covered northwest ridge to the summit. All in all, a successful guided tour!