Once again I find myself sleeping in a car, waking up at 5 just to climb a rock. Mastermind behind this trip is again Michal, long time friend of mine and the pioneer of local climbing in my home town gym.
The plan was to ascend the iconic route in Hohe Wand National Park called Zukunftsweiser ( trans. - Pioneers). We arrived to Hohe Wand on the 8th of October 2024, slept in my company car near the parking lot from which you can hike up to the starting point in like 20 minutes. The sleep which for me was 5/10 on comfortability scale was for Michal a 5 star hotel experience for some reason... Woke up around 4 - 5 I think and drove to the parking lot under the route.
Our journey begins... We arrived and looked at the 200meters tall rock from the below, ready to conquer it. Topo was on point, hands were ready, excitement rushed through our bodies
But we weren't able to find the starting point :) ... The first pitch supposed to be a 3+ scramble, but we weren't sure where it was at there were only straight walls around us that did not look like scrambles to me. Not to Michal of course as the just looked at some bolts and said: ,,This will be it , come on you will lead it first" Of course I did not doubt him and put my climbing shoes on and went up. The pitch was everything else other than 3+ scramble, I have climbed to the top and successfully told Michal that the route ends there. Michal climbed to me to check if I was telling the truth and of course 4 eyes are better than 2. The route ended there it was just some sport route bolted there and we rappelled down continuing our conquest for the Zukunftsweiser.
We were literally 10 meters from the starting scramble but we did not notice it at all. As I mentioned above we climbed some sketchy sport route first then we rappelled, went right next to the scramble to the other 7+ route on the left, climbed that and when we were on top of another sport route we looked to the right and saw the starting anchor of the route.
After this harrowing experience we climbed few other routes in the area and called it a day as it was already mid day when we find the starting anchor of the route we wanted to climb. The sport routes in the area were good but in my honest opinion the rock there is not the most enjoyable. (explanation below)
We came back! After few weeks we did actually came back to climb the actual route that we planned - Zukunftsweiser. The weather got little colder this time. It was like Deja Vu, because I think we traveled at the similar time as last time, arrived late at night, went to sleep "very legally" in the nearby camp and woke in early in the morning around 5 to prepare for our climb. This time we changed few thing regarding the backpack and overall gear preparation. Last time we had two 35L backpacks with out climbing gear, food and water. Now we prepared all the gear on the parking lot, put on harnesses and just took small 20L bags for the food and water.
The 3+ scramble up to the anchor was very safe in my opinion. Of course slip would be painful or fatal but that could be on any hike. From the first anchor point the initial pitch looked very nice. I went to lead the first pitch. Route has many bolts on the pitches, in some pitches we counted above 10 quickdraws so the runout is in most places minimal. In my opinion I could describe this as technical climb with lot of sharp edges and absent foothold in many places where you need to trust your feet, smear and pray to not slip. Some spots had lot of mono holes for 1 or 2 fingers that were also very sharp and also you could find 1 small crack in the middle of the route for the crack climb enjoyers but nothing major. Michal climbed one section where one bolt was missing so the runout there was very scary. The last pitch was the prettiest of them all, it started with corner chimney after where you traversed easily to the flatter was with bigger ledges. From there few moves to the top of the skywalk where you anchor yourself and pullout your partners. It was the final stretch of the route and the view was incredible. The skywalk where hikers could look is like the reward for the climb you just endured. And it actually is reward as we find out you need to pay 4 euros to enter the skywalk so if you need to save 4 euro I recommend to climb Zukunftsweiser. We sat at the top for a while, took memory photo and went back down to the car.
The whole climb took us around 4 hours and we did fall or rest one some sections of the climb as they were at our limit. As I mentioned above I did not like the rock that much and also the route was not that enjoyable. Both me and Michal agreed that it was quite hard and technical with hard sections. Initially we thought the whole route was around 6 maybe 6+ but after the climb we googled a bit and found multiple sources where the route is graded 7+. After findings this information we laughed and told ourselves we will do more research in the future (we will probably not).
Overall it was amazing experience.
I like to climb with Michal, he is very calm and methodical climber but also crazy powerful at the same time. He has a lot of experience climbing and also works as instructor, route setter and has its own high-altitude firm, so he is probably the best person to learn to climb with.
(I'm also glad he rested on the route proving he is human after all and made me feel little better about myself hanging there with pumped arms and swearing.)
For the year 2025 I plan to somehow acquire van that I can turn into camper and use it for trips like this one. I am not adding every one of my little trips where we go climbing or hiking and only add the major ones but I want to change that and make this my personal journal that is also open to public. Fingers crossed how that will go and see you on the next one :)