989 – ‘Northern Mountain Warrior III’ – Bavaria, Tyrol

Liverpool UOTC’s 2010 annual climbing trip began by setting up camp on the Edelweiss Lodge Wilderness Campground in Garmisch-Partenkirchen.

Day one brought a beautiful sunrise and glorious sunshine as the group set off climbing at a crag approximately 30 minutes drive away from base camp. The instructors went through all the basics with everyone and checked they all knew what they were doing before everyone ventured their first climb. The weather held off till early evening when a thunderstorm, very frequent in the Alps, rained the group off the crags.

Day two of climbing was at an impressive crag right down south in Austria, a bit more of a drive than the previous day. It was a good day of climbing and all participants built on what they had done the day before. The evening brought heavy rain, and unfortunately we had experienced pretty much all of the good weather we were going to experience in the two weeks.

However, despite the bad weather, spirits were not dampened in true ‘If it’s not raining then it’s not training’ style, and morale remained high. The group then split in two, allowing one half to do some walking to qualify for their Summer Mountaineering Proficiency, while the other half did some climbing. Three days later, the groups swapped over activities. The walkers went navigating around the picturesque Walchensee lake area for the next few days despite the rainy weather. The climbing group had to resort to spending the next three days climbing inside on a local indoor wall. Ideally not the best situation, but it provided a much better atmosphere and environment for development and honing of climbing skills – far better than an outdoor crag. However it was a shame to drive all that way and be stuck inside.

A few days later, there was a sudden break in the weather, allowing the group to get out and do some more climbing. The visited crag tested different abilities and everyone put in maximum effort, glad to be back outside, and putting into practice the indoor development . This break in the weather didn’t seem to last long, so we had to go back inside to the climbing wall again.

There was also an educational part to the expedition. The group visited Dachau concentration camp which was about an hour drive from Garmisch-Partenkirchen. It is now a museum dedicated to preserving the horrors of the Nazi Regime and a reminder that such things must never happen again. We also visited the Eagle’s Nest, Hitler’s mountain top Erie. The tour included a ride up a narrow mountain road to just below the summit. From there a solid gold elevator as used by Hitler himself took the group up the rest of the way. The views from the summit were absolutely stunning, equally stunning was the mountain hut itself, no expense was spared in construction. All in all a good and educational day out.

Everyone achieved their SMP qualification. Some of the hardest climbing with the highest grades was on the indoor wall. It was a good alternative on the rainy days and we bouldered, climbed and slacklined for hours.

On the final day, we were finally granted a day of perfect weather! As an entire group we took the cable car up Zugspitze, the highest mountain in Germany. The cable car took us almost to the very top which allowed some to climb to the top.

All in all, we had a remarkable trip filled with unforgettable climbing, walking and educational experiences, the expedition provided great banter that we’ll all remember and the good memories will do much to promote next year’s trip.

Ocdt H Francis and Ocdt J McKeen