Achleiten climbing

Crag: Achleiten, Soll, Austria
Routes: Tannenweg (f4:sec), Eulenweg (f5c:led), Direkter Eulenweg (f6a:sec), Weg zur Eibe (f5:led)
Tired after the run up Scheffauer, and the previous two days, this steep and strenuous crag was probably not the ideal choice for a spot of relaxed climbing. But it was Soll's local crag and gave us a different perspective on the landscape at this end of the range. A long and twisting drive up the side of the valley led to a longish, but mercifully largely downhill walk-in. The crag is relentlessly steep throughout, its lower half hidden by trees, its upper half exposed to full sunshine as it was now mid-afternoon. The crag has a rather complex structure, which we tried to partially unlock by doing the easy Tannenweg up slabs to gain an obvious ledge system, above which several other reasonably graded routes made their way. I led up Eulenweg, which took a shallow groove diagonally right to finish up a steep wall. Here, we had our first encounter with a bizarre feature of the crag: numerous 'knobs' of dark rock protruding from the limestone. These often provided pinch holds, or crucial footholds, my geological knowledge is insufficient to identify: fossilised wood perhaps? I lowered off below the true finish of the climb, frying in intense afternoon sunshine with the humidity building, and tiring rapidly after the morning run. Vic unlocked the crucial upper section, and I then followed up with the Direct version straight through the lower bulge - powerful but good, hidden holds - and completed the route with an excellent crux move stepping left onto a steep wall using those 'knobs'. We retreated to the shade at the bottom of the crag and finished with Weg zur Eibe, which was a fine route up a steep slab to a pull over an overhang and good climbing above using the knobs. A clap of thunder as I lowered off, and this heralded another storm, which turned out to be less intense than the others.