New mixed climb on Großglockner in Austria by Radoslav Groh, Juraj Koreň

5 years after our first joint expedition to the Himalayas, everything finally fell into place and we managed to climb Groh's project on the south face of Großglockner. The route is relatively balanced with an M7 crux on the 3rd pitch. It resembles the Pirana route on the Slavkov Towers of the High Tatras, where I learned mixed climbing: a beautiful overhanging corner with a good crack but poor footholds.

We climbed along the easier pitches across the snow field and after passing it, we continued to the pillar leading directly to Kleinglockner. Several slab and crack sections ranging from M4+ to M6 in difficulty followed, where you you need to use underclings and also millimeter-wide footholds, before the terrain gradually became less steep leading to the snow fields below the summit. We arrive at the summit of Grossglocker itself via the normal route. We left only one peg in-situ, at the seventh belay.

The whole adventure was full of teasing between sandstone climber vs. drytooler, Czechs vs. Slovaks, and I don't think I've laughed so hard in a long time. The mood was good, the weather was friendly, peaceful, and with Kaiser Direct we even got to climb a nice and sustained long new route on the highest mountain in Austria.

- Juraj Koreň