Drachentanz: 23 pitches, 12 hours car to car
A long day on the Tajakopf with Papa. The crux comes right at the start, with cold fingers and a heavy pack.
Machine-translated from the German original. The German version is the one I actually wrote.
Twenty-three pitches, long walk in, long walk out, twelve hours car to car. That’s the kind of route where you sit in the car afterwards and say nothing for a while.
The crux pitch comes right at the start. That’s awkward: cold fingers, heavy pack, not warmed up. Exactly the combination that makes a 7 feel a good deal harder than it is. It went anyway.
After that it gets better, because you’re into it and the pack gets lighter.
Out with Papa, which makes days like this different again. We’ve been climbing together for years and there’s very little that needs saying.