Stairway to Heaven : Sept 25

I’ve seen photos from this climb for such a long time and figured ‘why not?’
It took a long time planning to both get a free weekend, a Friday of Special Liberty approved, booking beds in the hutte, renting the gear, and then I finally was making it happen.

Bri has only been climbing once before, the time I took her to the only route I knew near Feldberg, which was only my second time. We got a little experience but nothing like winging it for a trip like this!

We left Friday morning at 10 and made our way to Gosau, Austria. Took the gondola up and checked into the Gablonzer Hutte. I love staying in these huttes in the mountains. Its busy during the day with people stopping in for food and a beer during their hikes, but as the gondola times end the crowd thins out and you realize who is staying for the night. We ate at another hutte after walking through some trails, then went to our room to get everything ready for the morning.

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We woke up at 7, had breakfast at 7:30, and headed out the door at 8. Its a little over a quarter mile to the start of the cable and we were fully clipped in and starting at 8:20. There were some people on the route already when we started but we didn’t realize how many were ahead of us, or where they had come from to get to the climb so early.

The route is listed with A/B, some B/C, and some C/D difficulty level (see the red line route in a photo below). It didn’t start out hard but we did realize we’d need to save our energy. Most blogs say its a 3 hour climb… in all it took us 4 from the start to the cross but we didn’t rush, and we watched several people go one at a time across the bridge which took a while.

The climb wasn’t terrible, Bri going first set a good pace .. and allowed me climb back down the first vertical pegs (about 10 feet) to get her phone after she dropped it something like 30 minutes into the climb. She’s lucky she dropped it where she did and we could get it back.

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We got to some flat sections like a normal hiking path, we weren’t clipped in and walked easily along a flat path where we passed a group of 5 people who were definitely taking their time. There are some stretches with no pegs, no footholds, no good places to grab with your hands. It was definitely hard because its slick rock with nothing but a lose cable which is less sturdy than finding the smallest of finger holds just to move a foot at a time. It was here that my toe lost traction and I slipped. Thank God I had both clips attached because I would have been down the mountain if I wasn’t clipped in. It shook me for a minute to catch my breath and refocus and we ensured we took our time and focused more on steps and grabs from there on out. I wish I’d been recording on my go pro because I went from calm and vertical to screaming and horizontal on my stomach in seconds. Glad Bri didn’t have to watch me roll down the mountain.

We finally got to the ladder, I was surprised the route went under the start of it so took a break off to the side to rest for a minute. Bri was really struggling at this point and it only made me more nervous. Its definitely scarier once you get to the ladder and realize just how long it is, how high up you are, and how shaky the whole thing is. As we waited the group of 5 people showed up and went straight for the ladder. Bri called her husband for encouragement (and she said a goodbye just in case) and we both made our way back in line and got ready to do the dang thing. I wasn’t scared when I first started (hence me saying “Well Full Send”), I was still excited I was finally doing it… until I had to unclip the first time. The steps are horizontal poles attached to two cables on each side and the hand cables have vertical poles keeping the hand cables sturdy so every so often you have to unclip and reclip to get into the next section. I was not prepared for how scary that would be. I wouldn’t say I’m scared of heights. I love a thrill – I laughed the whole time I went skydiving because I was so happy to be doing it. But this ladder… I was terrified. I couldn’t believe how scared I was and prayed out loud the whole way up. My head didn’t move. I didn’t look at my feet, I didn’t stare straight at my hands, I didn’t look through the ladder, I genuinely have no idea what I was looking at now that I think about it. I shakily got my eighth hand to I clip and recoup and then stared at my left hand wondering how on earth I was supposed to do this again and again. I walked up it with the clips in front of my hands so I didn’t have to reach back for them but it never got easier. In fact, I was halfway across the ladder when the guy ahead of me was getting off and it took everything I had (and lots of out loud praying) for me to stay calm while the ladder shook as he moved around.

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The worst part is that after the ladder, you aren’t done. Physically hardest part is right after the ladder where for a couple of peg grabs it feels like your more horizontal on your back than going very vertical. It was a stretch, it required a lot of upper body strength to pull yourself to the next place, and creativity with good shoes to make sure your foot went somewhere you could continue moving along the route. It was exhausting all over again, my finger tips felt like they had been shredded with razor blades by this point because the rocks are so sharp and jagged.

Finally we were past it all and clipped in but walking normally up the ridge and made our way to the cross. So grateful it was over and so shocked we actually did it. “You’re going to remember doing this for the rest of your life” -Bri’s famous & hilarious line

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It was just after noon so we had our sandwhiches we’d made at breakfast at the hutte, some melted Reece’s and a single serve ‘box’ wine to cheers the moment. We enjoyed the sunshine and the amazing views for a while.

I had been told the hike down was super steep so we came prepared with hiking sticks, which I’ve never actually used before but I’m confident saved my knees some major ache. The hike down was a mile from the cross to the level ground, and it was definitely steep and rocky terrain, tough trying to make sure you followed the arrows and flag paintings. The sun was bright and hot and we were so ready for a beer.

We finally made it back to the hutte around 2:30 and saw people just starting to clip in at the beginning of the route and couldn’t imagine having to exert any more energy for the day. We got a beer, some fries, and looked at photos still amazed we had just done that.

We stayed at the hutte for dinner that night, went for a walk out to the other side of the mountain to watch the sunset, and finished with a great hot chocolate with baileys before climbing into bed pretty early to finally let our bodies recover.

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Not pictured are the amazing stars I could see at night. Everything is better in the mountains.

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We woke up early to watch the sunrise over the mountains, which did not disappoint. Packed up, ate breakfast, and headed to the 8:45 gondola ride down. I was happy to see Amos still in the parking lot without a ticket and we headed home.

We stopped to take one last look and photo with the mountains. A dream view.
The drive back was roughly six hours, much longer than expected, although we did have a longer than expected stop when we saw two young people with a sign trying to get to Stuttgart. After discussion, two coin tosses that said to do it, and asking God, we decided we had the room and we could do an act of kindness for the day. They were trying to get from Munich back to France that day just by hitchhiking and had been sitting at this food/gas/rest stop for two hours before we finally offered a ride. Yikes.

We made it back to Stuttgart, I dropped off Bri, filled up an entire tank of gas, and ended the trip with some good Thai food and rest on my couch.

Forever thankful for an amazing adventure gal who I can laugh with, encourage through crazy things, who talks with me about faith, and genuinely makes me feel like I’m being my truest and best self with her.