Hochferner Northface

Just about ten minutes after the start I already lost the path. On the meadow I’m walking on everything looks similar in the light of my headlamp. So I just walk on straight through the valley finding the way and loosing it again. After about an hour I cross a small creek and go further to the entrance of the climbing route. I walk across a moraine when dawn has already broken and put on my climbing gear. In front of me there is the amazing 900m high ice face of the Hochferner. A really steep snowfield leads me to the first passage. This first part seems to be really hard and blank whereas it is not possible to estimate which conditions there are at the top of the wall. For safety reasons I choose to go up along the left edge of a big snowfield. After about 200 meters I start to use my ice axes. It is extremely hard. I need a lot of power to climb the first 500 meters and would prefer to be belayed but I know that I’m able to do it on my own. Getting further to the top the conditions get better and better. After about five hours since leaving the parking area I reach the summit of the Hochferner. I am having a short break and start my way down again. Three hours pass and I reach my car to drive home again.