Direkte Neue Richterkante is a 10-pitch, well-bolted climbing route with several sections of grade V and VI difficulty. Climbing it was an interesting, full-day adventure.
The first challenges appeared even before starting this route. The only guidebook for the Höllental area seems to be the one by Thomas Behm. It contains very good route topos, but lacks detailed drawings or photos showing where a given route starts and how to reach the appropriate sector under the rock.
During our stay in Höllental, we relied on the bergsteigen.com website and the mapy.com app (formerly mapy.cz), and in the case of this route, they proved invaluable. Direkte Neue Richterkante is particularly difficult to find because it doesn’t start at the base of the rock. You have to approach the first bolts by climbing about 20 meters of grade I terrain.
As for the bolting, the route is marked in the guidebook as PP, which in practice means it’s very well-bolted in the cruxes, but there can be large runouts on easier sections. It’s worth bringing some trad gear, like three small cams, as some parts are loose, so even on easier pitches, a fall is possible. Long slings are also useful. There are some trees along the route where you can place protection, and some belay stations are on trees, so it’s good to bring your own sling.
The first interesting section starts on the second pitch. The beginning of this pitch is graded V+ and involves climbing onto an edge. The bolts are as closely spaced as at an indoor climbing wall, and there are good holds, making it a very enjoyable section.
The next difficulties come on the fourth pitch: a bolted face graded V or a bypass graded III+ with one bolt. I tried the face and didn’t expect this pitch to give me so much trouble. It starts with an unbolted corner where I placed a cam. Then you need to traverse left to the bolts, but I couldn’t find any footholds or handholds there. Someone with longer arms might reach a sidepull on the left. I didn’t see anything for myself, and my last clip was positioned such that a fall would have landed me on a ledge a few meters below, so I placed another cam on the right and skipped one bolt.
The next four pitches are easy climbing, but some sections have loose rock.
Toward the end of the sixth pitch, there’s a guestbook on a tree. The tree looks like it could be a belay station, but the actual station is a bit further. We set up a belay on the tree, which caused me to struggle with rope drag on the next pitch.
The eighth pitch starts with a short chimney, which is easiest to bypass by climbing the rock on the left.
The ninth pitch presents more difficulties, graded V+. It starts with a nice and easy edge, followed by a crux—a fairly powerful traverse.
Finally, the crux pitch graded VI. The topo shows a II+ bypass, so we assumed that if this pitch proved too difficult or it got too late, we’d have an easy alternative. It turned out that the bypass was a wide, dirty chimney, which didn’t look like an easy or quick way to the top.
The pitch is 25 meters long, but the grade VI climbing is really only a few meters at the start.
At the end, you set up a belay on a tree and can celebrate completing the climb.
However, this doesn’t mean you just walk down. Direkte Neue Richterkante doesn’t end at the summit of Stadlwand. You need to climb about 150 meters of grade I terrain to reach the summit, and only from there is there a path down.
Thank you :)
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