It was certainly when the photos of his test pitches ‘Anam Cara’ and ‘Memento’ went viral that the Paznaun became a must-visit destination on climbers’ maps worldwide. Yet there are other spots here offering excellent high-mountain rock too – and the region is just as much worth a trip for roping up.
Text: Simon Schöpf
The vast rock face below the Ballunspitze is undisputedly the place to be during the warm summer months: whilst down in the valley every hold has long since become slippery, up here at almost 2,000 metres the grip is finally perfect. The selection of bouldering of all Levels of Difficulty is also unrivalled, not to mention the alpine atmosphere.
There’s even a dedicated children’s bouldering area now – the only one of its kind in the Alps. Here, the rocks are lower and the landing area is nice and flat. It’s never too early to start.
Silvapark now boasts 195 bouldering problems and 445 routes – from sectors such as Anam Cara, Supercrack and Palm Beach to Golden Gate and Outlands. Whether it’s a one-move wonder requiring maximum strength or an endurance-testing highball: Silvapark has it all.
Amidst all this rock-climbing excellence, there’s one thing you mustn’t forget: simply doing nothing for a while and taking in the scenery. For whilst other bouldering areas like to hide away in the woods, Silvapark presents itself on a silver platter, high up in the open.
And once again, we’re heading right up high: the Jamtal Climbing Arena is even higher than Silvapark, at over 2,100 metres. Three hours of access to a Rock Climbing Area sounds incredibly far – though right next to it is the Jamtalhütte, an ideal base camp for warm days. The hiking options are correspondingly varied. And then there are the dumplings.
At a glance
Fancy a bit more? Then this simple Multi-Pitch Climbing route in the Jamtal takes you to over 3,000 metres: the Paulcketurm stands at 3,072 metres – quite impressive.
The view in this wild landscape full of rugged rocks is correspondingly spectacular. The belay stations and some intermediate bolts have been drilled, but the distances between them are sometimes quite large – a few Friends and nuts won’t go amiss here.
Anyone who’s already been bouldering below the Ballunspitze can go straight on to climb it: on the Ballunspitze itself, there are six alpine routes up to grade 6, with walls ranging from 60 to 140 metres in height.
And so we’ve come full circle: crash pads at the bottom, ropes at the top – and in between, the same view over the Silvretta Alps that makes Silvapark so beloved.
At a glance
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