Although East Tyrol is only a district of Tyrol and not a federal state, the differences between this smaller area and its neighbors North Tyrol and South Tyrol are pretty big. The chalky Carnic Alps, the Lienzer Dolomiten in the South and the 3000m+ peaks in the Hohe Tauern, with its green schist and gneissic faces, are significantly less frequently visited by climbers and mountaineers.
Only the highest peaks in those areas see a lot of ascents. Reasons for this may include bad accessibility or simply the absence of an eminent face. What is sure though, is that a lot of foreign climbers miss out on the East Tyrolean climbing gems. The aim of this climbing guide is to provide an overview of all multipitches from Laserzkessel above Lienz, up to the steep, green schist faces of the Virgen Valley. It also covers most of the crags in East Tyrol from the Dolomiten-Hut all the way to Falkenstein and the surrounding regions.
Anybody who has already visited East Tyrol for climbing will certainly come back!
Vittorio Messini was born in Florence and has been living in East Tyrol since the age of ten. Through his parents he was introduced to hiking. He was later introduced to rock climbing and mountaineering by a friend. Shortly before he started his education as skiing and mountaineering guide, he developed a fascination with rock climbing, which he has now been doing for over 15 years. During the course of his geology studies, he was able to finish his education as a guide, which has been his main profession since 2011. It doesnt matter whether its through sport climbing, alpine climbing, making first ascents, leading of ski, ice or mixed tours or as instructor for the alpine ambulance Tyrol Vitto follows his passion. He has also been part of the instructor team of the Austrian federation for ski- and mountain guides since autumn 2017.
Together with Matthias Wurzer, Silvester Wolsegger and the Bergsport Osttirol association he was able to initiate the project Eispark Tirol, which is the biggest artificial ice climbing garden in Austria. In January 2017 Vitto published the first ice climbing guide for East Tyrol and Upper Carinthia (Eiskletterführer Osttirol und Oberkärnt- en) together with Martin Glantschnig and Stefan Lieb. It contains over 250 ice and mixed routes.