Photos by tallnik

Ian standing under Whiteman Falls on the left, with Redman Soars in the corner on the right.

South Face of the Falkenstein formation.

Over view of the Schrammstein area.

Buttshot, but what a great cliff, great weather, and easy slabs! The 5.8s up higher are a cinch if solid at the grade. I recommend the Diagonal Direct variation at 5.9

Here's a shot of the Left side of Wallface. 600ft cliff, great ambience. Climber's camping not too far away.

The Cinque Dita or Funffingerspitzen group is in the middle. My friend was unable to pronounce the German name, and it was dubbed the Funf wiener schnitzel

Here you can see the easiest way up the 2nd tower. Here's a guide leading two other climbers. Third pitch is where the money is here. Photo Marc Dufresne

Here's a photo of the 1st Sella Tower. The obvious right facing corner is the Trenker Crack, a great 5.7-5.8 route. On the left you can see the chimney which appears like a big crack. This is the easiest route up the tower.

Me following Marc's simul-climbing lead, note all the slack in my hands. Don't simul climb unless you're like a dumbass, eh? It's dangerous. No seriously, it can speed things up. Anyways, going up the thumb in less than spectacular weather. Original plan was for the whole hand traverse but rapped off after completing the thumb. It was hailing. In July! Photo by Marc Dufresne

A swedish couple we met later at camp in this chimney route, which looked like it entailed at least hard 5.9 climbing, I'm unsure of the route, and don't have the guide, so if anyone can fill the info in more, I'll update. They said it was a solid route, with good gear, and easy moves.

First thing you see when you hike in from the OEAV (Austrian Alpine Association) Hut. It's a pretty place.

Unknown climber. 2nd in series of what I believe to be the Matterhorn area. Please let me know if you know route name/section.

Unknown climber at Peilstein. Nice day at a nice area. I think this is the Matterhorn section. let me know if I'm wrong

Kurt Saggers climbing a wicked old watch tower. Beautiful day, cold wind though. Bloody strong too! It kept trying to rip us off. No crashmats, and only one spotter, but from that height, what would I really do anyways right? Also, we'd left rope, etc, in the car and it would have been a sketch downclimb.

Me climbing a wicked old watch tower. Beautiful day, cold wind though. Bloody strong too! It kept trying to rip me off. I got up halfway, and the wind was getting to be too intense for me to commit wholeheartedly. No crashmats, and only one spotter, but from that height, what would he really do anyways right? Also, we'd left rope, etc, in the car and it would have been a sketch downclimb. A cheers goes out to Kurt Saggers for taking the pic, spotting me, and telling me not to be a fool and go all the way up. Man I wanted to though.

Me on the walk to the tower. Fun fun fun.

Our tower of fun for an afternoon. Kurt Saggers and I found it and played around for a while. This was on a gorgeous day, but it was super windy at the same time. It kept threatening to blow us off the tower when we were climbing.

Came up with a pretty nice little traverse line on this side, with lots of pinches, crimpers and opposing angles. Tricky feet to boot!

Kurt Saggers playing on the watch tower. Neither of us bailed that day, which is a good thing as the landing consisted of thorn bushes to the left. I wanted to top out so badly, but this man was for once the cool-headed one, and told me to chill, and not risk it. One day I'm going back, when it's not so damn windy, and climbing the tower with. And setting up a rappel so I can get back down.

Description: Me climbing a wicked old watch tower. Beautiful day, cold wind though. Bloody strong too! It kept trying to rip me off. I got up halfway, and the wind was getting to be too intense for me to commit wholeheartedly. No crashmats, and only one spotter, but from that height, what would he really do anyways right? Also, we'd left rope, etc, in the car and it would have been a sketch downclimb. A cheers goes out to Kurt Saggers for taking the pic, spotting me, and telling me not to be a fool and go all the way up. Man I wanted to though.

Me climbing a wicked old watch tower. Beautiful day, cold wind though. Bloody strong too! It kept trying to rip me off. I got up halfway, and the wind was getting to be too intense for me to commit wholeheartedly. No crashmats, and only one spotter, but from that height, what would he really do anyways right? Also, we'd left rope, etc, in the car and it would have been a sketch downclimb. A cheers goes out to Kurt Saggers for taking the pic, spotting me, and telling me not to be a fool and go all the way up. Man I wanted to though.

Me chillin' watchin someone climb... Another beautiful day at Rigaud...

This is a shot of me (Nik MacLean aka TallNik) at Rigaud, an hour west of downtown Montreal. Short sport lines exist here (12.5m), but the rock is beautiful, the view good, and friends are a plenty. My friend Jeremy took the shot, and Ian is on belay. This shot was taken in Mid-April, and we were super lucky with the weather. Probably around 18C-20C (65F?)