The route, from which this video stems, is called 'Spindrift' and was a first ascent that Peter Ortner and myself realised in 2013 on the north face of the Laserz in East Tyrol. It is not called this without reason. In fact, Peter and I have rarely been the brunt of so much spindrift. In the video, it may look pretty harmless. But as soon as you have the overhanging rock and the vertical ice behind you, you are mercilessly exposed to snow crystals crackling down at you. When it is truly unpleasant, as it often was, the camera ran but then no more ...

It is shortly after seven in the morning. A chill wind whips across the ground and swirls up snow crystals that look like sparks from the glow of a campfire in the beam of our head torches. Peter and I have been underway now for about an hour. We had to trudge the last few hundred meters through knee-deep powder to get to the base of the Laserz north face. Now, we fetch our gear out of our rucksacks and our eyes sweep across the 600-meter high crag. It looms over us in the darkness and just now as twilight approaches it starts to become visible. It's been a year since we've been here. I remember it so well. In near desperation I was on the edge of the roof, the last really difficult spot, just 150 meters over the bottom. I didn't dare go forward or back. Five minutes, 10 minutes, I don't know any longer how long I hung there. It seemed like an eternity. My motivation attempted to embolden me to climb on, but my reason held me back. But as I see it, the face has changed. The conditions look good, and I believe waiting has paid off! Peter leads up the first pitch. I lead up the second. Waiting has really paid off. The thin sheets of ice that lead me up to the anchor point are not so brittle and do not break off as they did the year before. One, two strikes with the ice tool suffice for a solid anchor. Still, it wasn't just the brittle ice that forced us last year to turn back. Much more of a reason was the demanding fourth pitch, which ran along an overhanging crack 40 meters up. As often occurs in the Dolomites, the rock here is not always 100-per cent solid and thus the quality of protection points placed by us suffered for it. A year ago, Peter and I only had one set of camming devices with us -- too few as it proved out. I didn't want to get myself into such a precarious situation on the edge of the roof. So I had a second rack along too. The climbing wasn't any easier, but with the additional protection I felt much more comfortable. Meter after meter I searched for hooks in the rock for my ice tools and climbed carefully along the overhanging arch. Arriving on the edge of the roof, I dared this time to cautiously tread on the thin glaze ice to my left. It was secure, and I used my ice axe to get up the last few meters until I could find a suitable anchor point. After two more demanding pitches, we finally reach the snowfield in the middle of the face. The terrain above us became easier, and the pitches that lay before us would have been a pure pleasure if it were not for the continuous spindrift that showered down on us. It is difficult to say what makes spindrift so unpleasant: Is it the cold that this frozen spray carries with it, or the pain of innumerable ice crystals that scratch your face when they rain down? Spindrift! If you have experienced this while ice climbing, you know what distinguishes good from bad apparel. Yours, David Lama