Austria’s ice festival will thrill with frozen waterfalls and ice climbing

At the Ice Climbing Festival in Pitztal, visitors can demonstrate their winter climbing skills under the guidance of mountain guides. — CHRIS WALCH/dpa

Frozen waterfalls, dangling icicles and between them countless courageous climbers with ice tools and crampons: This is the annual Ice Total Festival, which is set to take place in January in Austria’s Tyrol region.

Nestled between snow-topped Alpine peaks, not far from the German, Swiss and Italian borders, is the Pitztal Valley where anyone with an interest in climbing can find out about some of the most spectacular – and riskiest – variations of climbing and even try it out for themselves.