How to summit The Witch

Ever had thoughts to scale The Witch in the Didima area? I finally had an opportunity to climb it in February. The problem is the basalt rock band, several meters high, which guards the summit.

My first attempt was at position 1 as indicated in the picture. I guestimated the grade to be E, but since it was wet I decided not to. It is very exposed with shear cliffs on one side.



I managed to climb up via a chimney at position 2. I would also put the grade around an E, though it is a very short pitch and can be soloed. The trick is to get up to the chock stone (indicated by the arrow in the picture below), wrap your arms around it, and swing your legs onto some footholds higher up.



Was happy I managed to get up at that point, but was getting worried about how to get down! Luckily I found an easy access (C grade) at position 3. It's not that apparent from the bottom and the route, though short, is very exposed, alongside a shear cliff of several hundred meters.

Along the ridge leading up to Pampiring from The Witch is another prominent, rocky summit, which is actually a spectacular knife ridge. It can be scrambled up but the exposure is pretty severe.

Views are awesome from both summits!

The chockstone was solid at the time that I used it, and you could throw a rope around it, or simply sit on a mate's shoulders for that matter. All of this has less relevance though since the easiest is to use the route at position 3.

That should be more or less where it is yes. Exposure was very short lived.