SAC Climbing Course 2014

We did the SAC Basel climbing course together again after a three year break (well, kind of: Andrea did it alone in 2012 and we bailed in 2013 because of rain).
It was essentially the same program as last time: Saturday at Pelzli and Sunday on the Arete de Raimeux.

Saturday we were in a group with one other student who also had some experience climbing, so we were able to skip the basics and start with multi-pitch techniques. We grotesquely exaggerated things and did two switches inside of two meters on Rechenschieber, good practice with someone watching on how to setup a stand. After a bit of practice setting nuts and friends we did lunch and then went back for more practice setting up a "stand" on Bimbo. From there we went to the Nase to do the long abseil practice (Andrea also took advantage of the zip line set up for the group of kids who were there). We closed by walking over to the Grosser Daumen where we climbed the Westkante route. We'd not been to this bit of Pelzli before, but we definitely need to go back: climbing a tower is excellent!

Sunday we did Raimeaux with the same small group: Andrea and I were one rope and the other two were the second rope. Lots of good practice doing multi-pitch here, particularly on the way up the initial section. This year we did something different and, instead of abseiling from the usual place we continued along the ridge. There were too many people to do much more real climbing (loooong waits), so we changed out of the climbing shoes and did the section with iron steps before just walking the rest in a mixture of ridge and forest walking. When we hit the real hiking path we turned down the hill and walked back into Moutier along a trail we've come up a couple of times.

Lots of good practice; we're feeling much more ready for a good climbing season. :-)