Saturday morning we got an early train from Basel and did train-train-train to Innertkirchen. From there an Alpentaxi (the bus schedule is still stupid) took us to Guttanen, where we dropped off our extra clothes before hiking to the base of the Mittagfluh. There were certainly people there, but it wasn't too bad and we didn't have to wait to start climbing the Südkante (early season, first time on granite, start easy). Andrea started, the pitches were 4b, 4b, 3c, 4b, 4c, 4a, 4b, 3c, 4c, 5a. Really nice, easy climbing (though getting around the flake on the last pitch was a sudden change of style) without any stress from other climbers except for a short wait at the last belay for the group in front of us to clear. Total climbing time was about 3.5 hours. After a food break up top we follow the last of the ridge (nice scrambling right at the beginning) to the top of the Mittagfluh and then follow the well-trampled path that leads us down, down, adventurously down to the 4x20m abseiling pitches. We do the middle two together and get down without too much mess. We go back the same way we came, have a drink at the hotel, check in, have showers and a brief nap, and then do dinner and head off to bed.
Sunday morning we do breakfast at 7:30 and are back at the Mittagfluh at 9:15. This morning it's busy! Fortunately no one is doing the route we have planned: Durststrecke (5b+, 4c, 5a, 5a, 5a+, 5b, 5a+, 5b, 5b+). Greg starts this time. Getting to the first bolt is a bit scary (non-trivial and it's the first climbing of the day), but the rest of the climbing is just joy, particularly after we get up into the sun. Really great climbing, mostly fairly slabby, with long pitches and good protection (though sometimes the distances between bolts feel pretty long). Oh, and a faucet in the wall at the second-to-last belay. Total climbing time about 3.5 hours. Same descent (though the route ends higher, so no scramble at the beginning) as the day before. After seeing a couple of locals (probably) head off along a more direct route back to home, we check the map and decide to try this ourselves. We don't find any kind of use trail, so this ends up being a bit of an adventure... it's a shorter route back to town, but definitely isn't faster.
Monday morning is roughly the same schedule as Sunday and we're at the base of the route by about 9:00 again. Today it's less crowded (at least at the moment) and there's no one doing Heidi mir wei di (3b, 5b, 5a, 5a, 5b, 5a, 5b, 5b, 5b+). Greg starts the easy first pitch so that Andrea can start the first real climbing (note that we take the 5b variation around the 5c+ bit). Another super route that feels a bit harder than Durststrecke (Andrea actually falls on one of the pitches, which hadn't happened yet), but that could at least partly be because we're both definitely getting tired after the amount of climbing we've done over these days. (The climbing also took longer, >4h estimate). Same descent as before and we take the normal way back to town. We've got time to change and repack the bags before catching the bus that starts the long trip back to Basel.
Awesome weekend with three really good, long routes in a beautiful area. Sooooo good to be doing long multi-pitches again!
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