Climbing around the Hotel Steingletscher

Day 1: Sektor Platten, Plattenweg: 4b, 4b, 4c, 4a, 5a, 5a (we skipped the last pitch because we were in a cloud and rain was supposed to come)

Day 2: Rain, an afternoon hike up to the Sustenpass and a bit along the ridge towards the Heuwberg, and an evening hike to Umpol

Day 3: We start at the Pfriendler (Via Fritz), but G decides his heart isn't in it, so we head to the klettergarten Eden instead: on the left: Auferstehung (5b), Schlangenhaut (6a, toprope), Adam (5a); 

on the right several routes with climbing shoes and also mountain boots

Day 4: Silvan's clean climbing sektor Untertal: route 1 (5a, 3 pitches), route 3 (5a, first two 2 pitches) route 5 (5b, first 3 pitches) (I think...)

Hike track:

Red- White instead of Blue-White Hiking in the Gantrisch

The plan was to climb the Gantrisch via the North Ridge (T6), but the conditions weren't ideal. After some back-and-forth, no-yes-no, we changed the plan and hiked on red-white paths to Weissenburg, including a.nice decent across a suspension bridge, down ladders and past the old Grand Hotel Weissenburg Bad.

Wasserscheide: lots of people, lots of clouds...

Gantrisch north ridge

view to Stockhorn

family friendly...

Track:

Stats: 5:50h, 17.1km, 880m up, 1690m down

Up to the Huser Stock and Fronalpstock

We wanted to do a fun training tour, but the forecast called for dodgy weather in the afternoon, moving from west to east. So we took advantage of the weird new efficient train connection to central Switzerland and started in Sisikon.

We get out of the train and start the climbing (Andrea special, yeah!), up , up, up out of town on a nice path. After about 2km of that we cross onto the road for a couple of hundred meters and then continue our way up, up, up, past the Oberer Acherberg, steeply up, up through the woods with the occasional nice view and loads and loads of tiny flies, up, up until we get to the alp at Huseren (there are actually people here!). A food break a bit above the alp and then we continue up the grass flank, without a path and more steeply now, up, up, threading through some cliffs under a big shiny eagle statue, past a couple of huts, through the woods on an animal path, to another bit of cliff. Here we scramble through an obvious weak spot and end up on more steep grass above. More steep up, up, up with good footing (grass climbing! yeah!) in sight of the quite populous path along the ridge above us, up, up until we hit the ridge and the path. 

steep gras and scramble

From here up along the path a bit more to the Huser Stock, where we luck into a safely distanced (there are plenty of people following the nice path along the ridge) spot at the long picnic table and take another food break to enjoy the views. Now we follow the path, along with the crowds, down into a saddle and then up, up to the Fronalpstock. We use the excuse of a table being free on the terrace to indulge in the decadence of fries and a cool beverage and enjoy the views.

snack with a view

After the snack break we continue along the path downwards for a bit before forking off onto the blue white path that will lead us back down through the Chälen. We pass two other couples coming the other way during the traverse, but fortunately don't have to deal with other traffic while heading through the steep parts through the cliffs. Down, down, down we go, past Wissenflue, on an amusing path through the field between Wilgis and Bergi, down, down to Brunnen, where we have time to buy some refreshments before grabbing the train that starts the trip back home.

Fun training tour with really good views, and we didn't end up having any inclement weather at all.

Vierwaldstättersee from the Fronalpstock

Track:

Stats: 18.5km, 1720m up and down, 7:12h total

Ascent: Huser Stock from the south:
https://www.sac-cas.ch/de/huetten-und-touren/sac-tourenportal/4131/mountain_hiking/4314

Descent: Fronalpstock through the Chälen: 

https://www.sac-cas.ch/de/huetten-und-touren/sac-tourenportal/fronalpstock-sz-684/berg-und-alpinwandern/von-morschach-ueber-die-chaelen-2400/

A very long run

Greg had been training to do the Swiss Canyon Trail, but that was canceled due to the Corona virus. Andrea volunteered to do support, so the next plan was to do the route of the Swiss Canyon Trail with A meeting g every 10-20km with resupply. Then the forecast started looking pretty bad. So we went spontaneous and planned a likely looking route down in Ticino. This was last minute enough that we worked out the meeting points while taking the train down on Friday evening. :-)

The meeting points we planned out:

1. Sobrio (ended up being Cavagnano)
2. Rossura
3. Deggio
4. Piotta
5. Faido
6. Giornico
7. end point outside Pollegio

These were approximately....(something is missing here...?)

along the Strada Alta Leventina

arrival in Deggio

resupply

Giornico, almost done...

Some notes on the run itself:

• The height change is pretty front-loaded, with 2200m of climbing in the first 34km. 
• The training plan paid off: greg's legs were fine throughout the run. The only problem was knee pain after the big descent to the valley (likely caused by insufficient training on rough trails).
• The weather was mostly good, but it rained like hell for a while around Madrano. This was super sub-optimal because down in the valley the trail was re-routed due to construction and we had to re-plan a meeting point. It turns out that greg's iPhone, though waterproof, it's pretty close to useless when everything is soaking wet. Fortunately he could still initiate a call (using Siri) and we planned a meeting point that way.
• Aside from the bit through the gorge, the part down in the valley wasn't nearly as nice as the part up on the valley side (no big surprise there). It would have been pretty fast going except for the knee pain.
• The original plan was to stay on the trail and do another climb after Giornico (the last leg). Given the knee pain we opted for greg to follow the bike route through the valley instead. Another long descent on a rough trail just wouldn't have been a good idea.
• Aside from the knee, which wasn't that bad, this actually ended up being Type 1 fun.

Track:

Stats: 89.5km, 3100m up and down, 12:41 total time.