Birthday climbing

The forecast calls for sun and ok temperatures, so we decide to do some outdoor climbing.

Train to Olten, hike to Säli, and then the climbing.

Routes, difficulties from SAC (though these are old-school Jura grades, so they feel a lot harder), all in sector Säli Kante

• Hoher Riss rechts: 4c
• Hoher Riss : 4c
• Säli Plaisir : 5b
• Soft Ice : 5c (g only and he top-roped the bottom, which was VERY physical)
• Birthdayparty : 6a (g had to try this, but gave up after a couple of good falls)

It was quite nice when the sun was shining and the wind was down, but was definitely cold in the wind.

Still, it was great to get in an outdoor climbing day!

Jura Winterwonderland

 more to come

Scrambling on the Brüggler and the Chöpfler

A hike to take advantage of late-season warm weather.

Train to Ziegelbrücke, quick hike to the gondola station in Niederurnen, gondola up to Morgenholz and then we start hiking. Gently up the valley, then turning and doing more real up, up, up on a good red-white path to the Wanifurggel. Food break in the pass, and then following the blue-white path along the ridge.

The first bit of this is easy following the ridge, just under the cliff. Then down, down along a bit of muddy terrain through the woods until we get to the climbing routes, then right and up, up, along the nicely routed trail that takes us back to the ridge, including some good scrambling (note: wear a helmet here if there are others underway). Once on the ridge a mix of hiking and scrambling, always following the makred path, on good rock, until we get to the peak. This trail maybe has too many chains and other helpers on it, but I imagine that they are nice if people are doing a foot descent after topping out the climbing, and it's nice to have the chain available, just in case, on the one quite exposed 5m scrambling bit just before the top. Nice food break with views and pictures (a large group of younger hikers shows up from the other direction when we're almost done, but they luckily aren't super loud), and then we continue along the ridge.

The first bit is easily down through not-so-steep grass, and then at the next saddle we follow the use trail which leads us towards the Chöpfler. This one is not marked and doesn't have chains, but the rock is good, it's generally not super exposed, the route finding is easy, and it's just super scrambling and hiking. Just before the peak we hit a blue-white trail coming up from the left (we'll take this down). We scramble the last bit to the peak (instead of taking the easier trail), have a short picture break (it's gotten quite windy), and then head back down the trail. This takes a nice route down through the cliff face, past some nice limestone formations, down, down. Towards the bottom a Rega helicopter flies slowly by, it looks like they're looking for someone. We take a quick snack break and watch what is either a very realistic drill or an actual rescue (though who knows what people were doing to the west of us) before continuing down, down into the valley.

We opt to head down the valley towards Niederurnen (instead of through the saddle and down to Innerthal) and follow a nice red-white trail to Lochegg, where we start our way down, down, towards town The last few km of this are, unfortunately, on road (some quite steep road), but we make good time and manage to get to the bus stop 2 minutes before the bus arrives to start us on the trip back to Basel.

Track:

Stats: 18.6km, 6:55, 1300m up and 1700m down. The track includes a straight line which is the gondola ride up, this is not included in the stats.

Climbing in Grandval

The plan is to go to Grandval and climb the the trad route "La reve de wilderness" from Keep Wild Jura.

After some public transportation fun (trains aren't running between Delemont and Moutier, so we have to take the bus and then walk to Grandval) we end up at the bottom of the bolted multi-pitch routes (this is to the left of Cafe Dancing, which we climbed last time) and head around the corner to where the route should start. On with all the gear and then G starts up. This doesn't last long: the rock quality is terrible and he can't find anywhere he's willing to climb, despite looking around for a while. That's enough to suck the motivation out of him to do the clean climbing, so we pack the cams and stuff away and head back around the corner to do the bolted route La Cigale (5b, 5a, 4c+, 5c+, 4c, 5a, 4a... grades from the SAC Tourenportal). This is really nice climbing on good rock (yay!) and nice views,  and is, easy and flowy aside from the 5c+ pitch (which has a bit of spicy slab). There are plenty of other people around, but the two groups we catch up to both let us pass, so we never end up waiting very long.

Up top we pack everything away, have a nice lunch break while enjoying the good weather and views, and then head back down to Grandval to grab the train to Moutier and start our trip home.

A lovely day of Jura climbing. Grandval is a good one to keep in mind for the winter months: not too high, south facing, easy approach, everything one wants. :-)

Late season Grimsel climbing

 Taking advantage of the good weather to get in some late-season climbing up near the Grimsel pass.

Saturday

The usual early-morning story to get the train-train-train-bus connection up to Grimsel. The Basel→Spiez train is, unfortunately, going to Milano, so it’s completely crazy. Ah well, since we board in Basel we can actually get seats.

Once in Chunzentannlein we find a likely looking place to set up camp later, drop the bags with the camping stuff, and then head up to the rock.

Sector Crow, Batzi und Bitzi: 4a 4a 4c 4b 5b 4b 3c 5a 5a 5b+ 5c. We simul-climbed up to the 5b, then again until the 5b+. G did the 5b+ and 5c as one pitch. Total climbing time ~1:20. The simul-climbing went really well and all of the rest of it was easy except the last couple of bolts on the 5c, which were scary slab. To get to the foot descent, we crossed over to the last pitch of the neighboring route and then fought through the bush along a faint path from there until getting to the descent trail for Fliegende Teppich.

After a break we headed down a bit and did some scouting to find the routes for Sunday. Since it was still super early we decided to do the first couple pitches of Ameisenrennen - 5c, 5b. Since those were easy, we also did the 6a that followed (A lead). That was also pretty straightforward (and very well protected), but we wanted to save some juice for Sunday, so we abseiled down and went back to set up camp.

Back down at our stuff we do some more scouting around and find a much better camping site near a crazy boulder. The rest of the afternoon is resting and playing on the boulder until it’s time to make dinner and then go to bed.

Sunday

After a nice breakfast we pack up the camping stuff and set out just before 8:00. We stash the camping bags a bit off the trail and then head up, up to the beginning of Letzter Tango (which is next to Ameisenrennen).

Sector Dom, Letzter Tango: 5a+, 4a, 5b, 5c+, 5a, 4a, 3a, 3a, 5a, 5a, 5a+, 5a, 5c, 5a+, 5b+, 5a+

Lovely route, very efficient climbing. The route took just under 3.5 hours. We did simulclimbing through the 4a, 3a, 3a, 5a with A first then switching to G first (he had all the gear by that point) for the 5a and 5a+ (the 5a would have worked too, but he only had 5 express left at that point and wasn’t sure that would work). Then we switched back to pitches for the last bits.

General note: the grading on this and Ameisenrennen was very generous. None of the pitches felt particularly difficult.

After the climb we packed away the gear and enjoyed some food and the views from up top then set off along a nicely marked (with cairns and the occasional yellow marking) use trail down. The view out across the slabs and water flows that lead up towards the Baechlitalhuette was just fantastic, and we got to walk through that awesome landscape. We have tons of time, so we do another break on a comfy slab to enjoy the views and sun. After the break we join the trail to the Baechlitalhuette and head back down, pick up the camping gear, and head back to where we camped for a coffee/tea and cookies break and more rest (as well as a bit more bouldering for G) while waiting for the 16:30 bus.

The bus is super full (as expected), but we have plenty of time in Meiringen for a kebap before starting the train portion of the journey home.

A walk along the Wiese

Better weather than forecast and we both wanted to get out of the house, so we went for a nice walk along the Wiese to the border.

Stats: 2:10, 10.2 km, 33m up ;-)

Falkenflue climbing

 Somehow we've never climbed at the Falkenflue... weird considering how close it is and how easy the approach is.

So: train to Duggingen, the short hike up, find the sector Amboss, and then climb.

We start with the route Pfeiler (5c). A starts, decides her head isn't in it yet, so G leads it and then A top ropes. Nice climbing

Next is Feirabendriss (5c). G leads, A does top rope. Nicely varied climbing with a somewhat scary layback section in the middle (it seems like the feet aren't very good, but they are good enough).

Since we had the top rope set up, we both tried the adjacent Nirwana (6a), which is along a cool crack, but we didn't manage to get more than about halfway up. Need to practice some techique to do this one.

General comment: the routes feel harder (significantly harder) than the grades in the SAC guide, but the rock was quite good, the crag is super close, and there are *lots* of routes. Must go back

Picnic hike

We decided to do a low-impact dayhike and picnic, so we took the train to Liestal and then walked back to Basel.

We take a route out of Liestal that we haven't done before: via Summerhalden to Nuglar and then up to the ridge. There's a bench free in the sun so we do a first food break and enjoy the views before continuing through the woods and then across the high plain above Gempen. Through Gempen, down the ridge above the Ingelstein, and then across to G's favorite bench, where we do a second food break and enjoy the views. Then down through Arlesheim to the Birs, along the river for a bit, then left and up to the Bruderholz. Here the plan was to stop at Predigerhof for coffee and cake, but they were completely mobbed with people, so we just continued on and did our last food break with views on the bench with the fountain just over the bridge. Finally the rest of the way along the Bruderholz to the tram at Dorenbach and then back towards home, stopping at a bakery at the SBB on the way so that we can have our coffee and cake when we get home.

We never ended up using the picnic blanket we'd brought with us, but this was still a very nice walk. :-)

Stats: 5:49, 25.1km, 550m up, 600m down.

Climbing around Hotel Steingletscher

To make up for leaving the Cabane d'Orny a day early, we started the weekend on Friday ;-)

Friday morning we leave early and do the train-train-bus thing to get to Hotel Steingletscher (we were here back in 2020). After dropping a bag at the hotel we walk to the sector Platten and climb the route Sylia (5a+, 4b, 5b, 5b+, 5b, 5a, 5b, 5a in Plaisir, but we ended up doing it in 7 pitches, so the breakdown was a bit different). G started. This was easy and fun climbing, less slabby than some of the routes. The abseiling was efficient and we were back at the hotel in time for G to do a couple of calls. A even found an almost new screwgate along the way, which is now part of her standard rack. 

Saturday morning we hiked up to the Pfriendler and climbed Gradufe (6a, 5c, 5c+, 6a, 5c+, 4c), A started. This was also fun climbing on great rock. We definitely noticed the increased difficulty and were slower because of it, but it wasn't a problem at all. We only saw one other group climbing. The abseiling was efficient except for the pitch where G didn't take the knot all the way out of the rope and had to climb back up to the stand to free it (for variety, he actually climbed the 5b route adjacent to the 5c pitch).

Sunday morning we hiked up to the Pfriendler again, past the crowd already there, and to the Pfriendler North. We were the first ones there (though another pair came as we were getting ready). We climbed the first three pitches of Verschneidung (5c+, 5a, 6a) then switched to the last two 4c pitches from Riss to get to the peak. G started. This was definitely harder, particularly the 6a pitch, which had its crux on a slab. G fell once leading it but eventually made it to the top (this involved a short bit on the neighboring 6b). The last two pitches were easy and alpine, but fun. The abseiling was tricky, but went ok except for the rope getting stuck in a crack on one pitch. Fortunately it was only three bolts of 5b climbing to get there, so G could go up, free the rope, and have A lower him off an old clip carabiner that we just left there. This area was way way less crowded than the Pfriendler today, but there were still three or four other groups climbing. The Pfriendler was madness (as was the klettergarten Eden, which we saw on the hike down).

We got back to the hotel with a couple of hours to kill before the bus ride, so we enjoyed a nice relaxed meal on the terrace before starting the long trip back home (first bus leg of this was on the bus doing the 4-pass tour... what a crowd).

General comment: at this point it looks like we are reasonably sure to be able to climb 6a multi-pitch routes. They are definitely more mentally taxing than easier routes, but certainly doable. Yay!

Gear note: this was Gs first trip in his new La Sportiva TX4 Guide approach shoes. They worked very well.

Climbing around the Cabane d'Orny

We had planned a four day mini-vacation at the Cabane d'Orny to enjoy some alpine climbing on granite (and do some more tours from Dani's new book).

Saturday: long train ride down to Orsieres and a hotel night

Sunday

First bus up to Champex, the lift to La Breya, and then the hike up, up, up to the hut. It's a beautiful sunny day, but it's really warm and the packs are heavy, so we don't enjoy this nearly as much as we should. After dropping extra stuff at the hut (loads of people around!) we head up to the klettergarten to do our first tour: the Aiguilles d'Arpette south ridge. 

Rather than hiking through the klettergarten, we opt to start with a pitch of actual climbing. After some looking around to find the route we choose XXX, which is 5a according to Plaisir West (the topo in the hut says 5b). Since the rest of the ridge is scrambling/very easy climbing, we decide to challenge ourselves and do this in the mountaineering boots. The route has a step in it which is, at least at the moment, quite burly to do, but G makes it over in lead and A follows. Aside from that step it's easy climbing on good rock. At the top we shorten the rope, find the use trail which we start us on the rest of ridgem, and then start to head up the ridge. G pretty quickly ends up feeling lightheaded (probably the heat+altitude), so we bail and head back to the hut. After checking in, we rest/nap for an hour or so and then head back up to the klettergarten to do a bit of climbing (with rock shoes this time) before dinner.

There are ~10 of us in the hut, so dinner (pretty good) is nice and quiet. After dinner it's off to bed for an early(ish) start the next day.

Monday

Breakfast at 6, on our way by 7. The plan today is to climb the Aiguilles d'Orny (a lovely and prominent rock spire, labelled Aiguilles Tourelle on the map) via the "Classique Sud" (along the SW ridge). We follow the trail towards the Cabane de Trient for a while and then follow a clear(ish) use trail up towards the foot of the Aiguilles d'Orny. The German couple we had dinner with are ahead of us (they left before us), taking a slightly path up and are doing a different route. The start of the route is easy to find since we have a picture and there are some faint markers. 

We put on the gear and then start our way up. The pitches, according to Dani, are 3c, 4c, 3c, 4b, 3c, 3c, 4b, 4b/5a. A starts. The climbing is really nice. Mostly good rock, a decent number of bolts and/or places to self-protect, and relatively easy route finding. Also excellent views which get steadily better as we make our way up. We do a quick food break between the 5th and 6th pitch. The climbing in boots at these grades on this rock is no problem and we are pretty efficient with everything. Since everything is going well, we opt for the 5a variant of the last pitch (the only difference is the beginning, with a couple of moves up a chimmney and then around the corner to join the 4b version... this goes without a problem) and are on the peak all too soon. G has the peak to himself for about a minute before the lead of the French team who we had seen arrive a bit later arrive along the route La Mosquette (the last pitch of this ends at the abseil stand). While A is on her way up, the lead German arrives on the other peak, so there are eventually 6 of us up there enjoying the views. Total climbing time for us was 3:10, including the break (Dani says 3). We do another quick food break while getting ready to abseil and then follow the French team down. 

The descent is along an easy-to-follow use trail with some cairns through the rocky bits and it leads us down, down, down to the trail between the two huts. Another break to eat something and pack away the last of the gear and then we head back to the hut.

After a nice break we still have a few hours before dinner, so we decide to go back up and finish the Aiguilles d'Arpette. This time we take the hiking/scrambling route through the klettergarten, and follow the use trail up into the scrambling bit. We do the scrambling with the rope on (~12m between us), but don't end up pitching anything other than the steep (but easy) bit up to the "Kanzel". A actually goes up the couple of meters to the Vorgipfel, but G skips that. Now some downclimbing, between the two towers, over the next bit, and then down to the saddle below the wall to the peak. We have some time pressure and A isn't feeling super motivated, so we skip the last three pitches of climbing and opt to leave the gear in the saddle and take the walking/scrambing route to the peak. A bit of view enjoyment here then back to the saddle. There we pack up the gear and head down through the loose couloir and then follow a use trail/cairn markings back past the side of the klettergarten and onto the trail back to the hut.

There are a few more people in the hut tonight (thanks to a big group of newbies there with a guide), but it's still <20 and reasonably quiet.

Tuesday

Breakfast at 6, on our way by 7. The forecast is questionable, so we want to be efficient and flexible. The plan is to do the SW ridge and then S face of the Aiguille de la Cabane (the route name is Voie bon Accueil), because we can break that one off in the middle if the weather changes. We'd seen the line on the hike up to the hut and it is really appealing. The approach is easy, along a path with plenty of stone men, and takes about 20 minutes to get to the bottom of the route. There we put on the gear (including the climbing shoes this time... the first pitch is 5b). The pitches are, according to Dani, 5b, 4c, 4a, 4a, 4b, 4b. The first one, which A starts, has a couple of trickier bits (the 5b parts) on the face to get us up to the SW ridge, which we then follow for the next three pitches. A short walk past the saddle which we will later return to and which leads to the descent route (steep, ugly looking couloir) and then along the descent route from the Aiguille du Glacier Rond takes us to the foot of the S face. Here two really nice pitches lead us up to a stand just below the peak, with an abseil point just around the corner. Total climbing time 2:30. The weather is starting to look dodgy, so we quickly rig the abseil and drop down the 15m to the beginning of the descent route. We do a quick food break while packing away most of the gear and changing our shoes and then start following the cairns for the descent as it starts to sprinkle. The cairns lead us back the saddle and from there we follow the obvious trail down the couloir. As always: it's not nearly as bad as it looked from above. Not too long afterwards we're back at the start of the route where we pack away the last of the gear and then head back to the hut. The gentle rain stops along the way, but since the forecast for the evening isn't good and for Wednesday it's even worse, we decide to head back down. After a nice lunch of soup and wienerli we say goodbye to the hut warden and then make our way back down, down, down to the lift. Of course the sun comes out along the way. :-)

There's definitely tons more fun stuff to do around the Cabane d'Orny, so it would be at all bad to head back again.

Tracks from the whole thing:

Climbing above Engelberg

 It was a good weather weekend, so we headed off for a weekend of climbing.

Saturday we took the train to Engelberg, then the bus up the valley, then the gondola up to Fürenalp. From there we follow the blue-white path up, up to the Wissberg and the crags there.

The routes, grades from Plaisir Ost:

Sector B:

• Anouk (5b)
• Enja (5c)
• Tintin (5b)
• Cumulus (5c)
• Morgenröte (6a, we both cheated at the start on lead, but then managed it in toprop after figuring out the beta)

Sector C:

• Tante Ju (6a, A in toprope)
• Schnupfdösli (5c, A only)
• Wasserrinne (6a, G in toprope)

This was fun climbing on really nice limestone. Pretty varied, but with plenty of slab. Not at all crowded on a lovely Saturday: we see <10 other climbers all day.

After the climb we walked back down to the gondola and then took the bus back to Engelberg for the night.

Sunday we went back to Fürenalp, started on the Grotzliweg around the corner and then went cross-country, often on cow trails, climbing up, up towards the alp at Gummi. From here steeper up, up on gravel and steep grass until we hit the rock. Then some scrambling around to find the starts of the routes The description/photos in the Tourenportal aren't super helpful (and it's definitely not T2 like they say), but we do eventually find the start of our planned route: Last Minute.

The route is only three long pitches (5b, 5c, 5b), but it was loads of fun and great climbing. The second pitch had a scary bit at the bottom with moving across some steep water runnels that were actually wet compounded by a missing bolt in the middle and then compounded further because the bolt above that was super loose (G tightened it with his fingers). Then super fun climbing the rest of the way. The third pitch also had some missing bolts (unfortunately two in a row, fortunately that was in an easy section). We guess the missing bolts was due to nuts coming loose and falling off.

The abseiling was efficient.

G was initially worried about it being crowded, but there was no one else around all day.

Given the approach and the missing bolts, this one ended up bineg a bit of an adventure. :-)

The walk back was more or less the same way, then we grabbed the gondola (there was a line this time), the bus, and then the very crowded trains back home.

Hundsee Bivvy

We have an excellent weather forecast, so we opt for hiking from the Kiental to the Lauterbrunnental (this has been on our list for a while) with a bivvy along the way.

An early start on Saturday to do the train-train-bus to Griesalp (unsurprisingly there are loads of people out and about on this sunny August Saturday!). Then up, up, following the road to Obere Dürreberg. It's quite hot, so we're happy to find a shady place beside the stream for a nice food break (funny scene below us as some cows also cool off in the stream) and to pump a bit more water. Then it's up, up, steeply up, through the Hundsflüe on a good blue-white trail. It really is oppressively warm, and the packs are not light, so we take another break and short nap-with-a-view at around p2420 before continuing up, up  to Telli. Through the rock wasteland and past the first small lake, then on to the larger lake (p2677, there's already a group here who will obviously be staying the night). One possible plan here was to head up the ridge to the Hundshore, but neither of us is particularly enthusiastic about that, so we continue on to the saddle. Here we opt to improvise and take a more direct route down rather than staying on the blue-white path towards the Schilthorn and then down (we'll be heading up that tomorrow). The first bit of this is mostly ok, then it's a bit hairy near the first set of cliffs, then ok again as we head down, down, to rejoin the trail at Hundshubel. The next order of business is to find a place to bivvy, so we head up to the ridge above the (mostly dry) Hundsee and follow that towards the Horen until we find a nice location. Ditch the packs, pump some water from the Sefibach, then spend a lazy afternoon enjoying the amazing views and watching other groups show up and find places to camp (of course we aren't alone: the weather is great, the views are great, and there is a relatively short approach from the Schilthorn). The group on the other side of the lake, who have chosen to camp in an area easily accessed by cows, are a running source of entertainment. After a nice dinner we walk up to the Horen to enjoy some amazing sunset colors on the Jungfrau, Mönch, and Eiger.

Sunday morning we're awake early enough to enjoy the great sunrise and packed up and underway shortly before 8. Back to the Hundshubel, then following the nice trail up, up, to the pass at p2684, where we do a short food break. From there along the ridge to the saddle at p2798, and then steeply down into the Soustal. If there wasn't someting of a use trail, this is a descent we probably wouldn't have done; the first bit is pretty hairy and a lot of it is quite steep and on fairly loose terrain. With the use trail it's not too horrible. Down, down we go into the lovely valley, which we then follow more or less to the end. We do a lunch break and then, later, a bathing break along the way. At the end of the valley we take the trail through the woods which leads us to the gondola at Grütschalp which starts us on the long (crowded) trip home.

Track:

Stats:

• Saturday: 5:50, 12km, 1460m up, 540m down.
• Sunday: 6:07, 15km, 600m up, 1430m down

Ridges above the Cabane de Moiry

The weather forecast is decent and (after some effort) we manage to find free beds in a hut, so we took a long weekend around the 1st of August and went off to the mountains for a long weekend. We've got a very exciting new guidebook for alpine climbing (it's like Dani Silbernagel wrote this one for us :-), and that inspires our choice of the Cabane de Moiry as our base.

Since it takes forever to get to that part of Switzerland, we head down to Grimentz on Saturday (after a nice bouldering session in the morning) and get the first bus up to the Moiry glacier parking lot on Sunday morning. On with the packs and up the valley we go, enjoying the lovely views and the good (though definitely not empty) trail that takes us up, up to the hut. 70 minutes later we're at the hut, where drop off stuff we don't need for the day and then immediately head back out to do our first tour.

Sunday: Aiguilles de la Lé traverse

The first part of this one is finding our way up to the Col de Gardien. There is supposedly a yellow blazed path which leads up to the hut's small climbing crag, but we never end up finding that. Still, we know where we want to go, so we just take a logical route up, up across the talus. Past the crag we actually run across a few cairns that we follow the rest of the way up, up to the saddle. Here we have a quick food break and put on the climbing gear while enjoying the amazing views (particularly really nice view of the Weisshorn and friends on the other side of the valley) and watching a group do the first part of the ridge. After the break we start our way along the ridge.

The first bit of ridge takes us easily, with some light scrambling, up to the south peak of the Aiguilles de la Lé (p3158). On the way up we pass the other group (five guests and a guide) on their way back to the col. The ridge continues, descending, until we get to the Col des Aiguilles. We're not super efficient on this first part: we've got a bit too much rope out and it takes a while to get into the flow of where and how to keep ourselves safe while still making progress. From the col the ridge heads steeply up. The next bit is more climby, so we let out the rope and do a couple of easy pitches before taking up coils again and shortening the rope to have about 15m between us and moving on. The ridge is now narrower, more exposed, and more scrambly. It's super fun. Along the way we end up with a cloud coming up from the E side which makes for dramatic pictures but robs us of the long view along the ridge. According to our topo, we're supposed to leave the ridge after the N peak (the SAC description continues along the ridge to the next saddle, but our book says that the last piece is dangerous), and at some point we figure that we've past the peak and are approaching the yellow tower which marks the descent to the next pass. So we head back to the peak we've just passed and take a food break while looking around for the descent, which isn't obvious (even though it's supposed to be). Meanwhile another team of two catches up to us. After looking at the map we decide that we aren't on the actual peak yet and continue along the ridge. More fun ridge scrambling (yay!) and then the actual peak (including a sad cross) comes into view. We do the last bit up, take some pics from the narrow peak, and then head down to the W "ridge", which is obvious at this point. The other two opt to follow us down instead of continuing along the ridge. The descent is steep, but not hard and it's pretty easy to follow a mix of cairns and use trail down, down to a small saddle where we leave the ridge to the N. More scrambling and descending and we end up on a big talus field with the final descent couloirs in view. Down, down we go across the talus to a nice green nob where we have a quick food break and pack the climbing gear away. We realize that we've come down to the wrong couloir, so after the break we head back up 50m or so and traverse to the correct couloir. This is an easy steep descent and we're back down on a more normal slope in no time. Across the grass to the path to the hut we followed earlier in the day and then up, up to the hut. Dinner, some view admiring, and then we're off to bed.

We were a lot more efficient on the second part of the ridge. We had a bit less rope out (maybe 12m) and focused on placing slings or cams to try and ensure that there was always one piece of protection between us instead of always using rock spikes and really minimizing the amount of time with both of us on the same side of the ridge (we still did some of that, but tried to keep moving as much of the time as possible).

Track:

Stats: 6:40, 7.8km, ~1030m up and down

Monday: Couronne de Breonna traverse

We're underway at 7:15 after a good breakfast. Today we're both a bit nervous about the approach to the planned route since it's not obvious how straightforward it's going to be to get off the (easy) glacier or to manage the last steep bit up to the Col de la Couronne. We follow the marked path down to the glacier, put on the crampons, cross the dry glacier (we come off near a big cairn with a pole sticking out of it), stash the crampons and ice axes under a rock, and then follow the clear use trail easily up to the top of the moraine. A bit along the moraine and then another (less clear) use trail takes us off to the left and up, up towards tht col. We end up being able to follow this more or less all the way to the top (we lose the trail in the talus fields, but it's always possible to find it again).

At the col we have a quick snack, enjoy the views, put on the gear, and start the climb. Another team shows up as we're leaving, but they end up being considerably slower than us. We start with two pitches for the first steep bit and then use the same efficient ridge technique as on Sunday to do last bit up to the Clocher de la Couronne. We find the abseil anchor, do the 5 abseils down to the saddle, and then continue along the main ridge. This has six towers, some of which we go over and some we go around, the topo is good and there's almost always a use trail indicating the right direction. Plenty of scrambling fun on the ridge with a bit of easy climbing mixed in. We do another food break and enjoy the views before the last steep bit of climbing (there's even an actual bolt in this part... crazy!) and then at some point we reach the peak. This isn't totally obvious on the ridge, but that's not so important anyway... we're just continuing along the ridge and down to the Col de Breonna. :-)

There are apparently one or two places where you can abseil, but we end up just downclimbing everything and have more fun scrambling the rest of the way along the ridge and to the col. Another food break, pack away the gear, plan our strategy for heading back down, and then off we go. We take a distance-efficient route back down to the blue-white path which will lead us to our gear... this is a nice walk, but it probably would have been more time-efficient to head more or less directly along the use trail to the blue-white path. Anyway... once on the trail we follow it along the moraine. There are a surprising number of day trippers on this trail; likely they are all just taking advantage of the relatively easy apporach to get close to a glacier. Back at our gear we put on the crampons, re-cross the glacier (now there's a group doing crevasse rescue practice), pack everything away on the other side, and then head up up to the hut.

Back at the hut we have some cake and spend a relaxed afternoon enjoying the nice weather, views, and chaos on the terrace. Dinner, more views, and off to bed.

This was another really good day of climbing and scrambling. It felt like we were pretty efficient for most of the day and didn't spend too much time messing around with the gear or doing unnecessary pitches.

Track:

Stats: 8:35, 10.8km, ~1200m up and down

Tuesday: Zinal via the Col du Pigne

The weather forecast is a bit dodgy, so we aren't clear what we're going to do until after we've had breakfast and checked the radar. Things look stable enough to take the more interesting route, so after packing up all our stuff we follow the blue-white path up up to the Col du Pigne. It's only a short bit along the ridge to get to the Pigne de la Le from here, but we opt to skip that and just head down the other side towards Zermatt. The first bit of the descent is in terrain where it's nice to have the trail there (steep, not great footing) but then things flatten out a bit and the walking gets easy. Great views of the other side of the Aiguilles de la Le and what would be great views across the valley except for the low clouds. Down, down we head, with a very small amount of rain and hail along the way. Down in the green we pass a couple of groups heading up towards the hut. We go past a big group of ibexes just hanging out and chilling in a group of rocks (boy do they not care about us being there!). Down, down we go until hitting the red-white path which takes us the rest of the way down to the valley floor. There are tons of people down here! The last bit is flat along a trail/road next to the river until we get to the edge of Zinal. Here we head to the bus stop and start the long trip back to Basel.

Stats: 3:50, 10.6km, 360m up, ~1500m down

Track from the whole trip:

Climbing above Stockalp in Melchtal

 Another good weather forecast weekend, so off we went for some climbing. This time above Stockalp, at the end of the Melchtal.

The bus takes us to Stockalp where we leave a bag at the hotel and then follow the hiking path up towards the Cheselenflue. We initially miss the turnoff to head up to the cliff, but this is easy enough to find and the use trail takes us efficiently to the foot of the wall and the start of our route (no searching for routes today!). On with the gear and up we go. The climbing is really, really nice: good rock, nicely varied, and very well protected (contrast program to last weekend in the Rätikon!). It's a pure joy. The rock is very different on the last pitch and it was noticeably more difficult, but we both made it through (G with a rest just before the crux). The abseiling went efficiently and without problems.

Fun aside: there was a big roof a few hundred meters above us. At one of the belays you could watch water droplets fall through the air from this and hit nearby... amazing to watch the drops gleaming in the sun and looking like they were falling in slow motion (they took about 5 seconds to fall). 

The pitches: 5c+, 5b+, 5c+, 5c, 5c, 5b, 5c+ (6a in the SAC guide). G started

The walk back down to the hotel was quick and easy. After showering and a nap we had a good meal, a short walk, and then we went to bed.

Sunday we couldn't do our normal early start since breakfast didn't start until 7:30 (we asked for this... normally it would have been 8:00!), but we eventually get underway. Today it's up, up, up the other side of the valley towards the Ofen. This is a nice hike, mostly in the shade, often in woods, up, up. The turnoff towards the climbing routes is easy to find and the trail there is mostly easy to follow (marked with blue dots and blazes). Towards the top G makes an incorrect decision at a fork, so the last bit to the start of the route is a bit more adventurous than it needs to be, but we get there.

We've picked Spitzmuis for the day. The start is once again easy to find. A starts the climbing (first pitch is 5c), which is once again on good rock, quite different from yesterday. G notices while following the first pitch that his head isn't particularly in it. G leads the next pitch (an easy, but very exposed 4a traverse) and then A does the following 5c (again steep). At this point it's clear that G's just not into it today, so we abseil back down, have a food break, and then pack up the gear and head back to the hotel, where we grab our bag, have a refreshing beverage, and then catch the bus to start the trip back home.

We'll definitely need to go back, finish Spitzmuis, and do more climbing in this area.. there are so many multi-pitches to choose from!

Climbing above Partnun

The forecast for the weekend was good, so we went to the Rätikon to do some climbing. We've only been in this region once before in the summer time: long ago back before we started climbing and didn't really get it. Things are different now. :-)

After the long trip to get there, we drop a bag at the Hotel Sulzfluh and then hike up the valley, past the Partnunsee (plenty of people enjoying the nice weather at the lake) and up, up, enjoying the fantastic landscape, to the end of the valley and the Gruobenflueli. On with the gear and let the climbing begin.

Routes (grades are from the SAC Tourenportal):

1. Spätzünder (5a, 5b, 6a+)
2. Nebelmeer (first two pitches only: 5a, 5b)

Excellent climbing on compact, slabby limestone. Fun fun.

Then we make the descent back to the hotel, have a shower and a nap, a good meal, enjoy sitting outside in the evening sun, then off to bed for an early start the next day.

Sunday morning the clouds are still around as we set off back up, up the valley. Today we're planning on climbing Abraxas: a long multipitch through the wall of the Chlei Venedig. We aren't great at finding the start of alpine routes anyway, and the clouds definitely don't make things easier, so it takes us a while to find the route. In the end we actually missed the easy beginning of the first pitch at started at one of the bolts along the way. 🤷 

The route is great, the climbing is lots of fun, and the clouds even go away before we make it to the top, so we have some awesome views to enjoy from the belays. This is our first real 6a multipitch (Quarzader has a 6a move, but that hardly counts) and it goes well. We aren't fast through those pitches, but we both do our leads without falling (G does hang in the rope twice in order to rest).

The pitches, grades according to Plaisir Ost: 4c, 5c+, 4b, 4a, 6a+, 6a+, 5a, 4a, 5b, 3c. A. started

After topping out we pack the ropes away and change into the approach shoes (A actually knocks one of hers off the edge, but we're lucky and it stops just before a big drop, we're able to lower her down to retrieve it), and then head up through light scrambling terrain until we reach the top and the normal hiking path. Here we do a food break, pack all the gear away, and then head off along the path towards the Sulzfluh. We drop the ropes and a bit of gear at the fork for the Gemschtobel and then do the last bit up the peak. Another short break to enjoy the views and have another snack, and then we start our way down, down. The path through the Gemschtobel is efficient and fun, through some impressive terrain. Down, down, down we go until we make it back to Partnun. Here we pick up our hotel bag, refresh ourselves a bit, and then do the last of the short descent to the bus stop and the long trip back home.

Excellent weekend of climbing in a really nice area. We really need to go back and have some more fun in the Rätikon. :-)

Norway day 12: Blånebba traverse

The forecast is for it to be nice in the morning and then rain in the afternoon, so we get an early start.

The plan is to head back up into Venjesdalen, head up to the ridge at the Litlefjellet (near where we went up to the ridge on the Romsdalhorn tour) and then head North along the ridge to traverse the Holstind and the Blånebba. David (our guide from last week) has recommended the Blånebba ridge scramble and we have descriptions of the whole thing. So off we go.

We park at the lot where the bus stops and then quickly walk the 4km up the road to get to the trail which leads up to the Litlefjellet. Follow the trail up the side of the valley to the ridge and change shoes (we've been wearing trail runners and now change into the big boots for the later scrambling) and enjoy the views. The first bit of ridge is easy, with a good use trail taking us past a few of nice camping spots, some of which are occupied. Eventually the use trail kind of peters out, so we just follow the logical line along the ridge to where the ridge narrows down and things start to get steep. Here we pick the use trail back up. It's 1:50 to this point. After a quick snack, we start our way up.

The scrambling up to the Holstind is route-finding intensive (lots of reading the terrain to figure out where to go next) and with some bad rock quality moments (also some good rock quality moments!), but quite fun. It's just a joy to move in this kind of terrain. Once we get up top we stop to enjoy the views, eat some more, and check out the wall of the Blånebba looming ahead.

A use trail (it's back again!) leads us along the ridge, with a bit of down-climbing, to the face of Blånebba. Here the rock quality is a lot better, the route finding is pretty straightforward, and there are some really good moments of exposure. Pure ridge fun. It's over all too soon. Total time on the ridges, including the food break, was 2:20.

We enjoy the views for a bit and then head over to the main peak (this is easily done purely on rock... when we were there last week there was a bunch of snow here, so we've carried the ice axes with us for basically nothing) and follow the broad ridge to the trail which leads back down to the parking lot. Now we also start seeing other people again; we haven't seen anyone else since the the folks camping around the Litlefjellet.

The trail down to the car is easy (we've done it before in the other direction) and enjoyable. We don't push the pace, do another food break along the way, and just enjoy the landscape and nice weather until we're back at the car.

Stats: 6:30, 13.8km, 1170m up and down.

Norway day 11: hike to the Bruraskaret

 text to come

Stats: 7:00, 15.2km, 1170m up and down

Norway day 10: a rainy waterfall hike

 Text to come

Stats: 3:10, 11.8km, 490m up and down

Norway day 8: climbing at Utkleiva

 Text to come

Norway day 7: the Klauva (horse-shoe) loop

Finally a decent weather forecast, so...

FINISH

Stats: 9:26, 19km, 1765m up and down

Norway day 6: rainy climbing

The weather forecast is crap, but after having had a rest day we want to get out and at least do something. The guide book suggest a couple of small crags with bolts (or top rope) and short approaches near Mjelva, so we head over there in the afternoon when the rain has stopped.

The crag, Blahammeren, has a number of short easy routes including one which you can self-protect, so we start there. Unfortunately the rock is also quite green and (of course), still wet. G does the beginning of the left-most route (4b) in his trail-running shoes, but it's really all horribly wet and slippery and generally no fun, so he turns around at the halfway point (where there's an anchor for the neighboring route to practice multi-pitch). We pack the stuff back up, head back to the car, and move to the other side of Mjelva to try the crag Mjelvasteinen. 

This one, which is just a giant boulder, takes us a while to find since the use trail to get there really isn't pronounced (and there are a couple of other trails to other things), but we eventually find it. The rock is steep enough that it's not completely wet and might be doable, so G heads up top to rig the top rope (there are no bolts in the face, just big anchors up top). It turns out that every ledge is still wet, so the climbing just doesn't work. And it rains a bit more. So much for that idea. Still, there is a bit of rock protected by an overhang, so G boulders around a bit before we pack the stuff back up and head back.

Not our most successful of days, but we at least got outside for a while.

Norway day 4: climbing the Store Venjetinden

Our last day with David and the most ambitious of the trips: climbing the Store Venjetinden via the route "Dream Dihedral". The peak is super prominent and dominates the view out the living room window of our flat, so it's extra fun to be climbing it.

There are clouds in the valley, which leads to some nervousness (particularly after yesterday), but we drive up out of them and end up under lovely blue skies, yay!

We put on the packs (heavy since we have crampons and ice axes with us) and head steeply up, up along a clear  use trail (well, clear as long as you know where it starts). At first we're in green, then we transition to moving up and across some slabs. We're in the shade (which is nice for ascending) and have great views back across the clouds in the valley. At some point it's steep enough (at and times slippery enough) that David has us rope up and start moving on a short rope. Up, up we go until we hit a larger snow patch. Here we break out the ice axes and head up, up the steadily steepening snow (by the end it's over 40 deg, but it's good "Trittschnee", so not overly nervous-making for g) until we hit the rock.

Transition to the rock, some food, on with the climbing shoes, boots into the packs, and the real climbing starts. It's a very, very nice route. The rock is great and there's a lovely mix of styles (face, crack, and stemming), such an absolute pleasure. Having David do the leading means all we have to do is enjoy the climbing... luxury! Too bad it's only six pitches, we would happily have done more, particularly of the dihedral!

When we get to the ridge we change back into the big boots and enjoy the views a bit (except for the view down onto the couloir which we plan to descend... that makes g unhappy) before doing the last bit to the peak on a short rope. Some traversing under the ridge until we meet the "N ridge" route, which we follow up to the peak. Really amazing 360 panoramic views from here! 

After plenty of pictures and fun we start the descent. This seems funny at first because we start out by going the wrong way, but after some walking and down-scrambling and snow crossing we end up on "Gallery" path: a really nice narrow path along a band that takes us around the corner and to the top of the couloir between the Store Venjetinden and the Lille Venjetinden. It's a great relief to g that the snow doesn't seem as steep as it did when we were above it. Out come the ice axes, on go the gloves and we start the descent. An initial experiment with sliding ends up with a three-way wipeout, so we just go with plunge-stepping down. Down down down we go until the snow runs out at a short waterfall. David lowers us over this (yay! canyoning!), abseils down to us, and then we continue. Down, down, until near the end of the snow, transition to rock, more descent and traversal, down another snow field, down, down, transition to rock, more traversing, down down another snow field, and then we're back on the path we took up in the morning. Last bit of descending and then we're at the car. David had estimated 3 hours up, 3 hours of climbing, and 3 hours for the descent; it took us 9:13 including all the breaks.

Stats: 9:13, 7.9km, 1390m up and down.

Norway day 3: climbing the Bispen E Ridge

In contrast to the past two days of cloudless blue skies, today we wake up to low clouds. There's a pretty good chance that this would result in a change of plans if we were at home, but we've got a trip planned with the guide, so off we go. We meet David in Andelsnes and then drive up the valley to the Trollstigen. It's still early, so there's essentially no traffic, which is a bonus on the windy road up to the pass and into the clouds. By the time we get to the pass itself we're fully in the cloud.

We park, grab the gear, and then follow an unmarked trail up, up the valley side. Visibility varies from decent to marginal, but following the path is easy. At some point we turn off along a much fainter use trail which we follow more gently up and around the corner of the Bispen and onto a set of slabs. Near the base of the South ridge we put on the gear and rope up so that David can short-rope us the rest of the way across and up easy (but exposed) slabs to the base of the East ridge.

The climb up the East ridge is fun and easy. The rock quality is mostly quite good and climbing in the big boots is no problem. David mostly leads, but like on the Romsdalhorn he does let us do a couple of the easier pitches and follows along to coach and make sure everything is done safely. It turns out that climbing in a cloud is really no big problem: we didn't have views, but it wasn't actively raining and we could always see where we were going. 

We're at the top sooner than it seems like we should be. There are no views to appreciate, but we still do a short food break before doing a brief practice session on setting nuts (something we don't often do) and then heading down the North ridge. This is a hike/scramble and we do the scrambly bits short roped (we are, after all, with a guide) before packing the gear away and doing the rest of the descent back to the saddle and then down to the parking lot. 

By the time we get down to the car it's lightly raining and the clouds are quite thick... the drive back down is a bit nerve wracking until we end up behind a big bus, which makes everything easier.

This was a good day of climbing and it was quite nice to spend some time doing trad climbing with someone providing advice and suggestions. G isn't convinced that this is something we want to make a frequent habit of (you spend too much time thinking about gear placement and not enough time actually climbing), but it's definitely good to know and it would be nice to have the option to safely do more pure trad routes.

Noteworthy aside: though we have now climbed to the top of it we still haven't actually seen what the Bispen looks like aside from on photos. We'll have to go back in better weather to check it out!

Stats (for whatever reason it took a while for my watch to pick up the GPS signal): 7:11, ~8.5km, 830m up and down.

Norway day 2: climbing the Romsdalhorn

We figured that it made sense to start our Norway trip by spending a few days climbing with a guide so that we can learn more about the place and the conditions and get a good overview. This was our first of three days with David.

The goal for the day is the Romsdalhorn via the North face. We meet D and drive up into the Venjesdalen (aside: the camera-based automated toll system is nice) and park near the end, under the ridge which leads to to the Romsdhalhorn. The weather is beautiful as we hike up to the ridge and then follow it to the base of the route. On with the gear and then we start the climbing. It's easy climbing (we're wearing the big boots) on mostly good rock and we head up reasonably efficiently. After a few pitches, D lets us each lead an easy pitch so that we can practice. G is too nervous about building an anchor to benefit from this, but A takes full advantage, observed by D. There's only one other group underway: another guide and guest pretty far ahead of us who abseil past when we're about 2/3 of the way up. We're to the broad top all too quickly and have a nice break to enjoy the views, check out the shelter up there, eat something, and take a bunch of pictures. Then it's time to abseil down. There are nice bolted anchors for this and it also all goes quickly. At the base of the route we say bye to D, who's meeting another guide to change some of the abseil anchors, and then head directly down the valley wall and back to the car.

Nice short climb on a very prominent peak in great weather and a good intro to David and what climbing in the area is like.

Technical/efficiency note: when abseiling, D had us both get set up with the rope through our guide plates before he abseiled down. Once he was below we then followed without needing a prusik since he could always stop us by pulling the rope taut. This would be a good one to remember when climbing with people with less experience.

Stats: 6:41, 6.5km, 990m up and down

Norway day 1: the Romsdalseggen

Text to come

Stats: 6:34 17.8km 1354m up, 1730m down

Romsdal, Norway: overview

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June 24 to July 8, based in Isfjorden close to Åndalsnes

• day 0: travel to Isfjorden
• day 1: the Romsdalseggen
• day 2: climbing the Romsdalhorn
• day 3: climbing the Bispen E Ridge
• day 4: climbing the Store Venjetinden
• day 5: rest day
• day 6: rainy climbing
• day 7: the Klauva (horse-shoe) loop
• day 8: climbing at Utkleiva
• day 9: rest and Andalsnes climbing hall
• day 10: a rainy waterfall hike
• day 11: hike to the Bruraskaret
• day 12: Blånebba traverse
• day 13: rest day
• day 14: travel back to Basel

Falknis

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Rophaien und mehr

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Climbing weekend at the Mittagfluh

 For the long Pentecost weekend we decide to go to the Mittagfluh near Guttanen; like we did three years ago.

On Saturday we thought about doing Durststrecke, but someone had just started that and others were waiting to do the first pitch, so we did Am Ueli sis Chueli (4b, 3c, 5a, 5a, 5a, 5a, 5a, 5a+, 5b, 5b), Andrea started. Some crazy bolt distances when it was easier, but great climbing, as one expects. :-) Then a food break up top and the foot descent with abseiling.

On Sunday there was amazingly no-one there as we arrived and only one group already climbing. We did Durststrecke (5b+, 4c, 5a, 5a, 5a+, 5b, 5a+, 5b, 5b+) which was once again great fun. Again food break up top and then the foot descent.

Monday's plan was to do Loris Boxenstopp, which we hadn't seen anyone climb yet, but of course someone had just started that; so instead we did Heidi mier weidi (3b, 5c+, 5a, 5a, 5b, 5a, 5b, 5b, 5b+), Greg started. According to the blog post, we climbed this last time, but I think we might have actually ended up doing Am Ueli... it's easy to end up in the wrong route at the beginning. This is a fun route that feels a bit more adventurous. A good section of one pitch is wet, it's vertical, technical, and pretty quarz-rich, so there's some very careful foot placement and weight transfer going on. :-) After food up top we decide to abseil over the route since no one is behind us (it's curiously empty today). This goes ok and is a bit faster than doing the foot descent.

A great weekend of climbing on a lovely cliff.

Climbing above Balsthal

 The difficult weather continues.

The forecast wasn't stable enough for us to plan a four-day trip for the Ascension weekend, so we decided to start with two days climbing in Grandval.

Thursday's climbing

Klus Sector Alter Klettergarten. Grades from SAC guide

• 31 Geneigte Verschneidung 5a
• 33 Geneigter Pfeiler Dächli 5c+
• 35 Kleiner Überhang 5b+
• 36 Zaff 5b
• 37 Bohrhakenübung 5c
• 43 Körnige Platte rechts 5a+ (A only)
• 38 Halbschräg 6a (A top)
• 40 Rubble 6a+

Super fun climbing (as usual). Started to fill up in the afternoon, so we moved on.

Sector Neuer Klettergarten. Grades from SAC guide

• 34 Flipper 5c (fudged to the left due to water)

The rock on the right side of the Neuer Klettergarten is odd

We might have climbed a bit more, but it was crowded by then. Still a good day of climbing!

It would be worth going back and checking out Odeon (https://www.rebolting.ch/wAssets/docs/topos/jura/Topo-Sektor-Odeon-Klus-Balsthal.pdf), which was completely empty, and Graue Platte, was not (and which requires a longer rope). 

Friday's climbing

Holzflue. Grades from SAC guide

• 3 Yak und Yeti 5b (A toprope)
• 2 Out in the green 5c+ hard overhanging boulder, G toprope, A progress on trying, but then tired arms
• 5 Basel meets Solothurn 5c
• 7 West Side 5c+ lovely short crack climb
• 21 Willi 5c+
• 34 Out of Altersheim 5c+ A only

Nice climbing on mostly technical vertical/steep routes. Great rock. Grades often felt harder than the day before.

Only got busy in the afternoon

Nice hike afterwards around the back to the Holzflue itself (partially along a pig path) and then down and back to Balsthal

St Imier to Orvin

We're having difficult weather. We picked this one because it'd be ok in the rain and gave us flexibility to change plans underway.

Start in St. Imier with the occasional hint of blue sky, hike up up up through the lovely Combe Grede, then up to the ridge. Head a bit towards the Chasseral itself, but decide to skip it since it's making clouds and we have a decent bench to sit on for a food break. Break while enjoying the views of the clouds towards the alps, then onwards and down down down to Nods. The weather is still being decent, so we continue up out of town towards Mont Sujet. Once off the pavement, this is a nice ascent up up up through the woods. We take another food break at a very old picnic table under a tree with ok views and then continue to the very flat top (maybe the German name "Spitzberg" is a joke?) before starting our way down down down to Les Pres-d'Orvin. Here we see that the timing is good to catch the bus in Orvin, so we continue down the valley to there and make it a couple of minutes before the bus leaves.

Nice hike despite the tricky weather (though we did not get rained on) and it was great to be out moving.

Track:

Stats: 25.8km, 1355 up, 1451 down, 6:00.

Locarno work & play 2023: play day 4

 No sun in the forecast today. We went to Ponte Brolla and climbed a step higher than last time to avoid the crowds. Mission successful there.

The routes:

1. Via Eugenio: 4c
2. Wim: 5a
3. Robert Lembke: 5c both toprope (A did some rigging to make this work)
4. Mueslimaa: 5c (G lead, A toprope and then lead)
5. Le Le: 5b
6. Primavera: 5c+ (A: toprope, G lead) pump fest in the crack at the top
7. Framezzo: 5c+ (G lead, after a couple of tries at the beginning, A toprope)

Locarno Work & Play 2023: play day 3

Today we did the lovely long multi-pitch on the Speroni di Ponte Brolla: Quarzo / Quarzader

We got a reasonably early start in the hopes of avoiding the crowds and were successful. There was one pair quite far ahead of us and then another pair who were behind us but didn’t make stress. 

The pitches: 5a, 5a, 5a, 5b, 5b, 5b, 5a+, 5a, 6a, 5b, 4b

Greg started and we both actually climbed the 6a pitch and didn’t pull on the ‘draws.

Super nice route. A. wants to go at some point during the week and climb the route in the sun and warmth. :-)

Afterwards we walked back to Locarno along the top. Same as last time.

Locarno Work & Play 2023: play day 2

Today we headed off to Placche Rosse for multi-pitch slab fun.

The routes (grades, again, from Plaisir Sud:

1. Harlem: 4c, 5b, 5a, 5a
2. Havana: 5c, 5b, 5a, 5c, 5b+

The climbing was fun and we were nice and efficient both while climbing and abseiling. There were surprisingly many people there, considering the focus on slabs. :-)

Locarno Work & Play 2023, play day one

We started the climbing at Ponte Brolla, as one does. 

The routes (grades from the 2011 Plaisir Sud):

1. Sunneblueme 5a
2. Noggeli 4c, g did it in his trail-running shoes
3. L’intifada 5b (This is awesome and fun, but is too long for a 60m rope. Creativity was required)
4. Zuchitt go home 5b
5. Orma 5c (A lead and then top rope)
6. Chili 5b (A lead and then top rope)

Day started with beautiful blue skies, then some clouds came in, but it was still warm and lovely. And full… my goodness were there a lot of people there, particularly people doing multipitches who didn’t really know what they were doing. Climbing is booming! :-)

Locarno Work & Play: overview

We left the Friday before the Easter week for some "work & play" in Locarno, staying in the same apartment as before, having lots of fun, as before...

• Saturday, play day 1: Ponte Brolla
• Sunday, play day 2: Placche Rosse
• Thursday, play day 3: Speroni di Ponte Brolla: Quarzo / Quarzader
• Friday, play day 4: Ponte Brolla
• Saturday, play day 5: Giumaglio, Valle Maggia
• Sunday, play day 6: Hike above Cento Valli

Clean climbing in Grandval

Good weather forecast for today but rain tomorrow, and G is recovering from his second round of Covid, so we plan a day trip in the Jura. "Jura Keep Wild" has a few interesting sounding clean climbs above Grandval (we did a clean multi-pitch near here a few years ago) and we end up picking Cafe Dancing since the topo says that it has a blue dot at the beginning (always good to be able to find the route!). ;-) Well, that and the fact that it's been recommended by one of the PhD students in G's group.

Train to Grandval, an easy approach, and then we're at the foot of the route. The blue dot helps. We probably would have picked the same start, but it's nice to be sure that we're at least starting on the right route. We put on all the gear and then start the climbing.

G does the first pitch. It's easy climbing, lots of care required due to loose rock, reasonably opportunities to set protection (though it's easy and not so steep, so lots of protection isn't necessary), and there's a good tree for the belay (the second big tree... the area under the first one was full of big loose rocks). It looks like we can go either up a bit to the right or a bit to the left, on the topo the line looks straight... A starts off to the right towards a piton+carabiner in a steep slabby bit. There's another piton along the way, but once she gets over to the second piton it becomes clear that the climbing is significantly harder than the 5a it's supposed to be. So she leaves a clip carabiner there, comes back to the belay, and then heads up a bit to the left. Here the climbing is easier. A short bit of climbing with decent placements, then a long traverse to the right through trees on loose gravel (of course) before setting a belay on a tree. Once again it's not immediately obvious from the topo where the route goes, but we know that we need to get up to some kind of ridge/shoulder and just heading straight up from where we are looks manageable and easy to protect, so G does that. 

This is a nice pitch, there's some actual (easy) climbing, plenty of spots to place gear (including a good hole for the big blue cam!), and there's even some decent rock along the way. The belay is, once again, a tree. A leads the next pitch, which once again has some climbing on decent rock (after the first bit, which is just awful) and good protection. Another tree belay at the foot of a rocky rib. It seems obvious to along this, but after a couple meters the left side is more inviting, so G heads around the side and realizes that the rib ends in a spike. So he continues around the left, basically walking, to a tree and A comes up. It's a very short walk to the foot of the next bit of rock, which looks like it leads to the top, so A belays from the tree where we are and G does the last pitch. This again has decent rock quality and protection is easy. There's a tree belay a meter or so below the very top. A comes up and we're done.

Climbing time: 3:15. We're generally a lot faster on bolted routes, but between looking for spots to set protection and the route finding, today was slow. No big deal... we had all day.

After a lunch break enjoying the views from the top, we pack up the gear and follow the climbers' trail down to the marked path which takes us back towards Grandval. We've got 45 minutes before the next train, so we just walk the rest of the way to Moutier. It's a nice walk and we get there in time to buy a yogurt drink before the train to Basel arrives.

This was a good day. This kind of climbing, where it's not completely clear where the route runs, definitely has an element of adventure to it that adds to the fun.

Notes for future planning:

• Given the amount of loose rock, including some big stuff, it wouldn't be a good idea to do something like this above (or really close to) other climbers. We did end up knocking one big rock loose that would have been very bad  for anyone under us.
• It's nice to have loads of trees around to use as belays
• If we did get stuck in terrain like this, abseiling down over the route is really not an option. There's so much loose rock that abseiling would have been dangerous
• For G this was mentally easy (despite the uncertainty about route) because the climbing was all easy, there was basically no chance to end up "stuck" (the topo made it clear that we just needed to head to a ridge and then take that to the peak), and we could at almost any point have traversed over to the bolted route if things got to be too much.

Aside: La Ballade, the bolted multi-pitch to the left, looks quite good and is really popular: we saw at least four teams underway on the route. It can also be done clean; it likely has a lot less loose rock, but the adventure bits would be missing.

Arete du Raimeux

 We wanted to get outside and weren't sure what the situation with temperatures and hochnebel was going to be, so we opted to do and old favorite: the Arete du Raimeux, the scrambling variant.

Train to Moutier, on foot to the base of the route, on with the helmets and then off we go. The rope and gear stayed in the backpacks.

This would be a good place to capture which of the towers we climbed and which we went around.

Lovely, lovely ridge scrambling. After getting to the fire ring at the "end" (that downclimb always feels spicy), we continued up the wall with the iron steps and then kept on the ridge as much as we could for the rest of the way. We've done parts of this before, but managed to stay up top more this time (there was a strong incentive since the sun was shining on the ridge!). Big fun here with another spicy downclimb along the way.

From the end of the ridge it was on foot to the SAC hut and then the normal hiking path down to Moutier and the train back.

Great weather (particularly for March!) and a great ridge scramble. So much fun.