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.