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.