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.