Climbing above Engelberg

We decide to take advantage of the good weather by spending the weekend in Engelberg and doing some climbing.

Saturday morning we take the train to Engelberg, drop an extra bag at the hotel, then take the bus, gondola, and chair lift up to the Brunnihütte. From here we hike up to the klettergarten at the Bettlerstock, where our plan is to spend the day doing sport climbing in the sun.

We start in the sector Bettlerstock West, which is unfortunately shady in the morning:

• Adler 5a
• Murmel 5b (g only, at this point we decide that it's too cold and windy for this sector)

After moving to Sector South, which was in the sun, though still a bit windy:

• Südwand 5c (we consider doing the second pitch, but it seems to sketchy for g)
• Die da 5c+
• Janosch 6a+ (A halfway, g with one hang)
• Macbeth 7a (g was playing in toprope here and only made it part of the way up before getting completely blocked on a move)

We called it a day at that point and headed back down to Engelberg.

Sunday morning g got up early and did a trail run before breakfast. After breakfast we headed up to the Brunnihütte again and did some of the short routes on the crag next to the hut. We climbed all of these in approach shoes:

• Barba Lala 4a
• Barba Letta 4b
• Barba Kud 5a
• Barba Bo 4b
• Mama Moll 5a
• Globi 5a

At this point we decided that the weather and views were just too good to be climbing, so we followed the panorama trail to the Rugghubelhütte (their last day open of the season), where we enjoyed cake and cool beverages in the sun while enjoying the fantastic views before heading back down to Engelberg and the train back home.

Memo to ourselves: we really need to go up some weekend, stay at the Rugghubelhütte, and do the Lauchernstock east ridge.

Track from the hike:

Stats: 13.8km, 540m up, 1400m down, 4:10

Climbing at Stockhorn

Good weather forecast day, so off we head to the Stockhorn. The train ride is a bit scary since we're still under the hochnebel, but that clears up once we turn into the Simmental. The views open up as we take the gondola up... nice!

Our first route is Chum u lueg, which we did nine years ago. We're faster now (though not as efficient today as we were last year... the missing practice shows), but it's still an enormously fun route, and the bit of coming out into the crowds at the top of the Stockhorn is definitely entertaining.

After a bit of food, we head down to one of the sport climbing sectors and did the first pitch of Märitfroueli 5a (A did this one in lead, which was her first lead since injuring her elbow), then the first pitch of Pistache 5c (A top rope) before going back to Märitfroueli and doing both pitches. After eating a bit more we moved up to the next sector and did ??? 5b. At this point G's motivation was lagging (some was the fact that we haven't been climbing outdoors much in quite a while, some was irritation at a loud group with a screaming kid), so we had another snack and then walked down to Chrindi and the gondola down.

Beautiful day and great rock. More! :-)

Trailrun / hike from St. Ursanne to Delemont

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Climbing at Baerenfels

The plan was to go climbing somewhere else, but g forgot the gri-gri, causing us to miss the train we wanted, so we went to Baerenfels.

Routes (grades from Plaisir Jura, g lead all of them, A did top rope)

1. Alpha (5a+)
2. Mit Seil und Saege (5b). Crack-climbing Jura-style, including a bit of an off-width at the bottom
3. Oliver Twist (5a). We have definitely climbed this before
4. Chruetlischwur (6a). g only, top rope.
5. Bel Ami (5b). g only.

We're both still remembering how to do this outdoor climbing thing, and A still has a way to go to recover her strength, but things are coming along and it was a fun day. The sun even came out, which was wild!