Grandval climbing: Cafe Dancing

 There's a good weather forecast, so we head off to Grandval to do some climbing. We've done the clean line Cafe Dancing before, but opt to do it again since it's been a while since we did either multi-pitch or, especially, clean climbing. 

After a bit over an hour hiking from Grandval (the trains aren't running between Moutier and Grandval, and the bus connection is terrible) we put on the gear and set off. It's a good day to not be climbing La Cigale, which has multiple groups on it today. The route finding this time is a bit easier than last time, though there's still some question about what to do after the second pitch. We end up doing this as a long single pitch tending a bit to the right from where we start to the ridge. A has to move from the tree at the base of the gravel bit to the wall in the middle to allow enough rope. We climb the same spike before heading up the final bit the top, where we have lunch, pack the gear away, and then hike back down to Moutier.

It takes us about 2:45 total, with a short food break in the middle. Good, fun climbing, not too stressful. :-)

On the way back to Moutier we stop for another food break and end up surrounded by very curious cows... it was fun to escape from that one! ;-)

Note after the fact: there was a lot of grass/plants in the route. These didn't affect the climbing, but did result in G having an unpleasant ook on his hands for the next 1.5 weeks from his "grass" allergy. This is worth keeping in mind for the future.

Climbing in Court

 We didn't make it down to Locarno for the long weekend, but G still wanted some slab practice, so we went to Dalle de Court.

The usual nice hike through the gorge from Moutier, then on with the gear and up we climbed to the ledge. From there we did:

• Nikita (5b+)
• La Betise (5c+) ??? did we do this one?
• Multidirecte (5c)
• Voie du Milieu (5c+)
• Felix (5c+) G fell on the first bit of this, which was enough to sap his already flagging motivation, so he just finished the first half. A climbed both halves

After finishing up we packed up the things and then did the nice walk back to Moutier.

Another couple showed up after we'd done a couple routes and another pair arrived as we were finishing, so there were no crowds at all (certainly not like how it would have been if we'd made it down South!).

Trailrunning from Kandern->Basel

A came up with the idea of going trail running in the Black Forest. The public transportation to Kandern is actually pretty easy (we still screwed it up by getting off the train one stop too early; fortunately we could fix this by taking two busses instead of one).

Instead of sticking to the Kandern->Basel leg of Westweg, we added a bit more vertical by starting out over the Munzerberg and Gugelhut before rejoining the Westweg and heading the rest of the way back to Basel.

It's all extremely green (though not terribly muddy) and pretty though the clouds are a bit low to really get good view. The trails are generally pretty good, mostly flowy, and pretty easy to follow (though we get off trail at one point and have to do a bit of improv to get back on track).

Nice lunch break in a Hochsitz (never done that before!) to get out of the breeze and warm up a bit (it was generally quite cool).

A tops at Riehen and G continues the rest of the way back home.

Stats:

G: 35.3km, 715m up, 4:40 total time, 4:05 moving.

Full moon, sunrise, and a very long walk

It was the night before the full moon and the weather was perfect, so we set out for a full-moon hike and to have breakfast while watching to sunrise. The rest of the plan for the day was just to do a long hike.

We left at 4:30 with the idea of having a couple of hours under the moon before the sun came up at ~6:40. Good theory, but we mis-calculated how long the hike to our planned breakfast spot would take. Fortunately we realized this while hiking, changed plans, and did a bit of light running to reach a bench above Oberwil with a good view in the right direction.

The moon was super bright (I love moon shadows!), we had a beautiful sunrise and a good breakfast and then started walking again. Eventually we decided that Delemont would be the goal, so that's what we did.

This ended up being our longest hike so far. Super fun, great day!

Track:

Stats: 

Total time: 10 hours (7:24 moving according to my watch), 42.8km, 1300m up, 1200m down.

Orvin climbing

An absolutely beautiful sunny and and cool Spring day!

We went to the crag NNN above Orvin. There were just a few other people there when we arrived, but it ended up being pretty crowded. I guess not that surprising considering the quality of the rock and routes. I shudder to think what it must have been like at the crags that have shorted approaches!

Sector NNN

G starts

Routes:

 Yakari 5a+

La poursuite de bonheurs 5b+

Verdon facile 5b+

Toit va bien 5c+

Hammer 5c (A only)

Gerpete 6a (A only)

G ran out of motivation at the end and just did belaying.

Instead of going directly back to Orvin, we continued along the path to the ridge and then walked down to Frinvelier.

Trailrunning Reigoldswil/Passwang to Grellingen

G started in Reigoldswil and went up to Vogelberg via the Jaegerwegli, then down to Passwang. A took the bus to Passwang and we met there.

We continued together along to Hohe Winde (very different today than last time we were there), then down to Beinwil, eventually through the Chaltbrunnental to Grellingen.

The part we did together was almost all runnable and very flowy, super fun and nice views.

Good day out!

Track and stats to come.