Not really a long weekend in the Mythen

 The plan was to take advantage of the good weather and long weekend to have some fun around the Mythen, so we booked a couple of nights at Holzegg and headed out on Friday morning.

Friday: trains and bus to Brunni, chair lift up to Holzegg, drop off the extra bag and then head to the Adlerspitzli. The route is now marked (or maybe it was marked before and it's now better marked?), so it's pretty easy to find. This is, as always, a fun climb. Up top we eat, then follow the Ruchband until we get to the beginning of the Wysswaendli. Here we put the ropes back on and follow that route. The very first bit of this (across the slab) is a bit sketchy, but it's otherwise technically easy and super fun. Requires a bit of route finding and has some fairly long run-outs (again, technically easy, so ok). Up on the Mythenmatt we pack the rope away and then follow the trail up, and around to the Rotgraetli. This is easy fun scrambling with awesome views and lets us out right in the crowds at the top of the Gross Mythen. 

Another food break and then we head down to the hotel. The way down still has some snow in it, but there are plenty of steps kicked in that since loads of people are heading up and down each day.

After dinner we do a quick hike up to the Furggelenstock to enjoy the sunset and the great views. We had hoped to also see the moon rise, but that happened too late for us.

Saturday: G woke up with what was clearly about to be a bad case of his grass allergy. He did at least some of the climbing on Friday with gardening gloves on, but those had to come off in order to do anything real with the rope and he clearly ended up in contact with plenty of grass. There was also a lesson learned here about the rope picking up whatever oils cause the allergy (he had rash on his neck from where the rope sat when took up coils and a bunch on the palms of his hands from handling the rope). So after a morning long run and breakfast together, G took the train back home so he could at least suffer at home. A did a day hike and then came back too.

G needs a different plan for how to protect himself from the grass, and we need to go back so that we can play more in the Mythen.

Chöpfenberg S ridge

 This was Marc's idea and we did it together with him.

We start at Innerthal and follow the hiking path up, up, past the super impressive and appealing cliffs of the Bockmattli (the climbing there is manageable, but the approaches seem to be pretty epic) until we get to the turnoff towards the S ridge of the Chöpfenberg. At the base of the route we put on the gear and then do the first few (4?) pitches with swapping leads. Once we get to the easier bits, we all move together with M leading. We're moving fast, so we pass a couple of other groups. The last bit to the peak we do direct instead of going around. There's a slightly dicy start to this, but then it's easy and nice.

Up top we have some food and then, since it's late, opt to take the normal route down instead of continuing along the ridge.

Very fun, easy alpine climb, definitely worth doing again.

Amden Climbing Weekend

Saturday: we get a somewhat later start since G wanted to do a long run in the morning. 

We drop our bags at the hotel (thr Rössli is closed! Outrageous!) and take the chairlift up. 

There are a fair number of people up at the crag, so we opt for Gimmi (5c), with A starting. The first pitch is an adjustment (slabs and wasserrillen in limestone is cetainly different), but after that things are pretty chill. The 5c last bit has a short, hairy traverse at the very beginning that G does by using the shrubbery to get to the first bolt. The steep bit is no problem, and then we are done. Some lunch and then across to the abseilpiste and down without drama. Fun route, perfect weather (t-shirt climbing in October!), yay! We eat a bit more and then walk down all the way to the hotel. A drink in the sun, a shower, a short nap, dinner (Indian buffet… not bad), and then bed.

Sunday: breakfast is at 8, so we are a bit later than we would like, but we still make it to the chair lift shortly after 9. Up, up to the crag, get set up, wait for the pair before us (climbing the route to the right of ours, but from the same start, we end up chatting with them throughout the climb), and then we get started climbing Variante. G starts today.

Getting started on the slab isn’t quite as dramatic as Saturday, but he is still very happy to clip the first bolt. A ends up leading both of the 6a pitches (I guess we knew this? It was definitely G’s turn to start), which she does without problems. It’s mostly overcast, so definitely cooler than yesterday, and we climb in our jackets, but aside from the first couple of pitches neither of us is actually cold. After the five pitches we have a quick food break before traversing to the abseilpiste. Today the rope pretends to snag a couple of times on the way down, but it’s just pretending. :-)

At the bottom we have a relaxed lunch before packing everything up and walking back down to get the bus.

Mattstock climbing is a very particular style; a style we like. And the rock is really good. Too bad that there aren’t more routes for us to try out. I think Variante, and the 5c version of Gimmi were the last 5th grade routes we hadn’t done. Ah well… repeating nice routes is also not bad. :-)

Grimsel Climbing Weekend

Perfect forecast for the whole weekend, so we decide to head up to Grimsel on Friday night. This time we stay at the hotel at Handeck (a first for us). After a really nice meal we head off to have a good night’s sleep. 

G gets up early on Saturday morning to go running (up to Grimsel Hospiz and then back… very nice), then we have breakfast and hike up to Gerstenegg. The plan for today is to do Letzter Tango (we did this last time too); after not having done so much climbing this year it seemed smarter to start somewhat easier. The climbing went really well, the conditions were just ideal (aside from having to belay from a patch of snow on one pitch), super fun. We simulclimb the 3er pitches in the middle, but belay everything else.

Up top we pack away the gear and eat something before doing the hike back down to the hotel (that first bit from the Dom to the Bächlitalhütteweg  really is nice).

Showers, a short nap, another very good meal, and then off to bed.

Sunday morning we hike back up to Gerstenegg and climb Ameisenrennen. We did the first three pitches of this a couple of years ago. G starts and it is super climbing from the beginning (the first 5c forces you to pay attention). More varied in style than the other routes we have done here, and super fun. Only one snow patch. We simulclimb the two 3er pitches and belay everything else normally. It’s over too soon, which is saying a lot for a 17 pitch route!

Up top we eat something and then do the fun hike back down to Handeck where we pick up our extra bags and then get the bus for the long trip home.

What an awesome late-season climbing weekend/mini-vacation! 33 pitches of Grimsel granite and blue skies and sunshine throughout!

Thing to remember: more busses run to/from Handeck than higher up and the approach to Gerstenegg from there isn’t super long; it’s a nice alternative.

Climbing the Lauchernstock

Nice weekend at the Rugghubelhuette

Climbing the Gletscherhorn E-ridge

Nice weekend at the Martinsmadhuette

Climbing the Nueneneflue

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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.

Arete des Sommetres

 The forecast was for sun, but maybe too cold for climbing shoes, so we decided to do the Arete des Sommetres again.

We weren't alone (unlike last time) since another pair started just before us, but we didn't have to wait for them too much and there was no one pushing from behind.

It's a really nice scramble and it was great to be out and moving with perfect weather conditions. 

After finishing (in just under three hours, with a short snack break to let the other pair get a bit further ahead of us), we did a nice lunch break at the top and then enjoyed the walk down to Saignelegier.

Late season at the Mittagfluh

 G needed to head to a conference on Sunday, but the forecast was great for Saturday, so we decided to spend the day doing some granite multipitch climbing on the Mittagfluh. We headed to Guttanen on Friday evening, had a nice meal, and went to bed.

G got up early and did a couple hours of trail running, then we had breakfast and hiked up the crag. There were two other rope teams there in front of us, but they were both doing the Südkante, so we had Durststrecke to ourselves... nice!

We start in the shade (where it's not especially warm), but by the end of the second pitch we were in sun and everything was right with the world. A couple of hours of super fun climbing later we were up top enjoying the sun and a lunch break before abseiling back down over the route and into the shade. 

Back in town we got to enjoy an impromptu Guggemusik concert while waiting for the bus. A nice end to a really nice day of climbing.

It wa great to see that we hadn't forgotten how to efficiently do multipitch climbing and abseiling.

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! :-)

La Roche St-Jean climb and scramble

Dos d'Ane climb and scramble

Gerstelgrat

Climbing in Grandval

The plan is to go to Grandval and climb the the trad route "La reve de wilderness" from Keep Wild Jura.

After some public transportation fun (trains aren't running between Delemont and Moutier, so we have to take the bus and then walk to Grandval) we end up at the bottom of the bolted multi-pitch routes (this is to the left of Cafe Dancing, which we climbed last time) and head around the corner to where the route should start. On with all the gear and then G starts up. This doesn't last long: the rock quality is terrible and he can't find anywhere he's willing to climb, despite looking around for a while. That's enough to suck the motivation out of him to do the clean climbing, so we pack the cams and stuff away and head back around the corner to do the bolted route La Cigale (5b, 5a, 4c+, 5c+, 4c, 5a, 4a... grades from the SAC Tourenportal). This is really nice climbing on good rock (yay!) and nice views,  and is, easy and flowy aside from the 5c+ pitch (which has a bit of spicy slab). There are plenty of other people around, but the two groups we catch up to both let us pass, so we never end up waiting very long.

Up top we pack everything away, have a nice lunch break while enjoying the good weather and views, and then head back down to Grandval to grab the train to Moutier and start our trip home.

A lovely day of Jura climbing. Grandval is a good one to keep in mind for the winter months: not too high, south facing, easy approach, everything one wants. :-)

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.

Climbing around Hotel Steingletscher

To make up for leaving the Cabane d'Orny a day early, we started the weekend on Friday ;-)

Friday morning we leave early and do the train-train-bus thing to get to Hotel Steingletscher (we were here back in 2020). After dropping a bag at the hotel we walk to the sector Platten and climb the route Sylia (5a+, 4b, 5b, 5b+, 5b, 5a, 5b, 5a in Plaisir, but we ended up doing it in 7 pitches, so the breakdown was a bit different). G started. This was easy and fun climbing, less slabby than some of the routes. The abseiling was efficient and we were back at the hotel in time for G to do a couple of calls. A even found an almost new screwgate along the way, which is now part of her standard rack. 

Saturday morning we hiked up to the Pfriendler and climbed Gradufe (6a, 5c, 5c+, 6a, 5c+, 4c), A started. This was also fun climbing on great rock. We definitely noticed the increased difficulty and were slower because of it, but it wasn't a problem at all. We only saw one other group climbing. The abseiling was efficient except for the pitch where G didn't take the knot all the way out of the rope and had to climb back up to the stand to free it (for variety, he actually climbed the 5b route adjacent to the 5c pitch).

Sunday morning we hiked up to the Pfriendler again, past the crowd already there, and to the Pfriendler North. We were the first ones there (though another pair came as we were getting ready). We climbed the first three pitches of Verschneidung (5c+, 5a, 6a) then switched to the last two 4c pitches from Riss to get to the peak. G started. This was definitely harder, particularly the 6a pitch, which had its crux on a slab. G fell once leading it but eventually made it to the top (this involved a short bit on the neighboring 6b). The last two pitches were easy and alpine, but fun. The abseiling was tricky, but went ok except for the rope getting stuck in a crack on one pitch. Fortunately it was only three bolts of 5b climbing to get there, so G could go up, free the rope, and have A lower him off an old clip carabiner that we just left there. This area was way way less crowded than the Pfriendler today, but there were still three or four other groups climbing. The Pfriendler was madness (as was the klettergarten Eden, which we saw on the hike down).

We got back to the hotel with a couple of hours to kill before the bus ride, so we enjoyed a nice relaxed meal on the terrace before starting the long trip back home (first bus leg of this was on the bus doing the 4-pass tour... what a crowd).

General comment: at this point it looks like we are reasonably sure to be able to climb 6a multi-pitch routes. They are definitely more mentally taxing than easier routes, but certainly doable. Yay!

Gear note: this was Gs first trip in his new La Sportiva TX4 Guide approach shoes. They worked very well.

Climbing around the Cabane d'Orny

We had planned a four day mini-vacation at the Cabane d'Orny to enjoy some alpine climbing on granite (and do some more tours from Dani's new book).

Saturday: long train ride down to Orsieres and a hotel night

Sunday

First bus up to Champex, the lift to La Breya, and then the hike up, up, up to the hut. It's a beautiful sunny day, but it's really warm and the packs are heavy, so we don't enjoy this nearly as much as we should. After dropping extra stuff at the hut (loads of people around!) we head up to the klettergarten to do our first tour: the Aiguilles d'Arpette south ridge. 

Rather than hiking through the klettergarten, we opt to start with a pitch of actual climbing. After some looking around to find the route we choose XXX, which is 5a according to Plaisir West (the topo in the hut says 5b). Since the rest of the ridge is scrambling/very easy climbing, we decide to challenge ourselves and do this in the mountaineering boots. The route has a step in it which is, at least at the moment, quite burly to do, but G makes it over in lead and A follows. Aside from that step it's easy climbing on good rock. At the top we shorten the rope, find the use trail which we start us on the rest of ridgem, and then start to head up the ridge. G pretty quickly ends up feeling lightheaded (probably the heat+altitude), so we bail and head back to the hut. After checking in, we rest/nap for an hour or so and then head back up to the klettergarten to do a bit of climbing (with rock shoes this time) before dinner.

There are ~10 of us in the hut, so dinner (pretty good) is nice and quiet. After dinner it's off to bed for an early(ish) start the next day.

Monday

Breakfast at 6, on our way by 7. The plan today is to climb the Aiguilles d'Orny (a lovely and prominent rock spire, labelled Aiguilles Tourelle on the map) via the "Classique Sud" (along the SW ridge). We follow the trail towards the Cabane de Trient for a while and then follow a clear(ish) use trail up towards the foot of the Aiguilles d'Orny. The German couple we had dinner with are ahead of us (they left before us), taking a slightly path up and are doing a different route. The start of the route is easy to find since we have a picture and there are some faint markers. 

We put on the gear and then start our way up. The pitches, according to Dani, are 3c, 4c, 3c, 4b, 3c, 3c, 4b, 4b/5a. A starts. The climbing is really nice. Mostly good rock, a decent number of bolts and/or places to self-protect, and relatively easy route finding. Also excellent views which get steadily better as we make our way up. We do a quick food break between the 5th and 6th pitch. The climbing in boots at these grades on this rock is no problem and we are pretty efficient with everything. Since everything is going well, we opt for the 5a variant of the last pitch (the only difference is the beginning, with a couple of moves up a chimmney and then around the corner to join the 4b version... this goes without a problem) and are on the peak all too soon. G has the peak to himself for about a minute before the lead of the French team who we had seen arrive a bit later arrive along the route La Mosquette (the last pitch of this ends at the abseil stand). While A is on her way up, the lead German arrives on the other peak, so there are eventually 6 of us up there enjoying the views. Total climbing time for us was 3:10, including the break (Dani says 3). We do another quick food break while getting ready to abseil and then follow the French team down. 

The descent is along an easy-to-follow use trail with some cairns through the rocky bits and it leads us down, down, down to the trail between the two huts. Another break to eat something and pack away the last of the gear and then we head back to the hut.

After a nice break we still have a few hours before dinner, so we decide to go back up and finish the Aiguilles d'Arpette. This time we take the hiking/scrambling route through the klettergarten, and follow the use trail up into the scrambling bit. We do the scrambling with the rope on (~12m between us), but don't end up pitching anything other than the steep (but easy) bit up to the "Kanzel". A actually goes up the couple of meters to the Vorgipfel, but G skips that. Now some downclimbing, between the two towers, over the next bit, and then down to the saddle below the wall to the peak. We have some time pressure and A isn't feeling super motivated, so we skip the last three pitches of climbing and opt to leave the gear in the saddle and take the walking/scrambing route to the peak. A bit of view enjoyment here then back to the saddle. There we pack up the gear and head down through the loose couloir and then follow a use trail/cairn markings back past the side of the klettergarten and onto the trail back to the hut.

There are a few more people in the hut tonight (thanks to a big group of newbies there with a guide), but it's still <20 and reasonably quiet.

Tuesday

Breakfast at 6, on our way by 7. The forecast is questionable, so we want to be efficient and flexible. The plan is to do the SW ridge and then S face of the Aiguille de la Cabane (the route name is Voie bon Accueil), because we can break that one off in the middle if the weather changes. We'd seen the line on the hike up to the hut and it is really appealing. The approach is easy, along a path with plenty of stone men, and takes about 20 minutes to get to the bottom of the route. There we put on the gear (including the climbing shoes this time... the first pitch is 5b). The pitches are, according to Dani, 5b, 4c, 4a, 4a, 4b, 4b. The first one, which A starts, has a couple of trickier bits (the 5b parts) on the face to get us up to the SW ridge, which we then follow for the next three pitches. A short walk past the saddle which we will later return to and which leads to the descent route (steep, ugly looking couloir) and then along the descent route from the Aiguille du Glacier Rond takes us to the foot of the S face. Here two really nice pitches lead us up to a stand just below the peak, with an abseil point just around the corner. Total climbing time 2:30. The weather is starting to look dodgy, so we quickly rig the abseil and drop down the 15m to the beginning of the descent route. We do a quick food break while packing away most of the gear and changing our shoes and then start following the cairns for the descent as it starts to sprinkle. The cairns lead us back the saddle and from there we follow the obvious trail down the couloir. As always: it's not nearly as bad as it looked from above. Not too long afterwards we're back at the start of the route where we pack away the last of the gear and then head back to the hut. The gentle rain stops along the way, but since the forecast for the evening isn't good and for Wednesday it's even worse, we decide to head back down. After a nice lunch of soup and wienerli we say goodbye to the hut warden and then make our way back down, down, down to the lift. Of course the sun comes out along the way. :-)

There's definitely tons more fun stuff to do around the Cabane d'Orny, so it would be at all bad to head back again.

Tracks from the whole thing:

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.

Ridges above the Cabane de Moiry

The weather forecast is decent and (after some effort) we manage to find free beds in a hut, so we took a long weekend around the 1st of August and went off to the mountains for a long weekend. We've got a very exciting new guidebook for alpine climbing (it's like Dani Silbernagel wrote this one for us :-), and that inspires our choice of the Cabane de Moiry as our base.

Since it takes forever to get to that part of Switzerland, we head down to Grimentz on Saturday (after a nice bouldering session in the morning) and get the first bus up to the Moiry glacier parking lot on Sunday morning. On with the packs and up the valley we go, enjoying the lovely views and the good (though definitely not empty) trail that takes us up, up to the hut. 70 minutes later we're at the hut, where drop off stuff we don't need for the day and then immediately head back out to do our first tour.

Sunday: Aiguilles de la Lé traverse

The first part of this one is finding our way up to the Col de Gardien. There is supposedly a yellow blazed path which leads up to the hut's small climbing crag, but we never end up finding that. Still, we know where we want to go, so we just take a logical route up, up across the talus. Past the crag we actually run across a few cairns that we follow the rest of the way up, up to the saddle. Here we have a quick food break and put on the climbing gear while enjoying the amazing views (particularly really nice view of the Weisshorn and friends on the other side of the valley) and watching a group do the first part of the ridge. After the break we start our way along the ridge.

The first bit of ridge takes us easily, with some light scrambling, up to the south peak of the Aiguilles de la Lé (p3158). On the way up we pass the other group (five guests and a guide) on their way back to the col. The ridge continues, descending, until we get to the Col des Aiguilles. We're not super efficient on this first part: we've got a bit too much rope out and it takes a while to get into the flow of where and how to keep ourselves safe while still making progress. From the col the ridge heads steeply up. The next bit is more climby, so we let out the rope and do a couple of easy pitches before taking up coils again and shortening the rope to have about 15m between us and moving on. The ridge is now narrower, more exposed, and more scrambly. It's super fun. Along the way we end up with a cloud coming up from the E side which makes for dramatic pictures but robs us of the long view along the ridge. According to our topo, we're supposed to leave the ridge after the N peak (the SAC description continues along the ridge to the next saddle, but our book says that the last piece is dangerous), and at some point we figure that we've past the peak and are approaching the yellow tower which marks the descent to the next pass. So we head back to the peak we've just passed and take a food break while looking around for the descent, which isn't obvious (even though it's supposed to be). Meanwhile another team of two catches up to us. After looking at the map we decide that we aren't on the actual peak yet and continue along the ridge. More fun ridge scrambling (yay!) and then the actual peak (including a sad cross) comes into view. We do the last bit up, take some pics from the narrow peak, and then head down to the W "ridge", which is obvious at this point. The other two opt to follow us down instead of continuing along the ridge. The descent is steep, but not hard and it's pretty easy to follow a mix of cairns and use trail down, down to a small saddle where we leave the ridge to the N. More scrambling and descending and we end up on a big talus field with the final descent couloirs in view. Down, down we go across the talus to a nice green nob where we have a quick food break and pack the climbing gear away. We realize that we've come down to the wrong couloir, so after the break we head back up 50m or so and traverse to the correct couloir. This is an easy steep descent and we're back down on a more normal slope in no time. Across the grass to the path to the hut we followed earlier in the day and then up, up to the hut. Dinner, some view admiring, and then we're off to bed.

We were a lot more efficient on the second part of the ridge. We had a bit less rope out (maybe 12m) and focused on placing slings or cams to try and ensure that there was always one piece of protection between us instead of always using rock spikes and really minimizing the amount of time with both of us on the same side of the ridge (we still did some of that, but tried to keep moving as much of the time as possible).

Track:

Stats: 6:40, 7.8km, ~1030m up and down

Monday: Couronne de Breonna traverse

We're underway at 7:15 after a good breakfast. Today we're both a bit nervous about the approach to the planned route since it's not obvious how straightforward it's going to be to get off the (easy) glacier or to manage the last steep bit up to the Col de la Couronne. We follow the marked path down to the glacier, put on the crampons, cross the dry glacier (we come off near a big cairn with a pole sticking out of it), stash the crampons and ice axes under a rock, and then follow the clear use trail easily up to the top of the moraine. A bit along the moraine and then another (less clear) use trail takes us off to the left and up, up towards tht col. We end up being able to follow this more or less all the way to the top (we lose the trail in the talus fields, but it's always possible to find it again).

At the col we have a quick snack, enjoy the views, put on the gear, and start the climb. Another team shows up as we're leaving, but they end up being considerably slower than us. We start with two pitches for the first steep bit and then use the same efficient ridge technique as on Sunday to do last bit up to the Clocher de la Couronne. We find the abseil anchor, do the 5 abseils down to the saddle, and then continue along the main ridge. This has six towers, some of which we go over and some we go around, the topo is good and there's almost always a use trail indicating the right direction. Plenty of scrambling fun on the ridge with a bit of easy climbing mixed in. We do another food break and enjoy the views before the last steep bit of climbing (there's even an actual bolt in this part... crazy!) and then at some point we reach the peak. This isn't totally obvious on the ridge, but that's not so important anyway... we're just continuing along the ridge and down to the Col de Breonna. :-)

There are apparently one or two places where you can abseil, but we end up just downclimbing everything and have more fun scrambling the rest of the way along the ridge and to the col. Another food break, pack away the gear, plan our strategy for heading back down, and then off we go. We take a distance-efficient route back down to the blue-white path which will lead us to our gear... this is a nice walk, but it probably would have been more time-efficient to head more or less directly along the use trail to the blue-white path. Anyway... once on the trail we follow it along the moraine. There are a surprising number of day trippers on this trail; likely they are all just taking advantage of the relatively easy apporach to get close to a glacier. Back at our gear we put on the crampons, re-cross the glacier (now there's a group doing crevasse rescue practice), pack everything away on the other side, and then head up up to the hut.

Back at the hut we have some cake and spend a relaxed afternoon enjoying the nice weather, views, and chaos on the terrace. Dinner, more views, and off to bed.

This was another really good day of climbing and scrambling. It felt like we were pretty efficient for most of the day and didn't spend too much time messing around with the gear or doing unnecessary pitches.

Track:

Stats: 8:35, 10.8km, ~1200m up and down

Tuesday: Zinal via the Col du Pigne

The weather forecast is a bit dodgy, so we aren't clear what we're going to do until after we've had breakfast and checked the radar. Things look stable enough to take the more interesting route, so after packing up all our stuff we follow the blue-white path up up to the Col du Pigne. It's only a short bit along the ridge to get to the Pigne de la Le from here, but we opt to skip that and just head down the other side towards Zermatt. The first bit of the descent is in terrain where it's nice to have the trail there (steep, not great footing) but then things flatten out a bit and the walking gets easy. Great views of the other side of the Aiguilles de la Le and what would be great views across the valley except for the low clouds. Down, down we head, with a very small amount of rain and hail along the way. Down in the green we pass a couple of groups heading up towards the hut. We go past a big group of ibexes just hanging out and chilling in a group of rocks (boy do they not care about us being there!). Down, down we go until hitting the red-white path which takes us the rest of the way down to the valley floor. There are tons of people down here! The last bit is flat along a trail/road next to the river until we get to the edge of Zinal. Here we head to the bus stop and start the long trip back to Basel.

Stats: 3:50, 10.6km, 360m up, ~1500m down

Track from the whole trip: