A Jura hike: Laufen to Neumühle

It's still too snowy/uncertain in the Alps and Voralpen, so we take advantage of the good weather with another nice day hike in the Jura.

through woods...

...fields...

...and meadows...

We sometimes forget how great it is to just walk through the lovely green Jura. This was a good reminder. Very nice hiking ending at Neumühle, directly on the border to France. Here the usual post-hike refreshments turned into some eating too: the Neumühleplättli that went by just looked too good, so we had to order our own. We weren't disappointed. :-)

Climbing and hiking above Biel

We spent Thursday through Saturday of the long weekend doing some climbing and hiking in the Jura. Andrea found a good location above La Heutte, the weather was good, we had a nice place to stay (the Metairie Werdtberg, which provided both good food and great views), it was a good weekend.

Day 1: After arriving at La Heutte by train we walk up to the climbing area Bonnes Fontaines. It's not super early, but there's still just one other couple where we are. Nice! We do:

• Les Enfoires
• Les Daltons
• Lucky Luke
• Yop (in the SAC book, but not Plaisir Jura)

Andrea also practice setting protection on her second time up Les Daltons. Greg got frustrated with that quickly and just climbed.

We then moved up to Innocent Love and Peaceful (also in the SAC book), but those were being camped at by a group who didn't seem to understand that it was ok to share a stand. Rather than argue, we set off and did the long, multipitch Arete ouest. This wasn't necessarily in our plan for the day, but we wanted to do some more climbing and had plenty of time, so off we went. The route is classic Jura mulit-pitch: a combination of bolts and trees for protection, trees for stands, etc. The hardest pitch was 4c, so we did the route in our approach shoes. There were a couple of bits where the route-finding wasn't completely obvious and where it was nice to have a tree available to wrap a sling around, and Greg managed to drop his ATC off the mountain (yay!), but it's a lot of fun. At the top of the route we follow trail markers for a bit and then just follow the ridge (and some faint traces of path) up to p1160, where we pick up the road that takes us to the hotel for the night. After post-exertion beverages enjoying the panoramic view of the Alps we shower, have a nice meal, and enjoy the rest of a quiet evening.

Day 2: Despite the earliest start we can get (it's tough when breakfast doesn't start until 8!), there are already a number of groups at the climbing area Le Paradis when we arrive. We make the wrong choice and start with the first pitch of Free Gras. By the time we realize that this is way too easy, the route we should have started on (Metatarses) is occupied. We try to make do by both climbing up to the top of Free Gras and climbing from there, but by the time Andrea has completed the first pitch of Ca Pique Greg things are crowded and Greg is pretty pissed off with the noise (particularly the barking dog). We bail and head around the corner, where the routes are shorter, but things are at least a bit quieter. We do a number of short, but varied, routes that aren't in our book and play around for a while. In the late afternoon we decide that we have enough time to do the multi-pitch Arete du Faucon. This certainty evaporates (for Greg) after we encounter the first group in front of us - after the first extended pitch - and can already see at least one group in front of them. We opt to head back down (requiring a bit of improvisation since Greg lost his ATC on day 1). All in all not an optimal day of climbing, we're both not completely thrilled as we head back to the hotel.

Day 3: The forecast is still quite good, at least until the afternoon, and we don't really want to risk another frustrating day of crowded climbing, so we decide to hike. A long hike with the heavy packs is going to be training, and the views are pretty damn good. The route isn't complicated: just follow the ridge. We very much enjoy the hiking, have a great meal at Untergrenchenberg, then head down to Grenchen where we get the train back go Basel.

Clean climbing practice at the Bärenfels

We had a decent weather (though a bit cool) day so we set out with our new gear to practice clean climbing at the Bärenfels.

Greg ended up losing his motivation after pretty much the first route, but Andrea had a successful day of practicing setting protection on a few routes:

• Beta + Penny Lane (combined) a couple times
• Verborgener Traum twice

We even managed to find a good place to test her placements: they held. :-)

Back to the Gerstelgrat

A great weather day, but still too early to head into higher mountains, so we did a Jura tour. Since we wanted something at least somewhat adventurous, we opted for the Gerstelgrat. We did this almost exactly a year ago (52 weeks).

This time greg led most of the way (real progress here, he wouldn't have been able to do that last year) and we walked out on the North side of the ridge (a nicer walk than the Southern route we took last time). It was another very nice tour, we need more things like this in the area! :-)

Clean climbing course

We were really excited to find an introductory clean climbing course offered by Silvan, the climbing instructor we spent the week in Sicily with back in 2012. Fortunately the weather also played along. The course took place in Tessin, in the Ponte Brolla area, so we got to enjoy the Tessin sunshine (and the long train ride) for the second week in a row.

We started in the east sector of the wall with some philosophy and the very basics: how to set nuts and friends. Then, after some practice and lunch, we split into two groups. Our group went around to the "front" of the crag, through parts of the burned out area, and up to a set of routes where we could practice. The idea was to practice setting protection next to bolted routes so that we could start getting used to the gear and how it's used. And, most importantly, so that we could test our placements by setting a piece of protection and then jumping backwards. A great way to make sure you're doing things properly and to gain some trust in the gear and the way you're using it.
Routes: Pizzoccheri (4b), Rübezahl (4b) or Noggeli (5a) or a combination thereof, and Sunneblume (5a) following the crack rather than the bolts to get to the top of Noggeli.

After the fun afternoon the whole group walked to a nearby rustico where we were staying the night. We made dinner as a group and then had a long evening sitting around the table telling the usual kinds of stories. :-)

Sunday was similar to Saturday afternoon, just in a different sector. Sector East, the beginning of Leicht lang; then along the crack in the region of Am Anfang War Das Feuer; Greg tried Tutto, and then did  La Fessura.
After the climbing the whole group got together again and Silvan showed us the basics of setting up a stand. After some practice of that we all walked out and we started the long train ride back to Basel.

We learned a lot at the course and enjoyed ourselves. Getting comfortable with setting our own protection really expands our ability to do stuff in the mountains. I see a large hardware purchase in our not-too-distance future. :-)