John Young joined me for his annual summer alpine climbing trip. We have a fairly well established template. This is to search out places that John has never been [exetremely difficult] and to find beautiful classic climbs that also provide a high degree of solitude.
Even in Chamonix this is possible and on our first day we eased back into some rock climbing by climbing high above la Flegere on the excellent Eperon Sublime.
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| Eperon Sublime |
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| John pulling over the final difficulty |
On our second day we headed of to the Ticino region off Switzerland, where they speak Italian. This involved us driving over the Nufenen Pass and then down the other side to All Acqua, where we parked the car and walked up to the excellent Cabane Piansecco. Although there were a few other walking parties, John and I were the only climbers.
Therefore for our ascent of Porcine di Cassini Baggio 2860meters we were alone. It was a long rocky ridge which was harder to pronounce its name than it was to climb it. We were able to climb 99% of it by moving together and only stopped when we had to make a couple of rappels off the 2nd and 3rd towers.
The view from the summit towards the mighty Oberland peaks was our reward.
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| looking towards the Oberland |
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| John descending what was left of the glacier |
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| crampons might have been useful |
The real challange only started when we reached the top. We were meant to descend down a simple glacier and pick up the path back to the Hut at the col. However the glacier had practically gone which left us downclimbing through huge unstable boulders which were both tedious and disconcerting.
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| Some path! |
We eventually arrived firstly back at the hut then continued back to the car. Exhaughsted. "Fortunately" it rained the next couple of days which meant we werent obligated to do anything and allowed us to recover.
After which we embarked on part two of our adventure. We drove around to Switzerland and climbed in the beautiful Saleinaz valley on a great little route called Jardine Traverse.
It had the added advantage of it was minutes walk from the car. After we finished the climb we continued around to Villars with the intention of climbing the swiss classic the Miroir d'Argentine. We spent the night in an African themed hotel called the Wafo. It was unniquely decorated complete with Leopard and Zebra skin rugs. The rooms were comfortable, dinner was good, yet breakfast didn't happen because the staff over slept.
The approach to the Miroir d'Argentine is steep and brutal through forest which was more than akin to jungle.
Our route was to be the classic Voie de L'Y. It was easy to find because it had a helpful metal plaque at the bottom. This was the first route of the week where we had actually seen any other climbers. [It being Saturday and high season on one of Switzerlands famous craggs is hardly surprising.]
Mind you, we were quite happy to find other climbers because after the first two pitches there is a break in the route. I really struggled to find the continuation and it was only when I saw other climbers as a head of us that I was able to find a way.
Above the break the route really gets going and it has an excellent climbing on it although it is still tricky to find the right line.
In the middle of the climb, John cut his finger, and when he arrived at the belay, I was alarmed to see that it was spurting blood everywhere. Fortunately we were able to patch up his finger with a combination of plasters and duck tape. He did, however, leave a trail of blood, which must've been disconcerting for the group following us!
On reaching the summit the route is by no means over. The descent involves quite a tricky traverses above some huge drops before meeting the normal path on the way down. Yet it takes a long meandering route back to the valley. There is a faster direct "climbers path" which we choose to take, but it is very steep with lots of no fall no slip zones on shale paths which were impossible to protect. Unimaginable if it was wet.
Finally when we were heading through the beautiful meadows at the bottom we came across a random wedding!
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| The wedding party |
We then drove around to Les Diablerts where we spent the night. We were in serious calorie deficit .
The following morning, Sunday, we headed to Gastlosen in the Fribourg region. We climbed the excellent "Glenfidich for William" [ No idea what the back story is to the name]. The climbing was good but it did seem quite hard for its grade, or we were still tired from the previous days excursions.
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| John on the third oitch of Glenfiddich |
We really lucked out by finding a fabulous road side hotel - The Hotel Wasserfall in Jaun.
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| The excellent Hotel du Cascade. |
The plan the next day was to do the complete traverse of the Gastlosen.
Having parked the car we embarked on yet another steep path/scramble to the Oberbergpass. The climb starts at the col. To our surprsie we were joined by a local Guide who was as suprised as us to see anyone else. It didn't take long for him to climb over and through us and he was long gone. We climbed the several pitches ahead of us, which were far more difficult than we had expected and eventually arrived on the summit of the Eggturn.
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| Gastlosen |
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| 1st couple of pitches on the Eggturn |
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| John taking a "moment" |
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| Summit Eggturn |
It had taken us a lot longer than we would have wanted. The guide book suggested we could by-pass a couple of towers by following some yellow paint markers. We found the yellow paint markers but some how got taken way off route and ended up on some very nasty ground. The time was now against us and when we found a convient abandoned rappel rope we used it to escape and headed down. A party had evidently made the same mistake as us and had to leave what appeared to be a brand new rope.
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| The retreat |
After a night of recovery spent on the side of Lake Geneva, we headed back to Martigny where we climbed on the crag Tara Club. We did the excellent AGMBV. This route can be found in the brilliant Entroment Escalades guide book.
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| Dinner Lake Geneva |
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| Climbing is all about packing and unpacking |
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| John on the final pitch |
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| Lunch at Col des Planches |
On our final day the forecast was poor - but we still had time to do the short but sweet Via Ferratta in le Buet , before it started to rain.
Thus ending a memorable ten days varied climbing.
