Feldschijen - Rayo Delgado (6b, first ascent)

During our visit of the Feldschijen west-ridge (not to be confused with its bigger brother, the Salbitschijen west-ridge) we enjoyed a nice view of the surrounding rock faces, and their features. In particular, the face towards the south boasted a series of prominent cracks, which had not been climbed - as far as we knew - how exciting! Soon, we returned prepared to claim this obvious line, wondering how nobody had seen it before. Well, if I had looked a bit closer during our late descent from the west-ridge, I would have noticed the bolts...did we bring all the heavy gear for nothing? Fortunately, no! A couple dozen meters next to the original target, we spotted a thin crack running up the steep face. It looks so thin! Is it fingers? Could be heavy. And even worse, over a few critical meters the crack seemed closed...is this part climbable? As we can now report happily, it is, and nicely so! Due to its thin (hands) character, we decided to name these four pitches Rayo Delgado (100m, 6b).

View from the Feldschijen west-ridge: Rayo Delgado (red), and an unknown route (green).

Position plan: The face of Rayo Delgado is located south of the popular west-ridge.

P1 6a 15m
Starting from a big block, which can be slinged for belay, you approach a splitter which opens upwards from finger to hand width. A #0.75 protects the tricky entrance into the crack, whereas the #2 at the easier top part is more because you can. Traverse to the left along a big, thin flake, and establish yourself on the ledge, from where you can clip the only intermediate bolt of the whole route. Originally, we even climbed the subsequent crack trace on gear, but the placements are quite dubious, and it made sense to defuse this section on our way down. At the end of the crack trace, an okay #1 placement protects your transition onto the mossy ledge. Here you find a single bolt for an optional belay stance, which can be reinforced with #0.5. With precautions about rope drag, and sufficient gear you can also link the first two pitches.

Ground view of Rayo Delgado.

First pitch (6a) with cam-size markers, which correspond to the Black Diamond color scheme.

P2 6b 20m
Now you are getting to the beef of the route, twenty meters of steep, continuous, clean jamming! The first few meters are probably the hardest, #0.5 fits all the way. This means thin hands to ring lock size for most people, but the real challenge is to squeeze your toes into the crack, as feet are otherwise pretty absent on the face. Once the cracks tends to the left, it gets noticeably easier, as it widens to #1. Use this section to rest, because the finish is quite pumpy! When the crack turns vertical again, it becomes thinner, too. Save your spare #0.5 for higher up, and rather use a #0.4 here. In contrast to the initial thin hand section, this section is more jagged, which makes it a bit easier. However, the crack suddenly ends, and only continues about a meter to the right. Connecting this span works out surprisingly well, given you could save some steam up to this point. The last few meters to the belay eat #0.75, which is a slightly nicer width, additionally the face also leans back a bit.

Nicolas enjoying the perfect splitter in P2 (6b).

Drone view of beefy P2 (6b).

P3 6a 35m
The jamming continues at a slightly more relaxed angle, and the width increases to about #1. While the first part is pretty splitter, you meet some hollowish columns in the upper section, which require proper judgment about gear placement, but there is still plenty of occasion for solid placements. Eventually, the cracks widens further to #2, and enters a pretty disgusting corner, which takes #3. In contrast to the iron-hard rock before, here the rock seems somewhat dissolved, similar to a petrified sponge structure, which is happily inhabited by moss. Moreover, the exit of the corner is full of loose rock. Not hard to climb, but quite unnerving. Afterwards good rock and splitter cracks resume, which enables a nice #0.5 placement. Lastly, you may tackle another splitter crack to the left, or go easy and reach the belay from the right.

Outlook on the lower part of P3 (6a).

Drone view of the lower part of P3 (6a).

Drone view of the upper part of P3 (6a).

P4 6a 30m
While the rock looks much better again, beware of loose blocks - you will find the first right after the belay. We considered it too big for disposal, as the consequences of launching such a bomb on the quite-frequented, and from this point covert descent path of the west-ridge could have been devastating. Similarly, the rest also requires cautious moving, before you finally reach a short, but steep splitter, which takes #0.5. On top of that, take the grooved ramp to the left, where you can use #0.4 for the final step to the belay. The route ends not quite on top, because the last part traverses up through more dubious terrain, which is a) hard to protect b) hard to rappel back c) way less interesting than the previous pitches.

Outlook on the last pitch (6a).

Drone view of the last pitch (6a).

Summary

Feldschijen - Rayo Delgado 6b (6a obl.) - 4 pitches, 100m, Nicolas Schmid & Viktor Wegmayr

Gear: 2x BD C4 #0.4-#1 + 1x BD C4 #2 & #3. A third piece of each #0.5, and #0.75 is helpful. Small/Medium stoppers could be useful, but not obligatory.

Fixed Protection: Bolted belays, equipped for rappeling.

While the second pitch of Rayo Delgado certainly deserves five stars, even the most enthusiastic splitter fans will hesitate at the two hour approach. It makes sense to plan a combination with the unknown off-width adventure (marked in green) next door, which will amount to a reasonable climbing-to-hiking ratio. Both routes are on the same NW-face, which is ideal for hot days. Unfortunately, the rock quality of Rayo Delgado drops from awesome on the first half to alpine on the second half. The proposed grades are geared towards the specific style of crack climbing, and are most likely not compatible with common face climbing grades. Even if the overall route has to be considered inferior to nearby classics such as Sännätuntschi, we definitely had a blast discovering this line :) Credit to Nicolas for the amazing drone footage!

Happy first ascent team :)

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