Multipitch Climbing Reports

During early spring the choice of multipitch destinations is relatively limited - if you consider a comfortable day-trip radius (with Zurich at its center ;) The route should be at low altitude (if you happen not to own skies), and preferably on a south-face. The Föhnmauer close to Sargans offers both, making it a close to all-year destination. The classic route is probably Megusta (7a+, 7 pitches) which we had climbed already in 2019. It went free, but the crux pitch took a few breaks to shake off the pump...so while our first priority was to have a great day out, we certainly had a bit of ambition to get the redpoint, too. Unfortunately, my climbing partner's date was not as understanding as expected, and everybody else had made arrangements already...classic ;) Such situations are usually the motivation to dig out my solo kit. I certainly don't prefer rope-soloing over climbing with a partner, as it is by far not as much fun, and pretty tedious, too. But if the objective all...

During spring, it is always a pleasure to visit the village of Orvin, and its nearby crags. There are numerous sectors, mostly with moderate routes, and even short multipitch routes. My personal favourite is the sector Grand Lame, which offers superb slab & crack climbing. Well, some people might say that the terms superb/slab/crack don't go together...Or that you simply don't climb cracks in limestone, if you are sane or not completely insensitive to pain :D While there is no accounting for climbing taste, there certainly is accounting for where you park your car. Please respect the prohibition signs, and park reasonably! Otherwise, it is very likely that cars will be banned even from the tolerated parking spaces. In fact, it seems that this has happened already at the former parking space in the road bend from where you could reach Grande Lame in about 30 min. Now you need to park at Les Prés-D'Orvin, which adds another 1.1 km to the approach, and thus almost doubles ...

The Jura crags are a nice place to visit during the early season, in particular the south-faces, such as those at La Heutte. While we had climbed at the sector Le Paradis o n an earlier occasion,  we decided to check out the sector Bonnes Fontaines this time. It offers two short multipitch routes, and a small, but fine selection of crag routes in three close-by sectors. At Nostalgique lots of cracks split a big slab, which offer options for moderate (trad) climbing. The sector Secret Land exhibits huge and very steep bulges in great rock. The rock  at Tintin is good, too, but again a mix of steep slabs and cracks. The sector Secret Land - next time! L'Amicale 6b+ (3 pitches) L1 6b This route starts next to the sector La Nostalgique, together with identically named multipitch route La  Nostalgique (5c, 5 pitches, glue-in bolts). While ...