Multipitch Climbing Reports

Having climbed the six pitches of Bijou in the morning, our plan for the afternoon was Lichtmeer, which offers another six pitches between 5b-6b. Another party had engaged earlier (the only other party on that day), but they had a comfortable head-start, so that we did not need to worry about being in each other's way (or so we thought). Similar to Bijou, the base of Lichtmeer is marked with a little silver plate. Due to a large block, the snow had retreated faster at this point of the base, so that we could  directly  embark on the first pitch. Still, a considerable amount of dirt covered the first few meters, but nothing that a bit of cleaning could not solve. Enter the world of old school slabs...Lichtmeer (6b) at Sandbalm. L1 5b The saving flake seems so close, but that distance (the very first meters from the ground) are a legitimate entry test. The face is super slabby, and clipping the first bolt is everything but comfortable. I wonder how you would place that bolt on ...

Finally, a day with flawless weather forecast! A rare occurrence during this spring, which almost went by before it even started. Yet, many destinations are still (!) affected by snow, or the runnels that it causes. Judging by the webcams, I thought there might be a chance that the routes at Sandbalm (~1500m altitude, east-facing) allowed for climbing. Fortunately, we were not disappointed, even though some parts of the face had actual streams flowing down...but thanks to the instinct of the first-ascensionist the routes largely avoid these sections. Our plan was to start with the classic route Bijou, and link it with Lichtmeer , to climb a total of twelve pitches. At this time of the year, the sun gets to the base of the climbs around 7:30, and stays until about 15:30. The runnels seem to increase during the day. The Sandbalm dome in the Voralptal at Göschenen, home to some great old-school slabs. L1 5c As there was still old snow at the base we traversed in at the first...

Lately, the weather has been a pretty persistent party pooper. So this is how we stopped worrying and learned to love the cold and wet...An obvious destination for spring, the Schafberg face at Wildhaus, had been over-due anyway. The forecast predicted that rain would fade until 9am, and that clouds would progressively disappear afterwards. While far from ideal, it was good enough to let us succumb to our optimism (=wishful thinking). When we arrived "late" at Wildhaus (~10:30am), it became obvious that our original objective (Bridge of Light), which features many meters of corner cracks, was clearly out of the question. However, the west part of the Schafberg face did look relatively dry, so we quickly settled for Frospfeiler which promised five  sustained  pitches on the steep pillar. There are no bad conditions, just the lack of optimism X) L1 6b Steep indeed, at least compared to the otherwise predominant Schafberg slabs. Just moments after joking about how low the fi...

In the past I had always rather flicked past the topo of Freggio, thinking it was too much of a walk in the park. While it boasts 700m of climbing, out of its 22 pitches only four exceed 5a with the crux pitch being 5c+ (5a 1 p.a.). But this time, recovering from a bruised rib, it seemed like the ideal objective to have a great day out without straining the upper body too much. And indeed, on this route you are in for a pretty decent leg day! In particular, as the grades are rather old school - when flicking past the topo I had missed to take notice of the first ascendant Franz Anderrüthi (*1931  † 2020) - a famous Swiss climbing pioneer! I had only noticed the time of the first ascent (1989), which had seemed recent enough to conform with "modern" standards. Instead, the difficulties are always a noticeable tad higher than on paper. The protection before the intermediate exit after 14 pitches is on the lower end of "gut" (topo: gut+), afterwards the terrain gets ea...