Eldorado - Yeti (6c)

Together with Dave, we had saved the date of our Eldorado weekend a while ago, and were delighted to see that the persistent rain of the past weeks should come to an end just in time! Full of ambition, we hiked in Friday night, deliberately ignoring the drenched trail, and the cloudy ambience. One dry night would make all the water streaks disappear, wouldn't it!? After 90 minutes hiking we arrived at the bivouac, which was dry, fortunately. Our access could have been slightly faster, if the dam trail had been open, but it seems that it will remain closed for the duration of the dam renovation. Anyway, we set the alarm to 4:30am in expectation of a long climbing day :) No issues during the night, just some mosquitos, and noisy air mats. Our (first) target of the next day was Septumania, but we were a bit disenchanted when we found that the beautiful water runnels actually carried water...who would have thought that!? Nevertheless, we pushed on, and somehow negotiated the first two pitches, nervously trying not to step into the stream of water, which would have removed the last bit of friction between shoes and rock. At the third pitch we finally had to accept our defeat, and bailed back to the base. What we had envisioned as an early morning walk had put quite a damper on us, and even more had left us with drenched ropes...time for reconsideration. Which route could work? Maybe Forces Motrices, which was said to be mainly slabs - so let's go! Indeed, the first pitches were dry, and we made it until the end of pitch three - before yet another big stream of water shut the way. What now!? Determined to reach the top somehow, we spotted the bolts of Yeti's third pitch, and decided to traverse into this route, as it looked dry (enough) above and beyond. As it turned out later, we had found our eventual way to the top! During the morning, we had also observed two other parties in Motörhead, but they probably had to bail, as we never got in touch again with them afterwards. During the afternoon, conditions got increasingly better, and after the abseil via Hirnriss, we caught up on the first two pitches of Yeti that we had missed during the morning:

L1 6a+
Polished white marble slab (Yeti!), difficult first clip. Could serve as a standard for the limit of friction climbing!

L2 6a
Negotiates steep step to the left, followed by an obligatory slab crux, finishes with juggy corner.

L3 6a+

Corner continues chimney-like, easy traverse, finish on face with distant pockets, for once well protected.

L4 6a

Sustained slab, keep looking for the path of least resistance, still a mental affair.

L5 6a
Initially along a nice crack groove, later steep nasty crack, difficult to protect (use #1 in righthand-side pocket).

L6 6c (6c obl.)
Juggy crack leads into delicate face climbing on side-crimps with obligatory, and mental crux section. 

L7 6a+
Yet another delicate slab.

L8 6a

More run-out slab with a short section of grassy ledges.

L9 5c
Thin diagonal crack, crux where it fades. Easy, but run-out corner, final slab to belay.

L10 5c

Delicate traverse, slabby corner.

L11 5c

Very mental start over round hump on side-crimps, bad feet, and ledge below...leads into sustained slab.

L12 5c

Relatively easy steps with nice flakes, topped off by a little bit of slab.

L13 5a+

Apparently not hard enough to cause more lasting memories...

L14 5a+

Moderate slab, linked with previous pitch.

Impression: Yeti is a different beast...compared to Motörhead or Metal Hurlant it felt considerably more committing. The character is dictated by slabs, while the appeal of the crack sections in L5/6 suffers a bit from grass, and difficult protection in some places. On the up-side, Yeti is little affected by water streaks.
Protection: Sparse fixed pro, frequently no pro possible  

Gear: Cams #0.3-2, stoppers

Climbing time: ~ 6:30 h

Notes on rappel via Hirnriss:
11x 40-45m straight rappels, quite unproblematic
first rappel: pull light rope (to avoid difficult pull on 8th rappel = uncomfortable belay in corner)
50-55min descent time for efficient parties

Overview of Eldorado, the golden city of climbing (picture by Filidor).

Polished white marble: the first pitch of Yeti (6a++).

Looking back at pitch 2 (6a).

Moving carefully in the grassy-wet section of the crack in L5 (6a).

Nice crack before the challenging 6c face-crux in L6. 

One of the many slabs, here in L7 (6a+).

Preview of L8 (6a) - the route passes the roof at the horizon around its left corner.

Thin diagonal crack at the start of L9 (5c).

Slabby corner in L10 (5c).

Just past the crux, and first clip...mental start in L11 (5c++).

Easy steps on juggy flakes in L12 (5c).

Finally on top!