A Summer in the Alps

N.B. this is a climbing post = not suitable for parents.

I spent the months before our Alps trip obsessively reading and re-reading our select guidebook. Our potential destination changed week on week Arolla to the Ecrins, to Bregalia until finally it settled on central Switzerland. I had not known of anyone going there but if my friends at Fildor described it as a plasir (pleasure) climbing mecca I was willing to believe them. Not only that but it was certified snow free, Naomi’s most important condition. Even better both the climbs rated number 1 and 2 in the UKC article on the best mulitpitches in Europe were there (http://www.ukclimbing.com/articles/page.php?id=7414). This blog is information about that area for those interested in visiting and hopefully is entertaining even to those who aren’t. But first if you’re too lazy to read the full article here’s the wisdom we gained from a summer in the Alps distilled:

750m of climbing and 5 abseils takes a long time

Just because you understand German doesn’t mean you will understand Swiss German

Bum sliding down a snow slope is the quickest but not necessarily safest way of descending on snow

A nightmare shared is a nightmare halved, unless they’re kicking rocks down on you in which case it’s a nightmare doubled

The technical difficulty of an alpine route is not as important as how easy it is to get lost and how high the risk is of injury is.

If a hotshot Swiss climber says the descent route is bad, don’t do it

It’s best to start an abseil in a controlled fashion, rather than somersaulting headfirst off the cliff

If your shoes are uncomfortable after one pitch, they probably won’t have got better by the 11^th

It’s best not to leave your girlfriend at the top of a route without a belay device or prusik

Swiss children climb better than you do (yes, pretty much all of them)

The fact that it’s supposed to be graded only 3c is irrelevant if you can’t find where the route goes

Naomi is really not a big fan of down climbing

Alpine ridges often involve a lot of down climbing

It’s easy to give advice on route direction from the belay, it’s also easy to be wrong

The further you are from the bolt, the less it feels like a sport route

If everything goes to plan abseiling usually takes half as long as the climbing

No matter how careful you are ropes have very devious ways of getting themselves stuck

Climbing literally hold-less granite is unnerving no matter how slabby it may be

How to climb like the French def. using holds which are usually not allowed e.g. bolts, gear, the head of the person behind you.

 

Getting there

There are reams of words written every spring on UKC on the topic of driving to the Alps. For Switzerland though it’s a bit of a no brainer as driving through Belgium and Liechtenstein is so much cheaper than paying French tolls with the added satisfaction of not giving the French money to waste on smelly cheeses and berets. Having got the ferry to Dunkirk we aimed to get there in a day, for some reason. We got about half way, stopping at the lovely town of Munster in France, which does have some climbing but good luck getting hold of the guidebook.

Getting around

The area is made up of a square of high mountain pass roads with the climbing spread out along the roads making a car pretty much essential. Irritatingly this also makes it a motor biking hotspot and bike noise perpetually reverberates down the valleys. This noise is only escaped by getting up into the mountains or into the centre of the square at Goshenental.

Bases 

The three campsites at Innertkirchen are a much of muchness. Stay a week and get a day free. The campsite at Gadmen is nice but full of proper climbers. The campsite at Andermatt is expensive and rubbish. It’s best to camp in the carkpark up the Furkapass which, despite the Swiss supposedly being hot on enforcing the prohibition on wild camping is like a travelers settlement of campervans and motorhomes.

The areas

Sustenpass – The Sustenpass has a wealth of contrasting climbing. There are some great beginner sport multi-pitches in the valley contrasted with super hard extreme routes on the huge Dolomites like wall above Gadmen. There is also popular bouldering over the pass and some lesser known alpine routes which do not feature in the plasir guides.

Grimselpass – The Grimselpass is the jewel in the crown of the area’s plasir climbing, although the Swiss definition of plasir does maybe not fit entirely with our own. Filled with granite slabs so slabby they make Fairy Cave Quarry feel like Parisella’s cave. There are also some great mixed routes (trad and sport) and some alpine stuff as well.

Furkapass – Possibly the best place to go alpine rock climbing both sport and mixed with some superb ridges. The area has some great walls and ridges a lovely hut and is mercilessly away from the bikers screeching. Many of the routes are long bolted or mixed routes on beautiful golden granite.

Goshenental – Probably even better than the Furkapass it has the famous Salbit and its ridges, and also some great ridges and faces from the Bergsee hut. The hut itself is a particularly good one run by a local legend and with the unexpectedly warm Bergsee lake. Everything is properly away from the road in a lovely setting.

Using the plasir guides

Plasir is very much a misnomer, unless you find climbing E2 a pleasant, stress-free experience. We had a mini-celebration a week into our trip when we climbed our first route that was not judged suitable for families and children. The guides are great but learning to read them as a Brit was very much a process of trial and error. Sitting at home dreaming of a route which was graded 5 seemed like a great choice until I understood how the grading worked. Key to assessing a standard valley climb is the grade and the obligatory grade, which function a bit like uk trad adjectival grades. If a route is graded 5b with an obligatory grade of 4b you know that the difficulties will probably be short lived and next to bolts so easily aided if need be. However a grade of 5b with obligatory 5b could be a very different proposition potentially sustained 5b with moves above or in some cases well above bolted protection. The plasir guides use the scale below for rating the protection on routes:

Super – more like the sport climbing we are used to. Cruxes are well protected although on the easier sections it’s still possible to ‘loose the route’.

Gut+ – bolts are more spaced and if you are climbing at or near your limit you probably want to supplement your rack with trad gear, much of the rock has no opportunity to place it but still it might make you feel a little better.

Gut – not good, spaced bolts

So, so – take a spare pair of underwear, yes euro climbers aren’t the pussies you thought they were, are they? You’d be forgiven for not realising that these are bolted, probably just a few bolts a pitch with bolted belays.

Alpin – trad. Make sure you have said a proper goodbye to your loved ones, or better still bring them along for some relationship building fun.

This rating system falls down when it comes to UK trad climbers as it gives no real idea of how well protected a route is by trad gear. A ‘so so’ route could be safe as houses with a full rack whereas a ‘gut’ could be spaced bolts with no opportunity for placements. There you have to rely on the crack symbol, if it’s not there then there is probably little opportunity to place gear.

Beware fairy cavers, Swiss slabs are graded accurately. Fortunately this system is easy to understand with anything from 5c+ downwards just about possible and 6a and above only possible if you were born in Switzerland and learnt to walk in Anasazis.

Alpine rock routes

Alpine rock routes are presented in the guide in the same way as the valley sport routes which is rather misleading (philosophical questions about exactly what classes as an alpine climb aside), although they do have letter which correspond to certain aspects of the climb (e.g. if you need snow gear) which we had ‘fun’ translating. The lack of a route description makes finding the start and route finding on the route challenging at times. Of the major ridges we did, the technically hardest was the easiest and vice versa due to difficult route finding, length, lack of fixed protection (or any protection sometimes) and loose rock. With retreat difficult at best these routes need to be taken seriously. These were both the best and most ‘memorable’ experiences of our trip.

A selection of some of the best routes we did:

The flying carpet – Grimselpass

11 pitches of low grade slab climbing perfection. One of the most aptly named climbs I’ve ever done.

 Sudkante – Grimselpass

The Mittagfluh is gneiss and so offers a good contrast to the ridiculously slabby stuff in the rest of the valley. The wall gets slowly steeper and steeper until the stunning final pitches. Routes are mixed as well which keeps up the interest. The walk off is, as one ukc user put it, a never ending descent from hell and it’s probably best to ignore the guidebook and abseil if at all possible, even if it means waiting for people below you.

 The Klein Bielenhorn – Furkapass 

The perfect intro to moving on alpine rock and consequently very popular, nicely positioned just above the hut. It even has an aid section unless you can free climb 7b, which you can’t.

The Gross Furkahorner ESE-Grat – Furkapass

An incredible route, probably the best route we did. The climbing is stunning, particularly the outrageous final pitch with some steep moves on outlandish jugs and then a pad for glory up the summit arête with the belay on the summit block.

 Schijenstock Sudgrat – Goshenental

750m of easy climbing with five abseils, sounds delightful doesn’t it. Dubbed the Jenga Ridge it’s the descent gully where the fun really begins (put it this way a highly experienced Swiss climber suggested going a couple of hours out of our way over unknown ground just to avoid it). Note the plasir topo is incorrect; follow the new line of bolts, if you notice them, which I didn’t. Better still do something else.