North Face of Piz Badile and the Fridge-Trip

The weather was meant to be good for the next few days when I rolled into the Bergamo Airport. Waiting for my friend to land, I was hoping that we could finally try to climb the famous Voie Cassin on the northeast face of the Badile peak - a plan we had hatched almost a decade ago.

Vytas and I go back a long way. We grew up in the same town and we started climbing together in high school. In 2006, Saule, Vytas and I packed a guitar, a vintage climbing rack suitable for a museum and took a 36-hours trainride to climb the beautiful limestone walls of the Crimean peninsula. We were playing tunes, hitching rides, swimming in the sea, eating heaps of watermelon and even got to climb a couple of routes. Two years later, my parents lent me a car and we repeated the same ordeal, minus the train. This time, another lifetime friend Egle joined us for the shenanigans.

On top of the Faros cliff in 2006

I clearly do not remember what was going on during the trainride.

Zoom in to see the rack..

The crew in 2008

two years later, almost the same rack. Looking at this picture, I had a feeling that I've seen a picture like this very recently.

The cover of one of my daughter's books.

The last time we climbed together was in 2010, when we got up the Grand Charmoz, had a great party with my friends from LUMC in Cham and did a bunch of lines in Verdon. Our main plan was to climb the Badile, but the weather was too poor in that part of the hills. Later, life stuff got in the way of both of our trajectories and we almost haven't climbed together since. This year I got an email from Vytas whether I wanted to climb something with him over the summer and we didn't have to search long for an objective.

Scheming a plan.

The approach to the base of the Badile has become much longer after the massive landslide in 2017, but after several hours of hiking, we were enjoying the warm tea in our little cozy tent at the base of the North Ridge - arguably the best-looking line on the mountain, also one that we were going to be using for our descent.

We woke up way too early and started scrambling up the ridge and traversing at the base of the face. The meandering first half of the route had pretty convoluted routefinding, but the topo from Marcel was very accurate and let us proceed rather quickly.

The starting slabs

A couple of pitches were very pleasant

But then the chimneys started

I got to lead the diagonal first half of the route up to the midway ledge and a few more pitches. Vytas took over and got to climb the best pitches of the whole route. As I was about to get jealous, he then tackled the exit chimneys, which while being not difficult, are somewhat tedious on the lead. I was happily stemming on toprope without getting squeezed.

Vytas on the summit

Abseiling down the North Ridge. The helicopter is picking some people from the summit ridge.

We hit the ridge and another hour later were chilling on the summit. Our climb was great fun, a nice way to reconnect with a childhood friend and tick off a classic route. Yet, our blissfull climb was marred by sad news: While on the wall, we learned that our friend Vytautas Mazeika had a fatal accident on the way down from one of the Tacul satellites. Vytas made a couple of phone calls on the summit to get the updates and learn about what happened. We abseiled down the North Ridge, paying extra attention to safety. Midway down the ridge, we saw a rescue helicopter picking people from the top of the mountain; it felt very pertinent at that moment.

What made this loss truly sad was that Vytautas Mazeika was very devoted to the community. Ever positive, never competitive or arrogant, he was always ready to teach beginners, share knowledge and enthusiasm about the hills.

Vytas wanted to go back for the funeral, but while he was waiting to find out about the details, we still had a few days of climbing left. Not keen for a mountain epic, we chose to pursue, what is known as a 'Fridge-trip' - 'a trip through the friends' fridges, with a pretense of a rocktrip'. And so we went: In Zurich, we had great GnTs at Frieder's and a nice dinner with Laura and Martynas, during which we convinced them to join us for climbing in Furka.

Stoke is high. Energizing on the way to Furka.

Vytas and I went for the Conquest on Graue Wand. It was great climbing, but I was surprised to learn that one of the most famous pitches in the region is escapable by an easier crack on the right. Nevertheless, we went for the cool crack and fueled by hubris I decided to link the preceding pitch into the money pitch. I paid the price and slipped one move away from the final jugs. This meant some more faffing around for me to get it done on a second go.

Start of the Conquest.

The crack !

Final Pitches

Top

Martynas and Laura went for something way more hardcore, where they used one crampon each in a north-face style to access the climb and then did some runout climbing. We hung out the whole evening, talking junk, drinking beers and celebrating life. M&L went back to Zurich, but left us their water and Tiramisu, which just about got us back in shape for the next day.

One crampon each.

M&L on the approach.

VL !

Chopf ab ! mit dem Eispickel !

The next morning we sluggishly dragged ourselves towards Chli Bielenhorn, but after seeing the rock, the enthusiasm picked up. Since we were too slow, our intended route Sacremotion already had a party on it. So we switched to the neighboring Psychides. The first pitch was fantastic - I felt like being transported into Joshua Tree. I did not quite have the gas on my first go and had to resort again to the second go. The rest of the route went smoothly, with a delicate slab on the sixth pitch, providing an opportunity for a few more grunts.

The luxury ride. Get in touch for the quotation.

Furka delivers!

Feeling content with the climbing we were eager for more 'Fridge-tripping', so we drove to Stuttgart, where Aiste and Povilas made amazing sushi and we had a great time catching up. I was keen to have a go at the local Swab-land projects, but the rain had other plans. The weather was dry in Pfalz though, so we made a detour to visit the famous sandstone towers. Good friction and the many little summits were as pleasant as promised. Vytas took a long-distance bus back home the next day to get back in time for the funeral, so it was the last day of climbing for us. After driving back home, I stashed my harness deep in the cupboard, where they are still waiting for the next sunny spell.

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I've been told that when you first start climbing it's all about the grades. Then it becomes more to do with the places you go to. At some point, you realize that climbing really is about who you climb with.

When I tried to share this piece of wisdom with Vytas, he replied that I was just comforting myself for being in a bad shape and not getting to travel much these days. 

Perhaps. But I do hope we get to climb together the next summer.