The Playgrounds

With no long trips this year, we have been trying to make the most of the weekends and short escapes. We haven't done any big faces but been having good fun playing around on our mini-adventures. A few snaps below from the last month.

Gozo. The most famous arch of the island.

Saule and I spent a week in Gozo island trying to sample some of the food and swimming there. We also did some climbing, but for the most part it was way too hot. The rock is rather crumbly, but certain places definitely deserve more attention. An example is the Underworld crag, which is a great sea-cliff, which currently still has quite a few bits of loose rock but should clean up as more people climb in there. The ambiance is spectacular. The highlight however was kayaking around Comino island.

Saule climbing on a less famous arch in the island. 

Idyllic arête

Salt pans. It was the harvesting time when we were there. 

Heaps of rock, mostly unclimbed. Big chunks are rather loose, but there are sections of solid walls too.

We got to kayak through a number of caves and arches in Comino. Was very neat.

It's a rather pleasant retreat. 

A bit quirky too.

Once back home, Frieder and I managed to sneak outside for one Sunday and make a one day Zurich to Pullox ascent. You got to love the infrastructure in the Swiss hills. While the main face was a bit too icy for me to ski down, I still count it as an opening of ski-season. More white goodness to come (Did you hear of El Nino ?).

Pullox and Castor. Approach was pretty fast with skis.

Fun climbing. 

But turned out to be a bit too steep to ski in these conditions.

Breithorn in the backdrop. 

Frieder tagging the top.

Hoping to improve our crack-climbing skills, Saule Frieder and I went to Medji. It is this beautiful outcrop on the way to Zermatt. It is a bit strange, because despite all the cracks, most of the routes are bolted. With the highway of closely spaced shining bolts, we managed to rack twenty pitches over two days without rushing too much. Probably the most memorable pitch was the roofcrack of Unendlische Geschichte, which took a fight to onsight. It was also one of the few (almost) bolt-free pitches. Separate Reality of Medji? Not quite sure, but a very recommended climb indeed!

There were some hand cracks,

some crimps,

some finger cracks,

and a funny roof.