Having spent the previous winter in the southern hemisphere, I was keen to enjoy the ice offerings this year. To make it more interesting we added a few moves on the rock.
To get the skills back, we went to the ultra-classic Haizahne climb in Kandersteg. It turned out that we had to make a few mixed moves to get to the teeth.
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| Spicy teeth |
Since scratching the rock with crampons worked out well in Kandersteg, we decided to seek more of it. After a tip-off from Marcel, we headed to Brunnital. It is a spectacular place but it needs a long cold-spell to get the things locked into winter. We climbed a route called Krummelmonster, with a beautiful mixed roof into a hanging ice curtain. We were a bit hesitant on the pitch 4 where the ice pillar turned out to be thinner than expected. Feeling lightweight, Frieder decided he can levitate up the thing without it collapsing so we went for it. All in all - a stellar route.
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| Brunnital playground |
As the winter drew to close, I paid a visit to another area that I have been planning to go to for the last 4 years - Urnerboden. As part of the AACZ climbing weekend we stayed at the guest-house and tried to tick all the routes that looked in conditions. Following the hot-ice ticklist kept us busy. The classics such as Voxlauf and Pinocchio lived up to the expectations, although they were much shorter than I imagined them to be. The coolest climb I got to do there was called Go West - an overhanging rock seam into a hanging dagger - pure pleasure and pumped forearms.
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| Voxlauf |
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| Pinocchio |
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| Go west |
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| Pierre topping out the second day, after going through a snow trench. |
It was good! Looking forward to the next winter already
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