Granite Rematches: Inox, Grand Capucin and Chandelle du Tacul

Oftentimes the climbs you remember most vividly are not the ones you succeed on, but rather the ones where you come short. I often catch myself talking about an unclimbed peak in the Revelations that Frieder I and could not climb despite three attempts. I still daydream what it would be like to go back there.

At the same time, having failed on routes - they become easy choices for planning the next trip. This summer, with little time for planning new things, it was about the rematches.

Back on the Grand Capucin

Rematch 1: Inox

One of the routes that felt really hard when I first tried it a few years ago with Florian was the slab testpiece Inox at Schollenen. We managed to scrape our way up, but I couldn't redpoint one of the pitches. Now, having spent a few years in Fontainebleau I thought I would be a much better climber and it would be a breeze. It wasn't.

Frieder and I set off around noon, thinking we would be up and down in a few hours. I was surprised, but the climb did not get easier, still took us a long time and we even got cold as the evening unexpectedly snuck on us. I only climbed two pitches first go and others required a couple of attempts. The crux slab crossing ended up being a mixture of gym-parkour-style climbing and a hail-mary slab-suction. Somehow it just worked and we were soon celebrating with the beers in the social Furkapass.

Like I said, we didn't really do any planning, so when Christopher and Cyrill independently recommended that we do Laura on Teufeltalswand the next day, we went for it. A great route all on natural protection that follows beautiful cracks. Again, we underestimated the difficulty and had to have a bit of a fight, especially in the nominally easier pitches. Nevertheless, all the pitches went first go and we were happy to eat many mouthfuls of blueberries on top! All that was left was to jump-start Frieder's car.

Rematch 2: Les Echo des Alpages on Grand Capucin

Last year Lulu, Pierre and I met up in Chamonix, hoping to climb a direct route up on one of the best granite pieces in Europe. I suggested using some weird beta and starting late, which in the end meant that we didn't make it to the summit. I had so much fun independent of that and was hoping that we would soon go climbing together again, but they took a train to Kyrgyzstan and I never saw them again.

Before the trainride

As a sunny weekend was approaching this summer, Cyrill and I made a last-minute decision to give it a go. We met late on Friday night, packed the gear and went to Italy in order to take an early lift to Helbronner, which is a bit closer to the Grand Capucin. We could only get into the second cabin, but everything else went smoothly. Knowing the route, we climbed rather efficiently and were soon standing on the summit. The line is beautiful and has some fantastic climbing - see the modified topo below if you are going to go for it!

Cumbre!

Rematch 3: Bonatti-Tabou on the Chandelle du Tacul

What was meant to be a casual short climb became a bit of a shitshow, when Saule, Cyrill and I tried it several years ago - read for yourselves. This time Saule wasn't with us and we struggled on the pitch that she led last time. On the positive side, we knew the upper part of the route better so we got to the summit and were soon eating burgers in Poco Loco.