Ice climbing in Valais, Cogne and Kandersteg

With the winter finally taking the hold, there is plenty of ice all over the place to practice the swings. So a couple of last weekends I tried to hang on some frozen drips.

On Ruebezahl in Kandersteg.

Averstal - Thron

Finally got to climb some ice this year. In the hindsight though, probably should have chosen a different day.

Thron, first money pitch.

Clipping bolts in Geyikbayiri

A bunch of us spent a week around the new year hanging out in Geyikbayiri in Turkey. We've already been here last year, but even the second-time-round I was stunned by just how cool this place is.

Eiger North Face

"There can be few alpinists who have not day-dreamed of climbing the North wall of the Eiger." - Les Swindin starts the description of the North Face in the Alpine club's guide for Bernese Oberland. 

Matterhorn North Face

Matterhorn is quite a spectacular mountain. It is definitely nice to look at, but climbing it is more like fighting with a pile of rubble. Well, at least most years (See here, for example). This year was different. Due to wet summer, there was plenty of ice everywhere. And the classic north face has formed into an enjoyable ice climb. With the excellent weather forecast for the weekend we had to get on it.

North-East face of Lyskamm

"No sense packing a stove you can't light" Mark Twight

So we learned...

Dehydrated. Still happy.

Frieder, Saule and me were camped at the base of the Lyskamm north face after a long approach from Rotenboden. The face above looked really nice and the Matterhorn in the west made the view even better. The only problem was that our stove was not working.

Miyar valley, Himachal Pradesh

Upper Takdung glacier in Miyar valley. Lotus and Neverseen towers.

Always inspired by the Himalayan stories, I finally had a chance to visit them this August to September. We had an amazing gang with the strong youth Cyrill, the wise man Elias, the wild cowboy Aras and myself for some comedy value. Even though the weather didn't play along, we still had some great climbing days with jokes flowing in spades and good time guaranteed.