12/10/07, Hintisberg, Grindelwald

People: Beat, Nadia and I

 

Route

Zick-Zack, Overall 6a (French), 5 pitches: 6a, 6a, 5C+, 6b (crossing to Tintangel) and 6a (Tintangel). Altitude 2100m, length 150m ish.

The first 2 pitches went without any issue, however there was a balancy move on the 3rd which caught me out resulting in three falls (Beat had led so Nadia and I were top-roping). This was annoying, but I just couldn't suss the move out. The 4th pitch had several roofs, which also caused me to fall a few times. Final 6a was a breeze in comparison. A nice climb, really worth doing, and great views of the North face of the Eiger, Monch and Jungfrau opposite. I had my Finepix 700 with me confident that my "camera in zipped-up pocket, lanyard around wrist before removal" approach to taking photos was fool-proof, however on the start of the 3rd pitch I put the camera into the non-zip pocket without realising, and on the 1st move the camera fell 70m to the path below. Fortunately, Beat found the memory card intact on the path when we rappelled off, the camera obviously wasn't in the same shape.

13/10/07, Eldorado, Grimsel Passhohe, Bern

People: Beat Schwegler, Nadia, Beat, Bear and I.

 

Route

Motorhead, Overall 6a+ (French), 13 pitches: 4a, 5c, 6a, 4b, 5a, 5c, 6a, 6a+, 4b, 5b, 5c, 6a, 5c (didn't bother with the 14th pitch). Altitude 1960m, length 440m

What a climb! Beat had told me that it was world-famous, but I didn't really know what to expect. It had to be special after a 545am start, 1.5hr drive followed by 1.5hr approach walk. 440 meters of slab with differing degrees of angle, grip and cracks is what we got. Beat lead again with Nadia and I following. A really nice 10' lay-away at the start of the 2nd pitch is the first thing I remember well from the route. The 3rd pitch is where most photos get taken; a really nice crack to climb for what seems like ages. I climbed it well but it damn hurts your feet, I slipped when moving left off the crack to get to the belay: most would climb further up the crack then down a bit to the belay.The 5th pitch was awesome: a tiny crack which you could just get your fingertips into with a steep layaway followed by a roof at the top. I did this without falling and got such a feeling of accomplishment :-) The crux on the 8th @ 6a+ (see photos of Nadia) was straight-forward once you moved well to the right. Of course, it didn't feel that straight-forward in my first two attempts... The 4b 9th pitch was a real challenge as Beat literally ran from bolt to bolt - feeding two 60m ropes through my DMM bug quick enough was hard work. A quick bite to eat at the 9th stand was followed by a pitch which had a difficult move off one slab towards the end; I fell twice but coped with the following overhang easily. Ironically, Beat had only really come close to falling on the whole route at this overhang, but that was largely due to not being able to reach the right sized friend from behind him for quite some time, he spotted the bolt right by his nose and quickly clipped. The final pitch we did was good, even though I moved right off the crack early and went across the slab. It was hard work and I had to rest for a minute before moving on. Nadia came last on this pitch as it was easier from a rope management perspective, plus the other Beat had reached the belay. Most belays Nadia and I had a reasonable shared-belay process where she pulled the rope up from below and untwisted it whilst I belayed Beat. However, we still managed to get the rope twisted and blocked numerous times, much to Beats annoyance. We completed the climb in 5 1/2 hours, not bad for 3 people climbing together. I was completely knackered by the time we got back to the car and felt the waves of energy flow through me after eating some pieces of chocolate and energy bar.