Fürenalp (1845m)

Anita started a new job at the beginning of the month. Her colleagues gave her a voucher for the cable car and lunch at the Fürenalp as a farewell present. Since this is her last free weekend for the entire rest of the year we decided to redeem it. We were lucky with the weather and had the sunniest weekend in weeks. We were less lucky with our car. Apparently we are not using it enough, so despite being only 2 years old, the battery was dead in the morning. The service guy was quick though and a jumper cable fixed the problem in minutes.

Paraglider in front of the mighty Titlis East Face. Last year Matthias Trottmann managed to free Hattori Hanzo in the North Face visible to the right. At 8b+ likely the hardest multi pitch route in the Alps...

Of course I wouldn't take the cable car up a mountain so Anita chose the scenic Panorama-Weg starting in Engelberg. It traverses the Hahnen (2606m) and Wissberg (2627m) and offers beautiful vistas over the Engelberg valley and surrounding steep mountain faces. Despite me nagging and pushing to "just take a quick detour" (up a T5 trail...) we settle on just going to the restaurant.

Schlossberg South Face. Tom Rohrer, stewart of the Spannort hut (which is just visible in this picture if you squint), has been working on a route through it for a few years. Before my accident Andrey and I intended to climb it... It's estimated 6a+. But loooong. there is a tiny yellow boulder in the scree, where I worked myself out on a single pitch 6c (The last picture here).

Gross Spannort.

Not too shabby a view.

This is Switzerland after all ;-)

After a huge meal (awesome present - thanks Horw!) we take the steepest cable car I've ever been on down to the valley floor. It's more like an escalator than a cable car, passing over a near vertical cliff. It's a very popular location for paragliders. Usually this looks like a relaxed sport, gracefully circling in the air. There are a few hardcores here though. Their kites are tiny and they fly insanely close to the cliffs, taking only a minute or so to go down the entire mountain. Seems to be a cross between base jumping wing suits and paragliding.

+900m, ~19km