Chillu, Björn and I set out to climb the highest mountain in Liechtenstein, the Vorder Grauspitz. At 2599 meters of altitude not a very significant mountain. However, it doesn't have a trail to the summit and requires some exposed ridge scrambling. We park at the little village of Jenins and follow a relatively boring forestry road up the mountain. This is mostly drudgery but we're hoping for a nice pay-off once we reach the alpine proper. Chillu and I discuss our philosophical differences in our approach to the mountains. For him it's mostly about expanding boundaries and the technically interesting parts of the tour. As a consequence he'll accept a gondola ride up the mountain if that increases his chances at the summit. My code on the other hand says that a mountain only really counts as climbed if you start and end at a permanently inhabited place under your own power. I'll make some concessions when starting from a pass, but a cable car is a huge stain on an otherwise clean ascent.
Cable car or not, we wouldn't reach the summit this day. Björn didn't get a lot of mileage this hiking season and suffers from blisters fairly early on. He bails. Chillu and I continue for a few more hours, but the weather takes a turn for the worse. It's cold, windy and raining. And we can't see where we're going in the low hanging clouds. Steep wet grass slopes are extremely slippery and we don't fancy stumbling around blindly in exposed terrain. Thus we decide to follow Björns lead and bail. Using a cable car for the way down, no less.
Still a good training day, we covered more than 1500 vertical meters and a distance of about 27 kilometers.
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