Climbing Winterstock Turm I (2870m), "Mangolyto", 260m, 6a+

Luigi and I put the kids to bed on Tuesday and drove up to Furka pass immediately afterwards. Furka is notorious for bad weather, so a stable window of good weather must be taken advantage of. We parked at the parking lot/campground Tätsch at 2270 meters altitude and spent the night in Luigi's roof tent. Woke up by 6:30 in the morning (didn't even need an alarm clock ;-)) and started the approach by 7:30. The trail leads past the Albert Heim hut towards the Winterlücke through wild valleys with lots of meltwater creeks. I had a bit of a "Motörhead day", feeling weak and under the weather. Maybe it was just the altitude, but Luigi had to wait for me several times and I wasn't confident about the climb at all. This changed dramatically after we finally laid hand on the rock after two hours of hiking.

Good morning! What a view to wake up to!

30°C plus in Zürich, frozen puddles for us.

On the approach.

I led the first one and a half pitches. One and a half, because the first pitch was still mostly burried under snow so that we could link the first two. Climbing reinvigorated me. The weather was glorious and the rock and route some of the best I have climbed in my life. The route "Mangolyto" made it into the best-of guidebook "Dreams of Switzerland". It fully deserves this honor. Varied climbing on beautifully structured bomber rock. Homogenous and sustained difficulty all the way. The lower pitches are mostly cracks and some dihedrals while the upper pitches feature big athletic moves on huge jugs. Tons of fun either way. If there's one blemish on this route, it's that it is not always following the most logical line. Sometimes it is artificially chasing interesting or difficult climbing instead of following the naturally weakest line in the rock.

Someone built a pool to go with a perfect bivvy spot under a large boulder.

At the base of our climb.

We had the entire wall to ourselves until we started to rappel. Another party, that we could see approaching from miles away, had finally caught up and started climbing our route. They were super slow and at this rate would never make it to the top in time. They realized this themselves in pitch three and bailed. Except for a minor slip of the foot when I led the crux 6a+ pitch, it was a clean ascent for Luigi and me. A tiny damper on an otherwise perfect climb and day. We drove back to Zürich where I immediately got onto my bike to race to a picnic at the lake with my team from work. A nice finale for a great day out. Except for the two hour car ride back home I was active non-stop from 6:30AM to 11PM with nothing but a small breakfast for sustenance. This made the evening cider and Aperol Spritz at the lake extremely potent ;-)

Nearly at the top of pitch two.

Oooh Yeah!

Luigi in the final meters of the crux pitch.

Dance baby!

A nice 5c pitch.

An easy, but athletic pitch. You got to enjoy some big, bold moves pulling yourself up over small roofs. Extremely satisfying.

The final pitches follow the ridge and are extremely eposed and fun.

Luigi in front of expansive landscape.

Summit selfie.

Can't go higher from here ;-)

The only other party on the mountain that day. Just before they bailed.

Surfing down the soft snow. Hiking boots make for the world's shortest skis.

Contemplating a bath in the pristine water.

We climbed the tower on the right. But we were remarking on all the beautiful "penises" surrounding us in every direction. We'll return to climb them! (Lay hand on them? Grip them?)

We'll be back!