Gletschhorn Sporn (3220m), "Enfer Doux", 220m, 6a

Up to the Furka pass once more. Same procedure as last time: put the kids to bed on Monday evening and drive up to the parking lot at Tätsch to spend the night. This time Mark joined Luigi and me. The roof tent only sleeps two, so Mark decided to bivvy out in the open. Tough guy ;-) Especially since quite a strong wind picked up in the morning and made it quite chilly.

Good morning beautiful!

Mark's bed.

The famous "Graue Wand", home to lots of great climbs.

We picked "Enfer Doux", another Remy brothers classic of 220 meters or 6 pitches of climbing up the Gletschhorn spur. It requires nearly two and half hours of approach through a wild snow filled valley "Unter dem sonnigen Berg" and up the Tiefen-glacier. Beautiful landscape surrounded by granite walls. Many of which we have already scaled (or tried to...). Lots of reminiscing about past adventures and dreaming about future ones.

View back towards the Albert Heim hut on its outcrop.

On the Tiefengletscher. Our climbis the tower on the right.

Our group was divided on whether it was worth putting on crampons for the steep and icy final few meters...

Finding the wall proved no problem, but agreeing on what the first pitch should be was a little more difficult. We brought two different topos and they disagreed on the exact line and difficulty of the first pitch. We settled on the more obvious one that also had a more convenient spot to get off the snow and store our gear. Luigi led the first warmup pitch. And despite super hot temperatures in the valley, a warmup was necessary! We actually wore gloves and down jackets in the cold wind.

Mark's lead.

Colder than it looks!

The route features super comfortable belays.

It was Mark's turn to lead the second pitch, the first "real" one, graded 5c. He had been sick a lot this year and didn't get much training. It was a high gravity day for him and he pulled on gear, deciding to leave the remaining leads to Luigi and me. I'm glad he decided to stick it out - thank you Mark! - the route turned into a true treat. Homogenous difficulties in the 5c range brought us up to the two final pitches: a trivial but super fun 5b and the glorious 6a finale up the summit tower. Luigi was adamant about leading that one because I got the crux on our previous outing. And what a pitch it was! Very exposed and steep. At first following a beautiful crack on the smooth red wall, then tiny ledges up to the summit. Luigi was making weird orgasm noises all the way up ;-)

This is where the climbing started getting really good.

Me leading through the dihedral.

Mark and Luigi coming up.

Despite the Remy brother's reputation for sandbagged and sparsely protected routes I think this route was actually appropriately graded and well protected. A true plaisir climb. Highly recommended. You don't have to take my word for it - this is another climb honored by inclusion in the "Dreams of Switzerland" selection guidebook.

A large ledge as a belay anchor. Luckily the anchor was just reachable behind the snow.

Working up a slightly overhanging crack. Fantastic!

Wave to the crowd.

Luigi leading the crux.

On top.

Just look at that wall!

Mark and I following up the headwall.

Ooooh yeah!

Mark topping out.

Summit selfie!

Rappel.

More rappelling.

How's this for a coke commercial? I dropped my bottle of coke and retrieved it from the glacier on the way down. Chilled ;-)

Surfing down the soft snow next to a waterfall. Life is good.

So much rock. So much to do.