Luigi had big plans - too big for my current abilities and training level. Luckily I could recruit another partner in Mark and we headed for the big limestone wall at Hintisberg. Seemed only fitting that after opening the granite season at Grimsel two days ago we would now start the limestone season as well. Driving to our destination it looked anything but certain that we'd be able to climb at all - it was raining most of the way. The weather forecast kept claiming that it would be cloudy but dry. We gambled on getting high enough to climb above the clouds and rain. Unfortunately it didn't work out quite that nicely. We *did* get to climb our route in dry conditions, but we were right in the clouds instead of above them. Luigi wasn't that lucky - they abstained from their original objective in Rätikon and went cragging at lake Lucerne instead ;-P
The climbing was unremarkable, but nice. The wall features many routes, most of them way harder than ours. Hard movers can give themselves a proper workout on massively overhanging 7c's. We heard only a single other rope team. French speaking. They seemed to be working a project - not making much progress but instead puzzling on a single pitch for hours on end.
The route up to the wall is a limited access road that you have to pay to use. We were in a rental car that day. Fortunate coincidence as the narrow gravel road was rough enough to make the car scratch over rocks quite a few times ;-P
The next day Anita and I took the kids to circus Knie in the middle of Zürich, right at the lake. They have some animals (exclusively horses), but are mostly focused on breathtaking acrobatics. Watching crazy calisthenics I couldn't help but wonder how these guys would perform on the rock. Pure muscle, not a gram of fat. Perfect balance and flexibity. Grip strength that allows them to do slow motion human flag air walks. Not afraid of heights - performing these stunts 20 meters up in the air without any protection. Seems like a winning combination?
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