We are experiencing an unusually cold and wet May in Switzerland. Luigi and I were still itching to go climbing. So we took our chances on Saturday. Driving up to Andermatt in the morning it didn't look good at first - the road was thoroughly wet. We could catch some glimpses into the "devil's canyon", our chosen climbing area, from the road, and the South facing wall looked mostly dry. Thus we figured we should at least try the approach and see how it goes.
Lauren and Andrei had started a bit earlier than us. This turned out to be good for us - we found where they parked their car and could take advantage of their footsteps through patches of snow on the approach. Thanks for breaking trail! ;-P The approach was actually a bit dicey at times. Slippery wet snow and brush on steep slopes over deep vertical drops. Unforgiving terrain. The last bit requires three rappels into the canyon itself. It's quite a peculiar setup, leading to a very committing climb: the canyon has been carved by a wild creek which enters and leaves via steep waterfalls. Both sides of the canyon are near vertical, requiring climbing to get out of. So once you've rappelled down to the creek you have to successfully climb something to get back out...
Luigi and I had set our eyes on "Zeichen der Freundschaft". Eight pitches of 6a - 6b+. Quite sustained and definitely at the upper end of what I'm currently able to climb without sufficient training. But it's one of the easiest (the easiest?) routes on this wall and comes with high praise and a recommendation in the "Dreams of Switzerland" selection guidebook. Lauren and Andrei had originally set their eyes on something more ambitious but in the end we found them two pitches up in our route. Their original objective was prohibitively wet.
The guidebook isn't lying: it turned out to be an amazing climb. Bomber granite. Beautiful structure. Dramatic scenery. Very well cleaned and protected. In fact, at times it felt like they might have overdone it a bit and put in too many bolts. The rock features lots of natural cracks that would have allowed protecting large parts of the climb with mobile gear. It was also a nice demonstration for how gym climbing insufficiently prepares you for climbing outside. The most common features on this climb are rarely found in gyms: entire pitches of layback corner cracks; cracks running straight up a slab and a wide chimney. All structures that are difficult and expensive to simulate on artificial rock and require very specific techniques. I like this style of athletic climbing, but at the same time I'm struggling with it. My crippled right hand and left ankle mean I have a difficult time jamming my limbs into the cracks at the required angles. And I tend to get a ton of abrasions because my scar tissue means I don't necessarily feel when I'm hurting myself. Thus we agreed to share the leads in a way that had Luigi lead the harder 6bs and me the easier 6a's. Worked out well until we arrived at the final crux 6b+ pitch. It was clear from the base of it that it was running wet with water and would be exceedingly difficult to climb in these conditions. Thus we unfortunately had to make the call to skip this one and go around it via an improvised pitch on easier and drier terrain. Good reason to come back and finish the route properly ;-)
We never caught up with Lauren and Andrei, but we did get to talk to the only other party in the canyon that day. A pair of climbers on "Wilde 13", a tough 7b. They climbed using a bigwall technique - instead of encumbering themselves with backpacks like we did, they carried up a haul line and dragged a big bag up behind them whenever the lead finished a pitch. Good idea! We enjoyed a lunch break in the sun at the top before starting the "descent". As it turns out that starts by scrambling up a few more pitches on fixed ropes before going down over a jumble of big rocks and traversing annyoingly snow covered slopes. When we got home we were greeted by Bruno and Ramona who came over for dinner. We sat on the terrace with good friends and celebrated a great day out with cold beers. What more could one ask for?
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