Luigi treated himself to a new guidebook so we got to choose from a whole selection of fresh crags. For this Saturday we picked the Hüttenchopf near Ennenda. It's a rather small crag but the approach is about as comfortable as you could possibly hope for. A little more than an hour's drive away from Zürich you can walk right up to it in 5 minutes. This was an important criteria because Silvia and Marzia would be joining us. Training the next generation of climbers.
View from the parking lot. Not too shabby.
Nice trail on the approach.
Art? Instruction manual?
All routes at this crag can be climbed as single pitches with a 70m rope. Great quality limestone. The average difficulty level of the routes is fairly high, so at our current fitness levels and state of training we had to stick to the easier ones. I have never had such a large variety of different climbing styles condensed to such a small area. We climbed a corner that turned into a chimney as our first route. Followed by some steep, even slightly overhanging, wall on small crimps. Followed by an edge that demanded bear hugs and even offered a nice opportunity for a heel hook. Finally topped by a crack pitch where you could practice jamming. It's almost as if somebody intentionally set routes to demonstrate and practice different climbing techniques. Fantastic.
The corner, chimney and crack. Note the BBQ place!
Exemplary labeling of routes.
Fat old man stuck in a chimney.
The local climbing gang also hung out at the crag and it was a pleasantly chill and colleagial atmosphere. Silvia and Marzia could play around the little fire place and cheer daddy on. Marzia even got to climb a bit herself. All around great day out! Thank you Luigi and family!
We were looking for an easy Sunday stroll. Criteria included a convenient approach and not too much commitment (i.e. the possibility to bail). Mark and I felt weak-ish after too much Corona induced inactivity. Luigi on the other hand had just returned from Italy where he on-sighted a 7a crag. So we thought we'd bring the Italian rope gun and climb Zigerfrigg. It's 6 pitches of 6b+ (5c+ A0) which sounded just perfect. Mark and I would get to lead the supposedly easy pitches while we'd send Luigi up the 6b+ crux. The 5c+ A0 grade added an extra bit of safety in that one ought to be able to cheat by pulling on gear on the hardest sequence should that become necessary.
Gangsters on the funicular.
A rather comfortable approach on a chair lift.
We dutifully wore our masks in the car and funicular before comfortably floating up the last leg of the approach in a chair lift. From there it was just a short scramble towards the base of the Mittlerer Eggstock South face above the car-free village of Braunwald. Hard to beat in terms of convenience for a climb above 2000 meters altitude.
Hiking to the base of the wall.
The last bit of the approach did require some scrambling.
The closer we came, the more intimidating the wall looked. It shines in bright yellow-red colors, indicative of overhanging limestone. Undeterred I prepared to lead the first pitch. It follows a steep ramp and features a lot of nice corner moves, a style of climbing I very much enjoy and am typically good at. I made it up to the anchor without struggling too much, but it did seem awfully stiff for the suggested 5c+ grade. Luckily for my ego the others also had to put in a bit of effort to catch up with me. So an old-school, hard, route...
Warmup pitch. 5c+ and already harder than expected.
I stayed on lead for the second pitch too. It was an easy and short 4c that I should have just concatenated into the first lead. We generally got the impression that the length of pitches in the guidebook was exaggerated. Pitches felt both harder and shorter than claimed. The only thing that made this pitch somewhat exciting was loose rock. I marked a torso sized boulder for the others to push off once they caught up to it. It exploded into a thousand fragments and we climbed with strong sulfur smells wafting up around us.
Mark figuring out the traverse.
Luigi coming up.
Mark got to lead a 5c+ traverse. Very airy. Then we actually had to rappel a bit before we could start on the next pitch. You can tell that the first ascensionists did not have an easy time finding a climbable line through this labyrinth of roofs and smooth rock. The route does not follow an obvious straight line to the top but dodges various big roofs and goes wherever weaknesses in the rock led it.
A rappel in the middle of the route. You can tell the first ascenscionists puzzled a bit before they found a path through the roofs.
Me on the start of the steep pitch. Overhanging even here.
Mark's second lead was graded 6a+ and again started with a traverse below a vastly overhanging section. Once past that it goes straight up only to circle back under yet another roof. Then repeats the same maneuver around another overhanging section, concluding a giant S shape. This is terrible for rope drag. Leading that pitch was tricky enough and required some resting on the rope. But pulling up the ropes proved to be an even more exhausting exercise still. Mark had to pull with everything he had against the friction on the rock and even improvised a little pulley system.
Mark's ropes dangling in the void.
Mark at the anchor.
Watching all of this, Luigi somehow lost his appetite for going further. So we decided that I'd follow up to Mark before we would all bail. I was somewhat disappointed by this turn of events and thought we'd still have a good fight in us, after all it was only 1pm. Either way. I struggled up to Mark, needing a rest along the way, even as a follower. I intentionally dislodged another head sized boulder from the wall and watched it tumble down the slopes below us. Not entirely without risk as it came dangerously close to the trail leading down from the neighboring via ferrata. Anyway, since the loose rock was the obvious handhold, I figured I'd do fellow climbers a service by cleaning it from the route.
Selfie at our high point.
Rappelling.
Now Mark and I were at our high point at the top of pitch four while Luigi was still at the top of pitch three. This required some creative rappeling on my part. I went down diagonally to "rescue" Luigi. Once I reached him, I let him float down to the ground first. Now the question was how to get Mark an me both down? He could have caught up to me first, then we could have re-threaded the ropes and gone down together from pitch 3. However, the ropes were long enough to reach the ground directly from pitch 4, so we opted for a more exciting solution instead. I'd untie from the anchor and take a wild swing into the air and go down all the way, followed by Mark. My brand new ropes didn't like being dragged across the sharp rock, but it was the fastest solution.
Exciting rappel maneuver after "rescuing" Luigi from the second but last anchor.
Despite the close proximity to civilization and the convenient approach this is still a very old-school alpine route: sparsely protected, stiffly graded, rope drag, rappel in the middle of the route, loose rock, non-obious line. I enjoyed it and think we'll be back for a second attempt.
Krzysztof graciously agreed to write this blog post from his perspective. Here goes:
Brüggler - my first multi-pitch climb
Let's go rock climbing! Oh, you haven't done it before? No problem! I'll lead the climb and explain everything to you, it's perfectly safe! We can climb Brüggler, I've been there many times - it's a technically easy crag, totally beginner friendly!
Sounds awesome! I have always wanted to try rock climbing but mainly done via ferrata so far - and enjoyed it.
Climbing is safer than via ferrata because you are properly belayed, you won't be hurt when you fall off the wall.
Yeah, let's do it!
We had this conversation with Sören about a year ago. I had known Sören's climbing adventures even before I met him because I read his blog and used it as an inspiration for some hikes in the Alps. I had little experience with rock climbing but I was determined to try it, so I was very happy with the proposal from Sören.
Scheduling the outing took quite some time. In the meantime I fractured my leg in a ski touring accident but now the bone is healed and stronger than ever because it is reinforced with a lot of titanium. Finally we set out on the Brüggler on 17 September in a group of 5: Klára and I were the beginners whom Sören was supposed to introduce to the climbing world, Christian and Björn formed an independent climbing party to assist us when Sören was belying us from above.
The route which we planned to take that day was "Meister Franz": 6 pitches long, with difficulty of 5a except for one pitch rated as 5c+ (5b/A0, meaning that one could cheat by pulling on a quickdraw). Those numbers didn't tell me much - I had no comparison to other routes because it was my first real rock climb. But how hard can it be?
Approach to the bottom of the Brüggler wall.
Very soon it turned out that it can be hard (at least for me). The exposure on a vertical 200 m high wall, combined with some non-trivial climbing moves was a bit overwhelming… I had just recovered from a broken leg and again I found myself in a situation which did not feel secure. Obviously, I was completely safe - I was belayed from above and if I fell off the wall, I would be stopped immediately. I knew that but I really preferred not to verify it.
I was wearing lightweight knee protectors. I must say that they worked pretty well for climbing, protecting my knees from scratches from frequent contact with the rock. Well, my climbing technique probably needs some refining ;)
On one of the pitches, I belayed Sören. When he reached the anchor and attached himself to a bolt, I dismounted the belay device and was putting it away - then I dropped it. It fell far, far away… "Ok, that's it. This is a sign - I guess I'm not meant to be a climber, I won't do it ever again", I thought. But the lost ATC wasn't a problem, we had enough reserve ones.
Klára takes a little break. She looks quite relaxed, doesn't she?
- "I'm not sure if we are on the correct route. Can you verify it on a map?" - shouted Sören at some point. Björn checked the plan and responded:
- "Yeah, it must be it. The other one goes to the right, we are on Meister Franz."
"Interesting…"
That conversation raised some doubts in my mind. Before I said anything, Klára verbalised her thoughts:
- "If an experienced climber says it's interesting I think that's a bad sign for me."
The difficult pitch was the second one, which we have already passed - the rest of the climb was supposed to be very easy… What did Sören see?
Sören simultaneously belying Klára and me.
Klára is belying Sören, I'm resting and Björn is waiting for us to make them some space at the anchor.
The climb is over, the final part to the top leads on a hiking path on the ridge. It took us 4.5 hours to get to this place from the bottom of the wall! But the time passed very quickly. I recently spent a similar amount of time moving furniture between 2 apartments and it felt infinitely longer than climbing Brüggler.
We all made it to the top! In a retrospect, the climb wasn't that difficult. I am sure that if I did it again, I would find it effortless.
Beer/Apfelmost on the way back to the car - we deserved it! As usual in the Swiss Alps, the bottles with drinks were cooling down in a cow water reservoir at some farm.
After we went down to the base of the climb (there is no need to rappel, there is a hiking path), we searched for my lost ATC device. We found it quickly, it was right in the middle of the path under the Brüggler wall! "I can't wait when I will go rock climbing again!", I thought to myself.
Thank you Sören for introducing us to the world of climbing! It was wildly satisfying!
Paweł and Ralf asked to go hiking. You always have to be careful with Paweł - he has a penchant for crazy exposed risky T6 scrambles. Luckily Ralf is a veritable lexicon of potential routes. And in any case, he is an SAC tour guide and has basically covered the entire alps already. So of course he had just the right trip for us ready to execute on: The Tristelhorn (3114m) on the border between Grisons and St Gallen. It's trailless terrain in wild and remote valleys. We planned for 2000 meters of elevation gain and a distance of 25 kilometers. For a short while we were tempted to extend it even further and include more of the ridge and neighboring mountains. But reason prevailed ;-)
Val Lavadignas.
Paweł and Ralf.
Nice views. Our first proper rest for the day.
The area is very remote and very wild. We didn't encounter another human being the entire day. And when we gained the summit, the summit book only had a handful of entries for the entire year. The hike itself was a bit of a mixed bag: the mountain is a proper choss-pile, involving lots of scrambling and balancing up shifting loose scree. Not particularly beautiful, but different from what I usually do and interesting because of that. We also don't get to meet very often in this group, so the company and conversations already made it a fun trip.
That's where we'll have to scramble up.
Scree.
More scree.
I had become the tail end of many a joke with my mountain buddies because of the sad state of my gear. I was using stuff I bought seven years ago and it showed: my clothes were patched in many places and still had many visible holes and tears. My shoes worn through, my helmet loosing random bits and pieces, ropes frayed. My carabiners had deep groves from all the rappels. When my shirts literally started disintegrating in our washing machine Anita finally had enough of it and sent me shopping. I loathe shopping so much I put it off for as long as I possibly can. But I finally went and spent 1500 bucks in Transa to replace all my gear. The reason this is relevant for this story is that I was breaking in brand new shows. Which luckily was not an issue for my feet, but with all the scree surfing these new shoes already look like shit again with a whole collection of cuts. So there you go. No point in ever buying new stuff ;-P
A patch of snow. We'll climb the ridge.
On the ridge.
The summit block.
Summit selfie.
The ridge to the other side.
Grimaces from "Team Defrag Grumpiness". We all work for Google and used to be on the same team: Google Maps. Then the company restructured, or "defragged" in Google parlance, and moved the maps effort to another office. We had to find new projects and are still somewhat pissed about that.
Scrambling down from the summit ridge.
Scree surfing. Whee!
Almost like skiing.
Nice trail. Unfortunately only for a short stretch.
Alien landscape with very peculiar rock stucture.
Chossiest choss-pile of choss.
A long way to go yet.
Wild and remote valleys. Nice.
Only a few more kilometers...
Part of the old gear I replaced. We had a good run ;-)
