Badile NE face - Cassin

Finally, we did it!!! After driving a lot of kilometres first to Val di Mello, then to the Ecrins, back home to Holland and then again to the Bergell we managed it to climb one of the big north faces in the Alpes.

I spent two days at home when the weather forecast suddenly changed and predicted a good weather window for at least three days. I drove back to Basel, picked up Bernd and again we went to the beautiful Bergell in the very south east of Switzerland.

The Badile is a 3307m peak, which is well-known  for its granite quality and is famous for it’s routes. The north ridge is first climbed in 1923 and is accessible to climbers who easily climb long routes (up to 25 pitches and a difficulty level of 5a max). Back in 2008 I climbed that route together with Peter.  Another well-known route is the long route in the north east face climbed in 1937 by the alpine legend Ricardo Cassin. He opened the route in three days (free and artificial climbing), on the last day they were caught in terrible weather which caused the death of two climbing mates! The Cassin-route on Badile is one of the most famous north faces in the Alpes together with the Eiger, Matterhorn, Grand Jorasses, Les Droites and Les Drus. Nowadays the route is climbed in one day and usually It takes 6-10 hours for the climb itself, another hour to the top of the Badile and three hours down to the Italian side.

At arrival on the Sasc Fura hut we got the information that maybe there is still ice and water in the north east face especially in the exit chimneys. Bad news if you have to climb 20 pitches up to 6a+ in a route from where it’s difficult to retreat. But our motivation was still high and we thought to give it a try and decide at the start of the route.

The next morning we started at 4.30h, the face looked quite dry and we were at the base of the route at 7.00h (one abseil to get to ledge, making the traverse under the serac and climbing up to the start). There were already 2 parties climbing and another 2 parties starting. Unfortunately the latter ones were very slow so we actually had to wait a lot which made it a very long but exciting climbing day. On the other hand the weather forecast predicted no thunder storms and skies looked really good during the whole climb.

Badile at approach, from the highest point the north ridge comes down towards the observer, the NE-face is to the left (of course)

let's do it!

walking down to work...

the lower part of the face in the first sunlight - terrific!

Bernd started the first pitch. I had to lead the first difficult pitch, it’s a 6a and I was a bit nervous, because there are 4-5 difficult pitches in the route, not bolted and we had quite heavy backpacks (mountain boots, crampons, water, blizzard pack,…). So I thought, if I climb this pitch solidly I will have a good day on the mountain, otherwise  I thought it might get a tough one. But the 6a was good to protect with friends, there were a lot of (old) pitons and I didn’t found it too hard. So I was really happy after that pitch.

We continued climbing and the 6^th pitch I was leading again. The pitch makes a traverse to the left, goes up, and turns around a corner to the right. The traverse to the left is easy but because it’s alpine, I’m used to place a lot of protection in case of rock fall or whatever can happen to you in this environment. I started to climb up and suddenly the huge block where I hung on started sliding. I fell for about 2 meters and then the last clipped piton hold the fall! After a short assessment I continued the climbing with a painful right hip, a sore ankle and some scratches on the elbow and hands – I was the lucky guy that day!!!

the upper part of the face

The climbing continued on slabs, diedres up to the middle of the wall where you have to make a traverse under a small snow field to the start of the upper part, which is the most difficult part of the whole route – 4 pitches starting with a 6a+, 5c+, 6a, 5c and after that another  7 pitches to the north ridge.

The Spaniards in front of us chose to avoid the steep crack of the 6a+ and instead they went up to the right. It took quite long and after 10 minutes or so the lead climber told the belayer that he would leave his backpack on a piton to continue the pitch without, because the climbing was too difficult. I thought, ok, let’s go up the original pitch, it looked really steep but I saw a lot of possibilities to place protection. It was really sustained climbing and after 25 metres I ran out of pieces, luckily 2 metres above me I saw two old pitons. I made belay on the pitons placed the last remaining friend as a third anker – done!!

the crux pitch

nice view: on the right in the foreground Piz Cengalo with the well-known Geiser-Lehman on the north-pillar, the Sciora group in the middle and Piz Bernina with the Bianco ridge in the background

the exit chimneys

We continued climbing and after another 4 pitches the famous exit chimneys came into sight. I hoped that they would be dry, the climbing itself should not be too difficult but if it is wet it can be really hard. At that moment we were on route for more than 7 hours. The weather was still good and we enjoyed to be on the mountain.  It turned out that the exit chimneys were wet but climbable, yeah. And again I got a quite difficult pitch to lead, “just” a 5+ but on the bottom of the V-shaped chimney there was a lot of water. I had to climb inside to place protection and afterwards climbing out of the V with either my back on one side and both feet on the other or one foot on one side and the other on the opposite side – a scarry sensation to climb like this on the V realizing that the climbing shoes and your hands are wet. In the older days they called this a III+ section, hahaha.  After a nice workout of about 20 minutes I managed it to get to the belay.

doing the workout in the V-shaped chimney, good exercise :-)

This pitch was the only pitch I climbed without the backpack. In consequence Bernd had to second this pitch and pulling up my backpack as well. He did a great job. After that pitch I got some energy problems maybe as a consequence from my fall earlier that day. Bernd offered me to lead the next pitches (I didn’t say a word but the non-verbal signals I think were obvious). These are the great moments of comradeship in the mountains – taking responsibility for each other without needing a lot of words.

in the exit chimneys

Bernd leading in the chimneys

Bernd led the next 3 pitches. For me this was enough to recover, get it warm again and at six o’clock I made the last moves to get out of the cold NE-face into the sun on the north ridge – GREAT. 

the last pitch...

Bernd exiting the NE-face, feel the sun!!

We sorted out our gear and decided to climb on a running belay technique, which means that we both climb together with about 20 metres rope between us. The lead climber places protection and the secondary climber cleans up. This is a very efficient way of save and simultaneously climbing. After another hour we were on top!! We met a few people on our way up who climbed the north ridge, but they were really tired and decided to stay in the bivouac hut on the top. For us, this was no option, we wanted to go down and have a beer on the hut.

feeling like real mountaineers! happy to be out there, thanks Bernd.

We started the first abseil when suddenly I heard a lot of noise of falling rock and screaming people on the top. At that moment Bernd already had abseiled down the first pitch and I stood on the top of the abseil. I never before experienced a huge rock fall like that one. I saw a huge block coming down from maybe 40 metres above me, I mean huge in sense of huge like my car!!! That block was slowly tumbling down pulling out a lot of other smaller rocks. I was secured at the belay and jumped as fast as possible behind a big block. I shouted towards Bernd that he should move his ass as fast as possible out of the impact zone. A few seconds later I saw Bernd lying on the ground. He was hit, but responding to me. It seemed that the Spaniards above us had launched this enourmous rockfall – they apologized, thanks guys…. 

I rappelled down to Bernd, he was conscious but was not able to stand on his feet. He told me that he was hit by a rock in a size of a football. After a short assessment we decided to wait a few minutes. I pulled out the ropes and prepared everything to abseil down – if possible. We had not a lot of options, it already started to get dark and calling a helicopter would not really be an option. So the best thing would be to make it down to the hut. I remembered all the abseils from my trip with Peter 4 years ago. We had a 60 meter rope which would make the abseils very efficient. After taking some ibuprofen we decided to try to make it down. Abseil for abseil we did our best to stay calm and indeed I found immediately all the abseils and the traverses towards the end of the couloir. Bernd did all the stuff amazingly good. After the last abseil it was dark – good timing. We put on our head torches and made it down to the hut. We arrived at 23.00h, and the best thing was: we got some polenta soup and German Wahrsteiner beer, what a final!! After that we took another beer….

Next morning it took a while to get up, Bernds hip and stomach were aching and I had a really sore right hip. But the spirits were high, we climbed the route and survived a serious rockfall caused by this stupid guys, sorry for these words but already in the route they were climbing above their limits and then this shit in our descent.

Anyway, we walked back to the Sasc Fura hut. A nice hike in a great alpine environment, it took 6 hours to get to the hut. We had some really good soup and pasta and after that we walked down for another hour.

Facts: TD+/ED-, 800m, 20 pitches to the north ridge, another 5-6 pitches to the summit, 3 hours descent to the Gianetti hut. We took a good rack of friends (0,5 – 2), nuts and 10 quickdraws with us. Before starting you should try to get some information about the serac at the base of the wall (crampons???) and you should think about the return (rappelling down the north ridge or going down to Italy). From the Gianetti hut you can walk down in the Val di Mello and rent a taxi to go back to Switzerland (veryyyyy expensive) or walk back in 6 hours to the Sasc Fura hut.

And never forget: Cassin opened this route in 1937!!! Great mountaineer!

Ecrins 2

Two weeks ago I climbed some really nice routes with Andreas in the western part of the Ecrins. Now we went to the eastern part, to Ailefroide. The eastern part is mostly better protected against the bad weather which usually comes from the west. The weather forecast was not brilliant but it should be ok for a few days. After a few days we hoped that It would be possibly to climb some real stuff.

Trip 1: First we went to the Sagnette. The Sagnette is one of the rocky tops on the north side of the glacier noir. 2 really nice routes in excellent granite are located there. Both routes start at the bottom, and the first four pitches bring you to the base of the pyramide. The pyramide starts with the real climbing, 6a+, 6b, 6a+,… 12 pitches in the pyramide. Really nice and sustained climbing.

We really enjoyed this route. It took us 5,5 hours to get to the top, we were so happy that I unfortunately sent my ATC into depth… the following rappel action was quite interesting because I had to descent on a belay knot (HMS). As a consequence the rope twisted every rappel. It was quite a hazel to reorganize the ropes, but it keeps you busy outdoors, so we enjoyed the climbing and even the descent.


The Sagnette - seen from the parking...


Bernd in the fourt hpitch just below the pyramide


Bernd at the start of the crux pitch 6b+

Trip 2: The next day should be good weather, and we thought well it’s time to try a serious route: Aurore Nucleaire, a Michel Cambon route from 1986. The route is located on the famous north face of the Pic Sans Nom. A long approach along the glacier noir and a wild route up to 6b in 14 pitches without bolts, rated ED.

We started at 5.45h on the parking lot at Pre, walked in 3,5 hours. It was very windy, which made it very cold… we went up to the bergschrund and it was very scary, the snow was quite unstable and after crossing the bergschrund we would have to traverse polished slabs which were not protectable. In combination with the cool temperatures we were very unsure if we could climb a 6b in this conditions. In the original topo this tricky traverse does not exist, but because of the glacier melting in the last 20 years one or two pitches have to be climbed nowadays… it was a hard decision but the combination of factors made us to decide to go back.


long but beautiful walk in, the Pic Sans Nom is to the left with the first light on top




checking out the possibilities crossing the bergschrund

Trip 3: The next morning we checked the weather forecast again, and we got some really terrible news. In the Ecrins, Chamonix, but also the south part of Switzerland it would be rainy until the mid of next week.

So we decided to cancel our trip and give our favourite routes another try in a week or so. Leaving Ailefroide we made a short stop in Ponteil. We climbed L’Araignee, a really cool steep/overhanging multi pitch route up to 6b (trust me, it felt more like a 6c/7a, I redpointed the route the difficult pitch anyway). 


Bernd seconding the third steep pitch just below the nice roof

Val di Mello

Initially Bernd and I planned to go climbing in the Bergell, Switzerland. The famous Cassin route on the north east face of Piz Badile was our main target. Saturday afternoon I drove to Bernd in Basel. We had a nice dinner and the next morning we did the last weather check. It should be o.k., but like the weeks and maybe even months before the main weather situation was far from stable. So we decided to drive to the Bergell and before walking up to the hut we called the gardien. We got the message: “to wet, wait a few days…”. Ok then, we decided to drive another 2,5 hours to the Italian side of the Badile and do so some adventure climbing in the val di Mello.

Next morning we started climbing the “Kundalini”. One of the major classics in the valley. 12 pitches in cool cracks, slabs and traverses. The belays are on in situ pitons. Along the route there are some pitons as well, but basically you have to protect the whole route yourself. We took two complete sets of friends with us and with all the gear all relevant sections are protectable.

5 hours of climbing brought to us to the top of the route. We checked out the start of Luna Nascente which  starts immediately at the top of the Kundalini. Unfortunately the next morning we had some serious rain (which of course was not predicted). As it turned out the bad weather would stay for days….

This summer is really difficult if you want to work on your projects… so we went to the Ecrins again.

one of the traverses under the big roof...

and so on...

post-climbing-rehydration 

Facts: Kundalini, TD, max 6b, 12 pitches, bring  2 full racks of friends and enough slings to minimize  rope drag in the traverses. A retreat in the route is difficult. For a good topo use the “topoguides”. Funny enough the Kundalini is even mentioned in the Suisse plaisir guide south. I mean, the route was fun but definitely not accessible to “plaisir climbers”… other cool routes in the valley are the Luna Nascente and Oceano Irrazionale.

Ecrins (France)

Summer season has just started – I’m back in Holland for a few days after climbing in the Ecrins (France) with Andreas. Our original plan was to climb the Marmolada South Face (Italy). Saturday early morning before departure we did the last weather check for the next week and surprisingly the forecast changed to the worse. We just took our topo infos from the Ecrins and drove to France: perfect blue skies on arrival in La Berarde. We were happy about our mind’s flexibility (despite our age :-)). The next days we did a base climb close to the camp ground, two routes around the Sorreiller hut and two routes around the Chatelleret hut. Here are short descriptions of the climbs:

Trip 1: Abbe Hard with sortie defroque on the Maye

Just 45 minutes walking from the camping to the base of the Maye. From the distance it likes more like a huge back of an oliphant, the closer you get the more nice slabs, cracks and diedres appear. The climbing is interesting, challenging and on top you got a nice view from the Meije in the north, to the Ecrins in the east and Les Bans in the south. Belays contain two bolts and a chain. Cool climbing  and excellent as a start for a climbing week in the Ecrins.

Facts: nice multipitch, well bolted, 13 pitches up to 6a+, time: 3,5h, good topo in the German alpine climbing bible topoguide.


the Maye seen from the camp ground


Andreas leading in the perfect granite bubbles of the fourth pitch

Trip 2: Visite Obligatoire on the Aiguille Dibona

In the last two years I already climbed two different routes on the Dibona (the classic alpine routes Savoyardes and the Madier). The remaining "must climb" was the Visite Obligatoire, a well bolted modern route with 12 pitches (9 of them are graded 6a). For Andreas was it his  first visit to the whole area and so I thought that he should give the Dibona a shot. After climbing this route Andreas told me that the visite obligatoire is one of his top ten routes ever – yeah! Indeed, long sustained pitches in solid granite rock and bolted where necessary made us running up the mountain. We climbed the route in 3,5 hours. It took the other two rope teams more than 6 hours to get up to the summit.

Facts: TD+, sustaining 12 pitch on solid rock, bolted in a way that you must climb between the bolts, it’s alpine sportclimbing and no sport climbing sec. Take 3-4 friends and 12 quickdraws, a few slings and good friction for the first two slabs with you!


Aiguille Dibona, in the front you will recognize the roof of the hut...


Andreas leading in the fourth pitch, a cool traverse



Andreas leading in the steep sixth pitch on really sharp flakes. for me, seconding with our "Sissy" on the back, it was a nice hole body workout...

cool, on the summit of Aiguille du Dibona

Andreas rappeling down the North ridge of the Dibona

Trip 3: Pilier Girod on the Tete du Rouget (3418m).

After climbing the well bolted route on the Dibona we wanted to climb a more adventurous route. The Pilier Girod is first climbed in 1954 and is still in condition like it was during the first ascent (no gear in place, nothing, no slings, no pitons, nada, niente). The upper 200m have some pitons because this part is shared with the serenite pillar. To reach the base of the pillar you have to walk up the steep snow fields into the notch and then abseil down 3 pitches – this already is very alpine! The first abseil has two bolts, abseil 2 and 3 has just one bolt, anyway. The first two pitches are easy, from pitch 3 it’s getting interesting, not in a sense of difficulty but in a sense of fragilty. Small and even huge blocks are even after our ascent waiting to get some help to follow gravity… the best rock is on the right side of the pillar, don’t climb left, but also on the edge of the pillar the rock quality is very poor. On the tour Christine the two routes come together and you get some really nice climbing. It took us 7 hours to get from the base of the pillar to the summit of the Tete Rouget. Abseiling and down climbing the normal route brings you back to the notch, running down the soft snow brings you back to the hut in an hour or so.

Facts: TD-, 5b max, very alpine, loose rock (be careful), pillar 500m, 6-8 hours climbing, full rack of friends and nuts, slings are very helpful,  there exists no topo! In the Cambon guide book of Oisans there is a rough description of the serenity pillar. Advice: have a cold beer after this adventure on the nice Soreiller hut and realize that this route is climbed 6-8 times each year.


the Tete du Rouget is the right summit (seen from the Aiguille Dibona the day before), the ridge to the right is the way we descended the trip, finishing in the lowest point, the notch from where we started rappeling down early in the morning.


The pillar in the background is the Girod pillar, seen from the notch in the afternoon


rappeling down to the base of the pillar, spooky...


the first belay i made on in-situ gear after climbing 8 pitches, two pitons...


nice slab and dihedral in the next pitch

Trip 4: Gandoleon on the Aiguille du Gandoliere (3327m)

Gandoneon is a modern route on the north face of the Gandoliere. It is well bolted and a creation of Jean-Michel Cambon back in 2001. The route follows some slabs, followd by short diedres and some steeper walls. In the upper part you have to pass a snow field in a couloir. Using the bolts in a clever way the lead climber can climb down into the couloir and then climb diagonally up to the right to the next bolt. The route finishes with a nice slab! The rock is solid and really nice to climb. There two A0 sections, one in the second and one in the fourth pitch. We climbed it free and then it’s 6b/c or so. The biggest challenge actually was to get on the rock. There are different ways depending on the snow level. We climbed up to the highest point in the snow and then traversed with crampons on to the rock. I pulled out my crampons, made a belay on two friends and then traversed on to the first bolts. I’m sure there are more options, get up and try!

Facts: TD, 5b obligatoire, redpoint 6b/c, well bolted.  400m, 10 pitches. We took 4 friends and 12 quickdraws with us. You need crampons to get to the base of the climb (1,5 hours from the Chatelleret hut). Good topo in the German topoguide book!


the Gandoliere, on the left you can see the pillar Candau, more to the right starts the Gandoleon


"interesting" start of the Gandoleon, try to get on the rock without falling into the bergschrund


video from the first "belay"


Andreas in the last pitch with the great slab and a nice underhand crack

Trip 5: pilier Candau on the Aiguille du Gandoliere (3327m)

After experiencing the brilliant solid rock in the Gandoleon we decided to come back the next day to the same face for climbing the classic Pilier Candau. Narcisse Candau climbed this pillar in 1967 and the route is listed in the top 100 finest routes of the Ecrins from Gaston Rebuffat (so it’s a must climb). We stored our gear at the base of the wall the day before. After having a usual French (minimalistic) breakfast we made a fast walk uphill, geared up, crossed the Bergschrund and started climbing. The rock was even solid as in the route the day before, route finding wasn’t difficult because of the number of pitons. We are sure that we have found some pitons from the first ascensionists! Really nice. It took us 3,5 hours to reach the ridge. We abseiled down the Gandoleon in very strong winds.

Facts: TD-, 450m, 6a, bring a full rack of friends and nuts with you, we took sizes 0,2; 0,75 and 1 twice with us. To reach the start of the climb you need crampons, be careful with crossing the bergschrund. If you know the Gandoleon you can easily traverse the ridge up to the first abseil of the Gandoleon. An other option is to climb up from the Candau pillar into the notch and you will find an abseil down to the south face.



in the second pitch of the pilier Candau


top of the pillar, yeah, we made it!!

change of language

I started writing this blog a few years ago. Starting with a few pics and short stories of sport climbing and easy multi pitches. I thought it would be fun to write short stories and share the pictures with people who like climbing as well or those who just want to know where I am hanging around at the moment.

In the meantime not only my climbing grade improved but also the number of visits on my blog have reached more than 300 per month. Funny about this improvement is that my climbing trips brought me to a lot of countries all over the world, but I kept writing in Dutch (which is not my mother language). The blogspot stats tells me not only the number of visits but also the location of the visitors. And they are from all over the world – like my climbing trips.

I guess that most of the international visitors experience  “some” troubles in reading Dutch – well my suggestion is this language switch of my climbing blog. From now on the blog will be written in English.