My vertical world: Kandersteg - real fun and steep ice!

December was way too warm to climb steep ice! I had been to Chamonix for a week, but the only thing we could do was doing some drytooling. Good exercise of course, but not where you are looking for if you go to Chamonix!

Two weeks ago Bernd and I wanted to go climbing but with all the snow we decided to stay at home and give it a try a week later. The weather improved and I guess the ice conditions as well! Last three winters almost all my ice climbing trips ended up in Cogne/ Italy. Great spot, but there are also other good locations in the Alps when it comes to ice climbing.

Last time I had been in Kandersteg/Zwitserland is four winters ago! So it was great to read on the www that conditions are good. People at the campground told us that four weeks ago there was no ice at all. But now, when we arrived on friday morning we saw from the distance really fat ice lines at the sector Oeschiwald and a bit further away at the sector Staubbach. I really got excited!

We made a 15 minutes walk and were at the start of Pingu and Arbonium (two nice routes!). But there were people climbing already. So we went ahead to find a line that was not occupied. We thought the "Haizähne" (shark tooth) would be a nice start of the day!

Bernd climbed the first pitch! Nice warm-up to get the feeling again for steeper ice, ice axes, screws, the moves... really cool! After the first pitch you have to walk/climb up for another 25 metres to reach the ledge between the lower and upper part of the sector.

From there you climb two steep pitches of ice. The route is rated WI 5+/6-, which means "pretty steep" ;-)
The ice was really good and thick enough for ice screw placements. Only at the start of the first pitch in the first pillar ice was thin and the pillar it self was not too solid... The belays are bolted and in good conditions.

After that we abseiled down again! Time for coffee and to make some plans for the next days. We stayed at the campground in a small room. It is a nice and comfortable place to stay and you can have breakfast and dinner as well. Other options are the Gemmi Lodge and the International scout centre.

Next day we wanted to climb Blue Magic, a route at the sector Staubbach. One of the main reasons that makes ice climbing a bit dangerous is falling ice, especially falling ice from climbers above you. So normally we try to be the first on a route. Some routes allow to climb with more parties for example when there is a large ledge between pitches. In the case of Blue Magic it is just a straight line up (that's why people want to climb this particular route, it looks really cool!). So that day we started pretty early but when we almost reached the bottom of the route we saw already two guys preparing for climbing. We discussed our options and decided to go back and climb another route. Baeretritt (WI 5+) was an pretty interesting alternative because the ice was very thin and it was difficult to place ice screws in truly solid ice. Nice route, though we could'nt climb the last 20 metres because all the water was running down the last pillar.

Monday I went up to the Breitwangflue for climbing one of the major classics in Kandersteg, maybe one of the biggest ice climbs in Europe, Crack Baby. A totally freaky and crazy route, 300 metres of steep ice, 8 pitches, WI 6 including a nice warm up walk 1000 metres up from the valley! I have been there with Rolf. We climbed the first three pitches in the dark (interesting experience). The first pitch was pretty thin and we were glad to have some shorter screws with us. Pitch 2 and 3 were good, with some places very brittle ice which made axe and ice screw placements a bit interesting. Pitch 4 was good, although pretty steep for the grade. Pitches 5, 6 and 7 are the crux pitches. Pitch 5 and 6 were really dry, there was no water running at all and it seemed to be very fragile and not growing anymore. I guess the warmer temperatures of the next days are good to get some more water again! Rolf did an amazing lead on pitch 6: start with a mixed section, then a traverse into some mushrooms, around a slightly overhanging corner onto the pillar, and then 15 vertical metres and another 10 metres of 85 degrees... very demanding. For me it was great fun to second this pitch... it felt like steep rock climbing, nice moves and so steep!!!! Pitch 7 had some mushrooms and couliflowers and pitch 8 was very very wet....
Impressive adventure on one of the longest and steepest ice climbs, great day!
Except the last abseil all the belays are bolted, there are new Inox bolts on all the belays and also on top of the last pitch!