Marmolada South face

From a climbers point of view spring was quite disappointing. My december/januari ice climbing season was good and I hoped to climb some bigger routes in march or april. But the weather was too bad for big stuff. So overall the last months were good training months and we did some good sportclimbing - but nothing special.

On 30th of june (last week) Andreas and I climbed the south face of the Queen of the Dolomites – the Marmolada (3000m plus). We already planned to climb the face last year but due to bad weather we finally went to the Dauphine. But we promised to come back for a second attempt. We had one week for climbing in the Dolomites – but as always – behind your desk at home you make the wildest plans for climbing as much as possible in one week. We both learned the last years that big routes need focus and patience. Weather and conditions does not always allow to climb when you like it. We arrived on Saturday in Canazei – and at our arrival it was immediately clear that climbing the south face would be a real adventure. There was still a lot of snow everywhere.


 After 10 hours driving - red wine in Canazei

After a call with the Falier hut we decided to walk up on Sunday. The guardian thought that the lower part of the route could be wet but the upper part should be o.k. The weather forecast predicted a window on Monday, Tuesday would be worse. From behind our desks we had planned to do some warm up climbs in the area – Andreas had climbed a lot in the Dolomites, but for me it was the first visit. Since the weather forecast was only good for one day we skipped the “starters” to immediately eat the “main course”.

On our way to Malga Ciapela we saw the Marmolada glacier on the north side of the mountain – loads of snow. We decided to take one pair of crampons and one light ice axe with us for the descent. Next day we already needed the crampons and axe to get to the base of the climb – wise decision though.


ready to climb...

After a nice hike of about 2 hours we reached the Falier hut and we had a marvellous view on the south face and particular on our route “Don Quichote”. This route is about 900m, 25 pitches or so and up to 6a/6a+. Under normal conditions you can climb the face on this route in about 6-10 hours. 

 first view on the face

 

Don Quichote

The guardian told us not to start too early, so we left the hut at 6.00h. But even to get to the base of the route took 1,5 hours (instead of 1 hour) because the amount of snow. And again: from behind our desks we thought to climb the first pitches on a running belay but as we started the first pitch we recognized that the route was still very wet – no running belay – even in the easy pitches we had to climb carefully… whatever – we were on route and that was exactly what we wanted to do -  climbing on a massive face- being alone- under difficult conditions. In june/july the days are long and it was great to be on the mountain with another good climber, together we would make it to the summit – no doubts.

 

start at 6.00 at the Falier hut


you never walk alone...

  snow at the base

 

the first chimneys...

Andreas is leading

We made progress- chimneys- slabs- diedres, sometimes dry often wet rock made the climbing adventurous. We were half way at 13.00, there was a lot of snow on the ledge, we plowed up to the start of the second part – the pillar.

 

snow at the ledge half way 

the upper pillar...


Andreas leading...

a short steep roof with big holds -  but even there it was a bit wet...

Actually the weather wasn’t that good as predicted- clouds all day and for the final pitches even some snow and hail were part of this alpine game. Because of the crampons, the ice axe, bivy bag… the backpack was pretty big and heavy. So actually the lead climbing part was a kind of a reward because the seconding climber had to work hard as the donkeys down in the valley. We cursed the backpack and called her “Ushi”. Ushi wanted to go down all day long but we would go up. During a short snow-storm I reached the summit – 30cm of snow on top – crawling up through the snow to find a big rock making the final belay…. It was 20.30h. Andreas came up – we were happy.

 

alpine climbing how it goes

 

brilliant deep views on the very top of the pillar... a lot of snow en route

 Andreas exiting on the top... is it winter of summer climbing? nobody knows....

After a short search I found the rappel down to the glacier on the north side. With a second rappel we were on the flat part of the glacier and we walked down to the middle station of the Marmolada cable car. The station was closed but we found a “cozy” spot in the snowplow-parking lot. It was cold and our clothes were wet – but the spirits were still high. So we installed our biwak on some wood and went into the bivy bag…. Shivering all night, at 4.30 I got up for some walking and jumping to get it warm again. It was a beautiful sunrise of what would later be the start of a nice and warm summer day (weather forecasts are bullshit….). I was astonished – Andreas slept quite a while. I could’nt understand how he dit that, but anyway. The cable car station got open at 8.30 and the dubble shot espressos were great!!!


cold and wet...

 

hotel snowplow :-)

next morning- great to feel the sun and minutes later the espresso...

and some real food....

FACTS Don Quichote: classic moderate rock climb, 25 pitches, 6a/6a+, Falier hut as start for the routes on the south face, we used 60m dubble rope, a good rack of friends (0,1 tot 3), slings are really useful. Conditions can only improve this summer. The problem is that you can't see the wet parts of the route from down the hut (chimney in the upper part of the first part and the last pitches just below the summit). They are faced to the west and do not get a lot of sun!

A must have is the Giordani climbing guide of the Marmolda south face.

Duisburg and Berdorf

Finally, temperatures are rising and we can spent more time outside climbing and hiking. Last sunday we went to Duisburg for the first time this year. Climbing in the Landschaftspark is special. The routes are not really high, maybe 10m, but you climb on old concrete buidlings. So basically you are climbing on a artifical wall. holds are very thin and the steeper routes are very crimpy. For us it is just a 40 minute drive to Duisburg. I climbed a few 7-/7 routes. When you get tired in your fingers it's nice to finish the climbing day on the sector Nordparkhütte. The guys from the German alpine club built some really nice routes with plastic holds into the roof of the building. So the first 8 meters are only vertical and thereafter you climb for 10 meters or so on a maximum overhanging roof. good power workout for your whole body.
After that the  climbing day ends with an Erdinger and a really good currywurst!

http://www.landschaftspark.de/freizeit-sport/klettergarten


Last tuesday we went to Berdorf, Luxembourg. Last autum we went there for the first time - in the weekend. The climbing is great but it is too busy. The owner of the camping told us that the ministery gave already 3000 climbing permits. I really do not understand this "policy". Normally you give permits to restrict access to a area. But if everybody get's a permit you're not in control anymore. Well, we arrived on tuesday and there was nobody!!! not on the campground or on the climbingsite. It was warm, maybe 20 degrees. So we had a great time on the rock. We also made a really nice hike through the woods down to Echternach and back. So if you have a few days in Berdorf, take a few hours off from climbing and check out the rest of the area.

We climbed some really nice routes again: my favourite route during this trip was "Heinz" in the sector "was not was". really cool combination of roof and wall climbing with a quite tricky finish close to the lower off. Other nice routes we climbed was Sirene, Bibi, Minimops and petit Trou (6a-6c).

Marieke in Minimops, 6a.

In Berdorf are 3 campgrounds and information about climbing and the permit you can find here: http://www.berdorf-tourist.lu/de/klettern

Portugal

I'm just back from 6 days of holiday in Portugal. Together with Marieke I went to Paul in Estoril. Kind of reunion with the well established traditions of drinking wine and whiskey, good food and nice stories. It was great to see Paul again, the last big trip together is already 5 years ago - summiting Mount McKinley. We are already making plans again but currently the Pauls focus is more on his family and home, but I'm waiting for the trips in the future.

It was pretty warm - 15-20 degrees, nice warm sun and sometimes rain. We visited two really cool climbing spots. The first one is located close to Estoril and is called Guia. Cool limestone routes, it is well bolted and you climb close to the sea. The area is pretty impressive and the nice thing is that easy routes in the lower grades are close to the harder routes.



The second area is Rocha da Pena in the south of Portugal, about 40 minutes drive from Faro. The limestone cliffs get sun early in the morning and are easy accessible by car, followed by a nice hike of maybe 15 minutes. The limestone is solid and sharp and the routes are well bolted as well.



These rock climbing days are the first rock days in 2013 and I must say: good start of the season. I climbed a few 6c's onsight, which is pretty good for my climbing level.

If you are looking for a nice spot of climbing in the south of Europe I really can recommend Portugal. A nice topo is this one: http://www.climb-europe.com/RockClimbingShop/Portugal-Onsight-Rock-Climbing-Guidebook.html

Ryanair offers good tickets. 

But there is one thing we learned and I want to warn you: our complete climbing gear was stolen out of our rental car at the very first day at the cliffs in Guia. The packs were not visible from the outside and after some research on the www we suppose that we were not the only climbers who have been visited... The rock climbing season is just starting, but especially in the south of Europe there are a lot of people with no job, no money and no future. The economic crisis is for most us something we know from TV, travelling in the south we can learn a lot from people who lost everything... But please be careful with your gear!!!

Cogne 3

Well, last week I went to Cogne again, and like the trips before our primary goal was an alpine route in Chamonix. I think Cogne is getting more than an alternative, the weather is always good, you always find ice here, and even after 20 climbing days here in Cogne there are still plenty of routes to climb.

On our arrival day Miel and I climbed the Stallatito de Cristallo, WI 4+. Good warm up.

At the start of the Stallatito de Cristallo... after 10 hours driving a nice physical activity


Next morning we moved a bit more to the right to climb Tutto Relativo, WI4. But there were people ahead, and with -17 degrees it was definitely to cold to wait an hour or so. So we traversed back to the left and climbed the Stallatito a second time, really nice. After that we got our chance to climb Tutto Relativo, the first two pitches are easy, but then things get really steep, it was cold, but the ice wasn't too bad. Afer the final pitch we walked up and around to go down again to the start of the route.

The crux pitch of Tutto Relativo...

We got some sun, had a hot tea and then crossed the valley to the other side to give Coyote another try. After the first pitch we aborted the climb because of a serious shower, within minutes everything was soaked, and immediatiley frozen. It was time to get down, and at 17.00 we had a nice Paulaner beer in Cogne.

Next day we went into Valleille again for climbing the cold couloir. We were pretty early trying to be the first en route. But as we arrived at the start more than 3 rope teams were preparing, so we decided to come back another time and walked back to Stella Artice.

Stella Artice is a pretty impressive route, with a long 60m start at WI4. But this is just the warm up for the very steep and long free-standing pillar of the 2nd pitch. In januari the pillar wasn’t yet thick enough for a save ascent, but now it was very massive – about 2x1 metres thickness. I never lead climbed a steep massive pillar like that. So it was pretty exciting. But it was really cool climbing. 

 

The left line is Stella Artice...

Steep ice is definitely fun!

 the final pitch of stella artice...

Funny thing is if you climb steeper ice routes it feels more like rock climbing – and that’s what we know and like! Miel second the steep pillar – he was really fast. After the steep pitch we had an easy snow pitch and the last pitch was hard to climb. Really hard ice, it was difficult to place the ice screws and my calf muscles were burning as hell. Anyway, we climbed that last pitch and in 4 abseils we were down again. It was a really cold day and even in the sun it was -15 or so.

 

Stella Artice gets some sun after 12.00h, Miel is rappelling down the first pitch and you can see some guys from Chamonix climbing the pillar

The last day we climbed the first 3 pitches of cold couloir, this time we the first party at the start. At 11.00h we were back in Lillaz for a coffee.

 

Cogne ice climbing

After climbing in Chamonix I spent a day in Verbier for skiing. Next day Peter came in from Berlin. Initially we planned to go to Chamonix again but the weather got bad. As always we have a plan B: ice in Cogne. On the other side of the Mont Blanc the weather was still good. As we arrived on thursday afternoon we both were tired; Peter from the long trip and I because of 3 days of outdoor activities. So we decided just to walk into the Lillaz valley and checking out the routes for the next days. It was a beautiful afternoon and there were lots of people climbing - but not in the cold couloir. This long ice route starts with 2 difficult pitches and then gets easier. I suggested just to try the first pitch. It is never difficult to convince Peter to do some rock or ice climbing. So in the late afternoon we got 2 really cool pitches of the cold couloir.


cold couloir, with the steeper pitches

Next day we went up to Lillaz again to climb one of the classics in the valley: "candelabro de coyote". We haven't seen a coyote here but the climbing was pretty impressive. 6 pitches of climbing. And we were alone - never expected that. The climbing was great. After 5 hours we were back at the bottom and we discussed options like having coffee or climbing.... 30 minutes later we were at the start of the steep pitch of Tuborg, another WI4+/5. We climbed that route as well and after that we went down, it was too late for coffee.... we checked out the bars if they had Tuborg, but they hadn't since we were in Italy and not in Denmark :-)


nice overview from the bottom of the valley: from right to left Tuborg, Coyote and not really visible on the far left the Chandelle Levure


Coyote ice fall



 the first pitch



airy and really cool climbing



the upper pillar



Peter leading the upper pitches

On our third day we went up to the Chandelle Levure. I already climbed that route with Roeland - earlier this winter. Back in december the last pillar hadn't formed pretty well. So I really had to come back for climbing the last pitch. Peter lead the first pitches. Then you got a 35 m pitch with a almost vertical wall at the top. The climbing was really cool and suddenly I felt the sun - reaching the top of our ice fall. Fantastic. The night had been cold, maybe -12 degrees, the ice has a lot of tension. If you work with your axes on that tensioned ice it breaks. But if the sun starts shining, temperature rises and the tension in the ice removes. So in the upper part of that pitch suddenly the ice got really smooth and the climbing becomes easy inspite of the steepness.


the first pitch of the Chandelle


catching the sun...

Peter followed very quick and we went up to the last pitch. It still looked thin, but most of all very steep (at some parts overhanging). The sun was shining on the upper part and small pieces of ice came down. I saw no signs of previous attempts. But I thought ok, in parts it  looks protectable. I can try. I started really careful the first steep part, but already the second ice screw pinned through the ice and catched air on the inner part of the pillar. Normaly, good icescrews in good ice can hold 2000kg - this is more than my car and thats what I am always visualizing if I'm climbing ice. Ok, stay calm, you just put an ice screw where my BMW could hang on - I don't know but this thought makes me way more relaxed... In this pitch my ice screws were not solid, there was still a lot of tension in the ice and I really did not feel confident to continue. So I carefully climbed down again and we went away.

Petit Viking

Last tuesday I climbed together with Bernd the Petit Viking. It is an alpine ice route in the Argentiere bassin in Chamonix. The day before we took the cable car of the Montet to make a really nice ski descent to the bottom of the glacier and after that we walked on skis with too heavy backpacks (as always) to the Argentiere hut. This approach made me really happy, outdoors, on altitude, in the cold in a really alpine enivronment - love that.
After a good night in the winter hut we started at 6 o'clock in the morning. Instead of 2 hours it took us 3 hours to reach the bottom of the climb. Anyway, as we arrived we saw that the bergschrund was open but climbable. The last two winters it was normally really difficult to cross the bergschrund. So we were lucky.

our route is the thin ice line which goes pretty straight up on the left side of the picture


I lead the first pitches to the bottom of the first steeper wall. Then Bernd took the lead and it turned out that the ice quality was excellent. It was less steep than we expected and it was really fun to climb. After the first steeper pitch it gets easier and after some easier pitches I got the last final steep funnel to climb. I was in a good mood and kept climbing until the 60m rope forced me to make belay on two ice screws. During that pitch I had some serious spin drift which made it more interesting.

the bergschrund and in the background the first steeper part



 the first steep pitch


great views to Les Courtes and the Argentiere glacier




abseiling

We climbed 10 pitches. The route finishes in a col close to the Domino. We did not climb the last two easy pitches because it got late. So we had to abseil down again and then ski out first to the hut and then back to Chamonix were we arrived at 6 in the evening. Great route, normally it is too cold in january for climbing up there but sometimes weather gives you a chance - take it!

facts: alpine ice climbing, WI4, 500m, the belays are on pitons and slings, no bolts. Crux is normally the bergschrund. Best way to get to the start of the route is by skis. To the left of the route are some harder routes like the Charlet-Ghillini. The Northface of the Courtes looks a bit dry at the moment but the Droites (Lagarde/Ginat/Jackson) will be in good shape in a few weeks.

Cogne - ice climbing

Last week the winter is officially opened!!! I went to Switserland and Italy for skiing and climbing. After the heavy snowfalls on the main ridge of the Alpes there was plenty of snow. And in Cogne (Aosta valley) it had been cold for more than 3 weeks so there was a big chance that the first ice climbs would be possible.

The first day I did some really nice skiing together with Harold. We spent that day in Verbier. We tested some moments all mountain skis - great stuff. The snow on and off piste was great and it felt good to make the first turns again.

In the evening I drove from Verbier to Cogne. It is just a 1,5 hours drive through the tunnel of the col St. Bernard, down to Aosta and than up again on the other side of the valley. I was really excited about how the conditions of the waterfalls would be. Last winter I have been to Cogne two times and the climbing was great.

Next morning I met Roeland. Originally he is from the same area in Holland where I live but he moved to Chamonix a few years ago and now works as a mountain guide. We decided to start with the chandelle Levure. A cool waterfall in the Lillaz valley with two steep crux pitches. It is close to the Tuborg waterfall and on the opposite side of cold couloir. After soloing the first easy steps we roped up and climbed the first steep pitch. Great to hear the sound of my ice axe in the perfectly frozen ice.

 We continued up through the snow gully to climb the second pitch but unfortunately the second steep pitch looked very thin at the top. This side of the valley gets way more sun and it was still early in the season. We decided not to climb that pitch.

Next day we made a long walk in for 3 hours into the Valnontey for climbing Erfaulet. At arrival the steep top pitch looked too thin and we decided to climb Monday Money, WI4 on the other side of the valley. I already climbed that waterfall last winter but it`s a great route and worth to climb it twice.



On saturday we went to Lau Bij, WI5+ close to Lillaz. A really cool waterfall with a steep first pitch and than followed by a really airy traverse over some pillars to the right - real climbing though.

After three days of climbing it was definitely enough. It should get warm on sunday and that's why Roeland went back to Chamonix and I went back to Verbier for a last day of skiing.

If you like these ice climbing pictures but never tried it here is an interesting option: Roeland van Oss is a certified UIAGM mountain guide. He offers beginners and advanced courses in ice climbing but also a lot of other stuff. Check out his website and learn more about the possibilities: www.intothealpes.com  and you can also find him on facebook https://www.facebook.com/IntoTheAlps