Breitwangflue

Karel suggested to climb stairways to the stars on the Breitwangflue. I really wanted to climb Metro, but after checking for some info on that route I was in! At least if Karel would be able to lead on the difficult pitches - and he did! some impressive leads on steep ice, mixed, most of the time intensively covered with very loose snow, Karel lead the hard sections.

We started climbing around 8.30h (after 2 hours walking up from Mitholz) and we were on top of the route around 18.00h. Belays mostly with one bolt or Abalakovs....

here some pictures:




Stairways to the stars - gully to the right of Crack Baby - the ice pitches on top of the route are clearly visible...



 initial gully climbing, looks easy, but mainly loose power shit - difficult to climb and protect



looking down after pitch 1





start of pitch 2, steep and narrow gully...



start of pitch 3, more ice and as add-on "spin drift"...

 belay of pitch 3

 start of pitch 5, dry, and on the freehanging.... Karel did an amazing lead, also the second part of this pitch was real climbing!!



 looking down pitch 5




 pitch 6

 on top!!!!

Cogne

Together with Roeland some nice routes.
First day: Tuborg (WI 5), that was my 6th ascent and Stella Artice (WI 5) on the other side of the valley, my fourth ascent.
Second day: we went to Tradimento (WI 5) in the far back of the Valnontey opposite of Repentance. Very good conditions, much easier than WI5.


 steep pitch on Tuborg!




View on Stella to the left after climbing Tuborg.







Roeland at the belay after the first pitch on Stella, second pitch steep!!!

 Start of second pitch....

Final pitch on Stella...

 Below Tradimento


 Second pitch on Tradimento...



 Roeland leading on the impressive final pitch...



 No hands rest...

 Rappeling final pitch...

Repentance, Monday Money, Flash Estivo and Fiumana di Money

Late kick off ice climbing season

Two weeks ago we cancelled our trip to the Alps due to the enormous amounts of snow predicted in Chamonix, Northern Zwitserland and also Italian Alps.

Last week we got our second attempt, Jeroen and I went to Cogne for some ice climbing, it was a pretty good start of the season:

Day 1: Lau Bij (WI5/5+) and Loie (WI 3/40).

The first pitch of Lau Bij is much thinner than last years. It made it actually more fun to climb. The second traverse pitch is always impressive. After rappelling we climbed it for a second time. Thereafter we went a bit higher for climbing the single pitch waterfall of Loie.



 Lau Bij, Jeroen climbing pitch 1


 me on the traverse in pitch 2


 exit pitch 2



 Loie



Day 2: Diretissima de Patri (WI 5+) and Patri de Droites (WI 4)

The diretissima doesn't always build up. As far as I know last time it was climbable in 2013/2014. One of the ice routes I still had not climbed in Cogne. It was a great experience, with a nice boulder move from the ice ledge in the rock to the start of pillar. After rappelling we also climbed Patri right hand variation.


 Diretissima to the left and Patri de Droite





 nice climbing on the diretissima



 Jeroen on the right hand Patri



Always fun!


Day 3: Repentance Super (WI 6).
Two years ago I climbed Repentance for the first time (with Bernd). Repentance is comparable with for example Rübezahl in Kandersteg, steep, well structured, sometimes overhanging sculptures of cauliflowers, pillars, balconies.... impressive. I climbed the steep part in four short pitches. In my opinion the top pillar is currently not very difficult. I found the first part more technical and demanding due to the sometimes very steep and thin ice structures. But I loved it. Like two years ago I leadclimbed all the steep pitches. Great experience!
We also saw the big vulture flying around!!!!



 start of pitch 1 Repentance Super


 

crusing up...

 start of pitch 2


steep crux of pitch 3

 start of pitch 4 the pillar

 
rappelling

 sunset on repentance

artificial climbing in Ettringen

Yesterday Miel and I went to Ettringen for some artificial climbing exercises. Some rain and snow made it a perfect day out.

We climbed Lauras Stern, JackAss, Dirty Deeds on cams and nuts. At the end of the day I also climbed Knife Blade Runner (A2) on micro nuts, lost arrows and the only knife blade I tried to use came out after light bouncing on the ladder .... real fun!

brief update

Last summer I didn't climb big routes in the Alps due to various reasons. Anyway, I went a few times to Ettringen, spent three really nice weeks with my wife in France and also did some really nice sportclimbing with my brother.

Ettringen

Two days crack attack with Eoin:

The first day we started climbing in sector Kühlschrank:

• EAER 22, UIAA VI, nice climbing, plenty of bolts!
• Badesalz, UIAA VI+, good crack and dihedrals. good to protect!
• Purple Haze, UIAA VII, nice hand crack with interesting finish!
• Toxoplasma, UIAA VIII-, hard fingercrack, auauaua....

We went to the Schiffsbug afterwards:

• Mettwürstchen, UIAA VII+, nice and long route!
• Pummelchen, UIAA VI, nice route with thin hands at the finish!

 Next day we started again at the Schiffsbug:

• Flowerstreet, UIAA VI+, nice clean route with harder start, rest is just fun!
• Sister Rosa, UIAA VII+, brilliant route with offwidth start, than hands! pure fun!

we continued at the Kranwand and Dürener Wand:

• Kranwand, UIAA VII, dihedral with painful finger crack, again auauauauauaua...
• Harakiri, UIAA VII-, again fingers.... with cool move from the finger crack to the left, happy with the handjam ;-)
• Seepferdchen, UIAA VIII+, thanks for the toprope to the german guys, really nice route, we are working on it...
• Total vertan, UIAA VII-.
• Handriss, UIAA VI, definitely no handjam, if  you have small hands sometimes fist, but normally cups... difficult climbing. At the end of the climbing day were painful experience - we like that ;-)

 Purple Haze

Nice rack!

 Mettwürstchen!

Val Durance

Again three beautiful weeks in the Val Durance with Marieke. Lots of sportclimbing, mountainbiking and hiking.

We started in the vallee de la guisane close to La Grave. Perfect climbing in Villar d'Arene.

From the camp ground in Freissnieres we also went to Le Pouit (steep, a bit polished and very hard rated) and also to Le Bouchier.