Like in 2021, I had to go to Switzerland for work early december. After fnishing there 3 days of working, Jeroen came by train, I picked him up in Bern and we drove to Cogne - unsure if we would find climbable conditions. We did! Some ice in the Loie icefall above Lillaz and in the afternoon some dry tooling at the Cretaz crag.
Enough ice ...
Obligatory cappucini in the bar de Cogne
Enough rock...
I had to work in Switzerland for a few days and Bernd and I were very eager to climb something despite the bad weather forecast. we only had a few days and finally it had more coffee and wine than that we actually climbed something. We hoped to go somewhere up in the higher mountains but we ended with some base climbs in Orco.
Nice week of ice climbing in Cogne with Bernd. It was generally cold (around -13 degrees when we started). Not so much climbers anymore, as the week before we assume. Although, one day we wanted to climb Repentance, but one rope team arrived 20 minutes before us. So we decided to go to Monday Money first, but when we rapped down again 4 other rope teams were climbing on the same route, pretty weired.
Other cool routes we climbed were Candelabro de Coyote, Chandelle Levure and Tuborg. Especially Tuborg will keep in our mind, I climbed that route 5 or 6 times before but it had never been that steep and thin. Furthermore, the ice had a lot of tension and the pillar had not been worked well by other parties. I really had to work hard to climb this pitch.
Last day we climbed the Cold Couloir all the way to the top. Long day, with deep snow in the upper part. We had planned to be on the summit around 15.00h but it was finally 17.00h. The descent got a kind of deception. Around 19.00h we reached the area of the waterfalls close to Lillaz. We could see the village and the parking lot but we could nog exactly locate how to get down. Several steep slopes down climbing leading into dead ends, climbing back up again finally let us decide to call for assistance. We are very grateful for the help from the 2 guides and also the staff in the valley.
Steep pitch of Tuborg, difficult climbing this year
Chandelle Levure, lower part
Lower part of Candelabro del Coyote
On Candelabro del Coyote, we got really wet.
First pitch of the Cold Couloir, first part thin
Second pitch, really nice
5th pitch
6/7pitch
upper part, last part of ice
Summit and views to Cogne and Epinel
I never have been that early in Cogne for climbing ice... Although, we were not exactly sure that there would be ice at all. Due to working visit to Switzerland and a lot of snow on the northern side of the Alps Bernd and I decided to give it a try. At least we could do some dry tooling in the valley.
After a nice drytooling day between Cogne and Lillaz we spotted the Loie waterfall and expected it to be climable, and indeed, next morning after 1 hour ascent to the foot of the fall we were sure that we would hit ice this trip - fantastic.
Next day we walked to Patri, because that waterfall usually builts up very well. And indeed, it was climbable. The fourth day we went to Valmiana, although, only rated WI3, the first pitch was still thin and not chopped at all, very nice climbing and last part even in the sun!!!
Loie:
Patri
Valmiana
Drytooling
Some new challenges in Ettringen: I artif rope soloed the Kelle to try it on tope rope. I met a few nice guys and spent the weekend climbing together. Besides Kelle I also toproped the Hulk (VII+), Flirtin with Desaster (VIII+) in de sector Kühlschrank and in Mordor Der Strand (VIII-), Hell Raiser (VIII-) and Minas Tirith (VII).
Two nice climbing days in Ettringen. After climbing some VII and VII+ routes we tried some harder stuff. Seepferdchen (VIII+) and Kelle des Knopfgiessers (VIII) are two amazing routes in the Ettringer Lay. The first one is situated at the Dürener Wand and is very hard right from the beginning. After a few jam moves the characteristic S-shape finger crack asks for some hard lay backing to continu up to the second half of the route that requires thin hands and ringlocks. Saturday I managed to climb the lower part without a block (in toprope) and thereafter I figured out the crux move in the upper crack.
On saturday we toproped Kelle. This route is about 20m and starts with a really cool finger crack up to and below the bulge. From here the route starts with thin hands and after the bulge the angle of the wall eases and the crack is becoming more hands and the upper part again requires hard fingerjams. Really cool.
A week of climbing in Ailefroide. Instead of an alpine route in the higher mountains we only could climb some routes in the valley -due to the rainy and unstable weather.
