28-12-09
After a 12 hour drive we were finally there! Erik and I had arrived at Kientall! The perfect spot to climb the first mixed routes of the season and to introduce Erik to the wonderfull world of mixed climbing. Or is it?!?
On arrival (ca. 22.00 hours) the temperature turned out to be about -4° celcius. On inspecting the routes at about 23.00 hours, we hear lots of water dripping down in the dark…
29-12-09
As I awake to the annoying sound of ticking/dripping and turn over in my bed, I realize what I am hearing… it’s rain. It is so warm here in the Kientall that it’s raining. How could this be? It’s supposed to be -15° out here.
After a light brakfast of about 6 sandwiches we grabbed our gear to head out and take a closer look at the waterfalls (which turned out to be litteraly waterfalls). As we are moving over to the mixed routes, we hear a lot of thundering noise on the other side of the valley. The first of the waterfalls are starting to fall down due to the high temperatures. Good thing we’re at the shadow side of the valley…
Since we are here for a reason – CLIMBING – we decide to climb some easy mixed routes. They are slightly overhanging, so we’re safe from falling ice and other stuff. After climbing about four routes in the pouring rain and water dripping down on us and into our clothes we decide we’ve had enough. We head back to the van for rookworst and erwtensoep (smoked sausage and pea soup, a classic dutch crappy weather dish). During lunch we come to the inevitable conclusion: lets get out of here and find a better spot. We’re of to Kandersteg to meet up with Rick and check out the conditions there.
Once in Kandersteg we find Rick standing in the pouring rain at the bottom of the ski slopes. Soaked to the bone, but proudly holding his bright green new skis. You’ve got to love winter sports in December!
30-12-09
In order to keep ourselves busy, we head out to the local bar Des Alpes for a drink. Here we met Nathalie (a German girl who used to work at KISC) and we got her to join us for drytooling at Ueschienenwand the next day. We agreed to meet at 11.00 hours at the reception of the scoutscenter and that’s were we found ourselves some hours later. Three climbers with a hangover and a cup of coffee. It’s still raining by the way. Two friends of Nathalie’s spontaneously decided to join us because there was nothing else to do because of the rain. Except, of course, hiking up a mountain in the rain…
Then followed an hour and a half of stumbling through the rain over slippery, iced over paths to Ueschienen. On arrival we found out that it was not only very cold and wet, but that three Swiss guys were just as nuts as we were and had come to do some ‘dry’tooling. Because of the crappy conditions, we decided to climb a totally dry (= ice free) route. That narrowed our options down to Krass and Steinzeit.
Which one of the two I actually climbed, I don’t know. At least it was good to be climbing after all, not in the least to get warm again. After an OS and a Redpoint in these routes, we headed down for more hot coffee at the scoutscenter.
Kientall: mixed climbing
28-12-09
After a 12 hour drive we were finally there! Erik and I had arrived at Kientall! The perfect spot to climb the first mixed routes of the season and to introduce Erik to the wonderfull world of mixed climbing. Or is it?!?
On arrival (ca. 22.00 hours) the temperature turned out to be about -4° celcius. On inspecting the routes at about 23.00 hours, we hear lots of water dripping down in the dark…
29-12-09
As I awake to the annoying sound of ticking/dripping and turn over in my bed, I realize what I am hearing… it’s rain. It is so warm here in the Kientall that it’s raining. How could this be? It’s supposed to be -15° out here.
After a light brakfast of about 6 sandwiches we grabbed our gear to head out and take a closer look at the waterfalls (which turned out to be litteraly waterfalls). As we are moving over to the mixed routes, we hear a lot of thundering noise on the other side of the valley. The first of the waterfalls are starting to fall down due to the high temperatures. Good thing we’re at the shadow side of the valley…
Since we are here for a reason – CLIMBING – we decide to climb some easy mixed routes. They are slightly overhanging, so we’re safe from falling ice and other stuff. After climbing about four routes in the pouring rain and water dripping down on us and into our clothes we decide we’ve had enough. We head back to the van for rookworst and erwtensoep (smoked sausage and pea soup, a classic dutch crappy weather dish). During lunch we come to the inevitable conclusion: lets get out of here and find a better spot. We’re of to Kandersteg to meet up with Rick and check out the conditions there.
Once in Kandersteg we find Rick standing in the pouring rain at the bottom of the ski slopes. Soaked to the bone, but proudly holding his bright green new skis. You’ve got to love winter sports in December!
30-12-09
In order to keep ourselves busy, we head out to the local bar Des Alpes for a drink. Here we met Nathalie (a German girl who used to work at KISC) and we got her to join us for drytooling at Ueschienenwand the next day. We agreed to meet at 11.00 hours at the reception of the scoutscenter and that’s were we found ourselves some hours later. Three climbers with a hangover and a cup of coffee. It’s still raining by the way. Two friends of Nathalie’s spontaneously decided to join us because there was nothing else to do because of the rain. Except, of course, hiking up a mountain in the rain…
Then followed an hour and a half of stumbling through the rain over slippery, iced over paths to Ueschienen. On arrival we found out that it was not only very cold and wet, but that three Swiss guys were just as nuts as we were and had come to do some ‘dry’tooling. Because of the crappy conditions, we decided to climb a totally dry (= ice free) route. That narrowed our options down to Krass and Steinzeit.
Which one of the two I actually climbed, I don’t know. At least it was good to be climbing after all, not in the least to get warm again. After an OS and a Redpoint in these routes, we headed down for more hot coffee at the scoutscenter.
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