Jibii! Another 3-days-weekend for us; finally some holiday-days together with Louie. We pack our bags once more this summer and shoulder them for another excursion in the Swiss Alps. This time, we head out to central Switzerland to Stöckalp. Here, we proudly ignore the massive gondola infrastructure and carry ourselves sweating and panting up to a little alp. The cattle are already up one level, so the place is quiet. We hide all the sleeping stuff behind a rock and climb further up (quite steep as well) to the bottom of the Nünplatten. Here we thought of climbing an easy multi pitch today. Well- it all turned out a bit different. Firstly we realised, that we were missing an ATC (little device to belay and abseil). Then, I freaked out on a (fairly easy) slab and couldn t help but climb down and send Louie up. Next, my belaying rope came to an end after 50 meters and Louie still hadn`t found a “Stand” (double point anchor). After yelling some ideas at each other, some up and down climbing and some swearing, it was decided that Louie abseils using a stable flake and one of the bolts.
That was it for that day. Too frustrating, too hot. We do depend too much on stupid little devices and bolted routes and that sense of security we got used to it. Not like the old days when they simply used some hemp-rope slung around their bodies and went for it. We are Millenia-Cowards and way too aware of what could happen. Ridiculous- how many generations before us had such a good health care system in their back?
Well- we still had to get down to were we had left our other stuff. Sliding down that steep rubble field and such.
Still in a good mood (or again….) we picked that little cute holiday hut as our residence for the night. Beautiful. Luxury and soo comfortable. Perfect spot for cooking, soft, cut down gras to lay on, a well that allowed us a quick dip after all the sweating and a bright moon shining down on us at night.
We have a little swim in the lake, hide most of our luggage and head up there. After a fantastic little ridge, the blue-white track gets trickier (= more interesting 😉 ) but then… it gets a bit too tricky: A chain lead down into a couloir and from there we are ment to use some slings to travers our way over a pretty scary looking drop only to reach another tiny rock-band that needs to be climbed up about 60 Meters.
This morning, on our way up to Melchsee, we observed two (!) Rega helicopters performing what looks to be a very tricky rescue mission. It was right below the peak of the Haupt and our guess was, that somebody fell down there. A 100% deadly drop. Our guess proved to be correct as we found out next day in the news.
So- no. Not today, not for us, not without some extra rope and harness. We decided (again) to turn round and soon found ourselves another charming peak: The Hochstollen. Easy, beautiful views and just perfect for today.
Oh- and what a beautiful sleeping spot we found later on: Right next to the little Blausee. Views, piece and the echo of hundreds of cowbells from the vertical wall just behind us.
Next day starts a bit earlier, we finally want to enjoy some of the good climbing up here. Super safe, tons of super nice routes and again, sun sun sun.
Wonderful 3 days!