Roadtripping, back in Frankenjura

I had set two goals for this trip. An 8a trad route and a 7b+ on-sight. As we didn't drive to Spain, or France, I had almost forgotten my 7b+-project. I was close to do it in Simplon Dorf but somehow I managed to fuck it up... Anyway, our quick stop in Frankenjura was my last change.

A great bivi at Simplon Pass

 Badass road, you have to watch out for burning trucks 

Drive-in train in Switzerland

 Eiger north face

 Back in Frankenjura 

 The home of limestone mushrooms 

 At first I tried to on-sight Jumanji (7b+) at Andeltodrom. Close but no cigar.

 Diebesloch, a popular crag for a reason

 A local climber on Sledgehammer (7b+)

I also gave a try...

Beavis & Butthead (7b+), this should be one of the best "9-" in Frankenjura. I did this on my second try. I also tried to on-sight Räuber Hotzenplotz 7b+ on the background... 

 Enjoying a well deserved weissbeer after on-sighting Azvenzgronkäznozünda (7b+), "a tricky overhanging groove" as the guidebook describes the route. It was our last climbing day and the last 7b+ at the crag. Sometimes hard trying pays off.

Roadtripping, Simplon Dorf

Ceüse is not the only place for summer sport climbing. Simplon Dorf in southern Switzerland, close to the Italian border, is a good option for hot days. The crag is at 1500 meters, in shade most of the day, and the cold breeze makes sure your belayer needs a down jacket even when it's +30 at the parking lot. And the parking lot is not that far, the approach is about 10 minutes.

Simplon Dorf is made for on-sighting. Routes are steep, long, up to 38 meter (most of the routes being 25-30 m), filled with huge jugs and well protected. I usually like to climb sport with heavy-duty quickdraws, but in Simplon Dorf, as you need about 15 draws on a route, I would rather climb with lighter draws.

The down side is that there isn't anything really hard. Just one 8a and one 7c+. And easier routes (6a-6b range) are not that special. But if you like juggy sport climbing in 6c-7c range, this place is pretty damn good. 

 Parking lot is quite nice, Simplon Dorf-city on the background

 Approach is not too bad

 Simplon Dorf, there are two sectors and 53 routes

 Thesi 7b, a long pumpfest

 Huxley's letzte7b+, another great route

 Paris-Verzi, a nice 6c. But Zebra 6c is way better

 We are not the only ones who like Simplon Dorf

 Young girl on Stradineri 6b. She climbed the route with one rest

 Me on Heldenepos 7b. Apparently the name means "route for heroes", or something, which explains unusual bolting 

 A random peak seen from the parking lot

Roadtripping, back in Cadarese

It seems that Cadarese has become our spiritual home. Well, not really, but we still had some unfinished business.

The thing is, I wasn't the only one with hard crack projects. Anu was working on Mustang (8a), and now it was her turn to make some serious tries to the route. I'm not a big fan of long term projecting, (especially when belaying) but seeing someone pushing herself, both physically and mentally, was inspiring to watch.

While pulling herself out of the comfort zone, Anu took dozens of uncontrolled falls, up to 7 meter, sometimes head first, and literally on every piece of protection.

For some reason, Anu seemed to be pissed off because she felt she was not bold enough to do the route. All I could say was that taking some nasty falls to a blindly placed ballnut is something that most of the badass trad climbers have never experienced. Also, ripping a piece of protection on this route means you have a good chance of hitting the ledge under the overhanging crack. The first ascent of Mustang was done with pre-placed gear, which tells something about the difficulty of gear placements.

But Anu wasn't just falling. Well, of course she fell on every try, but surprisingly, she did some climbing as well. She fell twice from the very last move. The last move is really not that hard, but when you have nothing left, you have nothing left. How close can you get without sending?

Days went...Too much trying, not enough resting, Anu got mentally stronger and physically weaker. There was need for a longer rest, so we drove to Simplon Dorf, Switzerland. Anu being a belay-bitch for three days sounded like a plan. For me anyway.

After a few days of superb sport climbing (for some...), we were back in Cadarese. Home sweet home. I thought Anu would have time to take some tries, rest for a few days and try again. Weather forecast said something else. The next day was probably the last day with Mustang, then it was going to rain for days, and anyway we would have a ferry to catch.

Now or never... Anu must have felt the pressure. I know I did. I don't think I have ever been so stressed before a climb. And now I was just belaying. 8a trad route for Anu was kind of a big deal.

Anu started to climb... the easy hand crack in the beginning looked easy. Well, of course, it is easy. Then she placed blindly two c3's...a ballnut...when she tried to pull the ballnut tight, it just slid down. Another try... again... fuck! Another try... knowing it was not going to be a good one, she just clipped the rope and continued. On Mustang, there isn't time for this. You have (or I had) about one second for putting the gear in, another for clipping and then you really have to keep on moving.

I tried to shout some “Come on, you can do it”-crap to encourage her, but she told me to shut up. Anu knew every move, every piece of gear and most importantly, how to fight to the end.

Mustang (8a). As far as I know, this is the hardest trad route ever done by a Finnish female climber.

Roadtripping, rest days in Valle dell'Orco

After too many days with hard cracks, we were trashed. Fingers swollen and infected, a longer rest felt like a good idea.

When our friend Martin send a message about his trip to Valle dell'Orco, we decided to drive there as well. After all, it's just 200 km from Cadarese. He was going to try some of the hardest routes and I thought it would be fun to take some photos if nothing else.

For some reason, Valle dell'Orco felt very similar to Lofoten islands. A lot of cracks, most of the hardest ones on huge boulders or on shorter crags, just like in Lofoten.

There are some bigger walls as well. Sergent is about 200 meter high and Caporal, which has been compared to El Capitan in Yosemite, is about 150 meter high. Even though Caporal is not very high, for example Aerospike (A5) also has a bigwall grade VI.

However, Valle dell'Orco is not Yosemite. It's not Lofoten either. Maybe a European version of Lofoten; more polished and more bolts. But if you are in the area, it's definitely worth visiting. 

 On the road again...

 Most of the crags in Valle dell'Orco are at 1500 meters. While driving in the valley toward crags, the elevation rises from 500 m to 1500 m within a short distance, so the road is quite steep.

 And definitely not wide enough for a campervan... 

 Random village in Orco 

 Torrente Orco. It was +35 degrees when we arrived, so at first we ran into the river for a swim

 Most of the nice parking lots were tagged with “no camping” signs. This one didn't have any signs so we slept here for one night. 

 Nice place for a breakfast

 Parking under Sergent. A popular camping site is right on the other side of the road

 Sergent

 Fissure du panetton (6c+) is a very nice fingercrack on a huge boulder. FA by Patrick Edlinger 1982. This route has been bolted, chopped, rebolted, rechopped, rebolted and rechopped. The current state is without bolts.

 Caporal, a miniatyre of El Capitan 

 Piccolo Caporal, a crag with only aid routes, most being just a single pitch. That's weird... I thought single pitch aid climbing is just a silly Finnish phenomenom...

 Random crag 

 Looking for Greenspit 

 Lo Zeppelin

 Nice little crag with a steep face. Potential for new routes?

 Another crag seen while approaching to Greenspit 

Greenspit (8b)

Roadtripping, Mustang (8a)

Mustang is a less known test piece in Cadarese. It really doesn't look that hard, more like a nice hand crack on slab. At first, I actually thought it was a route called Ciao (5).

Anyway, after one hour of cursing and aiding, I was quite sure I'm on Mustang (8a). And no, it's not a hand crack. I could get my fingertips just a few centimetres in the crack. It's not a slab either. The wall is only a bit overhanging, but as the crack goes diagonally, you're lie-backing on the 10 cm overhanging ramp which makes it feel much steeper.

Once I got down, I was ready to give up with the route. I couldn't do even half of the moves. Awkward lie-backing on fingertips with super technical feet work...not really “my style”, I would say. Anyhow, after a couple of skinny Swiss guys showed me a few important hip movements I decided to try again. After all, you should always focus on your weaknesses, right?

It took me two days just to get the moves done and on my fifth day on the route, I did my first serious lead attempt. I fell in the middle, just didn't have anything left.

Two days later I came back. I got the fingerlocks perfectly, got the gear in quickly and felt like sending. For a second I believed I was going to nail this little f*cker. When it was time to put the last gear, I realized that there is no way I could hang with a one hand, not for a second. I decided to skip the last piece of gear and make a fight to the end.

It was a good fight, I got as close as 20 cm from the top jug. I hung for a second in a good sloper before I was flying. I took a 7 meter whipper to a blindly placed green #0 C3, which held, as always. Actually, I had to put most of the gear blindly, as just getting into a position where I could see the crack was easier said than done.

Just before the sun hit the wall, I did another try. Everything went perfectly and I was climbing faster than the last time. I also decided to leave the last piece of gear to the ground. Nothing is more annoying than having a gear with you but being too pumped to use it. After too many desperate moves I grabbed the last jug and clipped the anchor.

For me, this was the most awkward, technical and painful route I've ever done, including all the off-widths. I spent six days on the route, and even completely rested, every move perfectly done, it still felt pretty damn desperate.

Mustang (8a) © Anu Korosuo

Roadtripping, Turkey Crack (8a)

Turkey Crack is probably best known from the Turkey Crack-film and Tom Randall's blog post about when he did the second ascent, on-sight, to this wide roof-crack. After that, it's been quiet. Well, not really, as it seems there is someone cursing on the route on every weekend. Still, the route has not seen more ascents.

The roof was a bit longer than I expected, starting as a Camalot #5 and ending as a Camalot #4. However, the route continues for another 15 meters of thin hand crack, which was quite technical and definitely harder than I thought it would be. Actually, when I did the route, it was the first time I could climb the upper part without resting on gear.

I trained the roof for four days, or 8 tries (I could only do two tries a day, it's kinda hard workout...), and I had tested the upper part twice. After resting for two days, I hang-dogged the route as a warm-up, waited for an hour, and climbed the route.

According to local climbers, my ascent was the third to the route. They seem to be a bit embarrassed by the fact that no Italian has been able to climb the route... 

 The Turkey Crack and a local climber Lucas with powerful “no feet”-beta

 Swiss working on the route. The crack continues on the face for about 7 meter beyond the photo

 The first fist jam and the fun starts (c) Lucas Iribarren

 “Feet first” -beta seems to be most used on this route. This might be easier with small feet, but for me with 44,5 feet, it wasn't the best way to go. Actually, big hands, big forearms and small feet might be the best combo. (c) Lucas Iribarren

 Last desperate moves in the roof. For me the hardest part was to pull myself over the edge.

 This was my first 8a trad route, time to drink some sparkling wine! 

Lucas and Chiara invited us for a dinner. And yes, we ate turkey!

Roadtripping, Cadarese

According to the guidebook, ”Cadarese is probably the most various and largest crack climbing area in central Europe.” Being at 900 meters, crags facing north and big trees shading routes, the place sounded almost too good to be true.

Surprisingly, our first impression was not that good. Approach was steep, exposed and slippery because of wet leaves, and when we finally found cracks, they were BOLTED!? In some rare cases, for example because of the rock quality, I understand bolts on cracks, but now we were looking 100% solid cracks covered with unnecessary bolts. Actually, there had been some discussion about the bolts and some of the routes have been chopped already. 

Rock in Cadarese is gneiss and routes, especially in sport sector, looked a bit like routes in Flatanger. Anyway, we are more into trad climbing, and when we finally walked up to sector called “crack-party”, we understood what all the fuss on Cadarese is about.

Our first night in Cadarese. The parking area was closed because of a cycling competition, so we drove to the next village (about 500 m) and decided to sleep in the parking lot of a church. This was a bad decision as the the church's bell was banging every hour. Even with ear plugs it was quite impossible to sleep.

Cadarese

Cadarese from the crag. It's not a big town, actually the thermal bath on the left is about the same size than the village.

 Beginning of the approach, Lower sector is on the background

 Central sector, bolted cracks

 Why? 

 More bolted cracks

 Approach to Crack-party 

 Approach is quite exposed... In many cases there is a 30-meter drop right next to the path.

 Most exposed parts were fixed with a rope

 Our first route was a bolted crack in central sector 

 Anu warming up on Ciao (5)

 La Freccia (6b+) Anu on-sighted this one 

Largo(6b) Cool undercling / hand jam traverse

 Cadarese is known for hard grades...can't remember the last time I was so tired after a 6b crack

 Fessura Fallica (6b+)... a nice dihedral on upper sector 

 Foglie Cadenti (6b). This beauty used to be bolted as well

 The Doors

 Mission Gin Lemon (6b+) starts as a thin hand and ends as a off-width :)

 A random wide crack we couldn't find from the guidebook

 Bookcake (7c+) Very cool overhanging dihedral. The guidebook calls it “desperate” and I believe without trying

 Mustang (8a) 

 Turkey Crack (8a). Martin from Czech Republic testing the famous off-width.