Climbing in Switzerland

Steve couldn't start his job at the University until he got a work permit. So what's a boy to do while waiting for bureaucracy? Go climbing of course. In a tidy piece of timing, a few friends from Christchurch Greig (now in Stockholm) and Jaap (now in London) and Adrian (now in Newcastle) were going on a climbing trip to Switzerland. So with a judicious combination of credit card and internet (no, not that use) I now had a flight to Switzerland. Unfortunately all my climbing gear was still sitting in a box on a ship somewhere, so out comes the credit card again, and much begging borrowing and stealing of kit. Thanks everyone. So where did we go? The Bernina and Bregaglia Alps, in the South of Switzerland (bordering Italy) near the big resort town of St Moritz.

Bernina area


First the Bernina area, for some higher, glaciated peaks, and classic alpine routes, the best being fine aretes of snow and ice. Our first climb was on Piz Palu, by a aesthetic rib of rock, then snow arete. The second most popular route on a very popular peak. Luckily, being kiwis, we camped (I mean bivved, as camping is illegal) above the hut, and got up stupidly early meaning we were first on the climb. This turned out to be a good strategy for the trip as the mountains are a little more crowded than what I am used to, and we seemed to be faster than most.
A couple more opportunities for culture shock. Going up the glacier to the climb a large crevasse was bridged. No I don't mean a snow bridge, but a sodding great wooden bridge to get across the gap. And on the way down, we were descending a small buttress on the Fortezza ridge. Ok, not only were there big fat ring bolts to abseil off, these bolts had a big circle of brightly coloured paint so you could find them, and several big paint arrows showing you which way to go. We are not in the wilderness any more Toto.

The next route we did was on the highest peak in the area, Piz Bernina. The guide describes the grand traverse of peaks Roseg, Sercen and Bernina as the ultimate alpine challenge in the area. We didn't have quite enough confidence for that, so we went for the not quite grand but still pretty good traverse of Scercen and Bernina. Probably a good thing too as we went slower than hoped and experienced the first (of many) afternoon thunderstorms while getting off the summit of Bernina. My first experience of being inside a thunderstorm, with the thunder seemingly in your head, and the acrid smell of lightning in the air, ice axes buzzing from the charge. Was a little scary. We delayed our planned descent down the Biancograt, and headed for the safety of the nearby hut. The next day we continued, descending the Biancograt, a beautiful, famous ridge, described as the best D (French alpine grade of difficult, about NZ 3) in the alps.

Bregaglia area


We then moved to this area famous for its granite walls and spires. Pictured is the
fantastic Piz Badile, which we climbed by the North Ridge. 720m of clean granite, and a beautiful, striking line. We climbed the 20+ pitches in 4.5 hours, but managed to take much longer abseiling the line, plagued by stuck ropes and tangles. (There is an easier descent off the other side into Italy). So once again we were still on the mountain when the thunderstorms came, getting a little damp, but no major problems. This did mean the route we wanted to do next, the Cassin route on the NE face was wet, so we left, hoping to come back when the weather outlook improved.

Albigna

The next area was around Lake Albigna. This features shorter (6-12 pitch) granite cliffs with bolted multi-pitch cragging. We steadily worked through as many 3 star routes as we could, with some outstanding pitches in a beautiful mountain environment. Soon the others headed back and it was just me and Greig left. Unfortunately the weather forecast was looking pretty bad for the week and it wasn't looking wise to head up the longer routes we wanted to (Piz Badile & Cengalo), so we headed back to the bivvy rock at Albigna for more cragging when it was dry. It was good enough for some great routes, such as Via Kasper on Piz Frachiccio (ED, VII, 12 pitches) followed by a quick traverse of Al Gal and Vergine (IV) on the first day, chased along by more thunderstorms. The next day we climbed Modern Times (11 pitches, V-) followed by the NW ridge (IV+) on Punta da l'Albigna.



The following day we climbed a nice 7 pitch route 5 min walk from our biv, then walked over Pass Cacciabella to the next major valley (containing Badile and many other large rocky peaks. We descended in torrential rain, looking for a dry biv rock above the hut (yes we are cheap). Once found, we dried off and watched the water wash over all the fantastic routes we hoped to do. The next morning was damp and drizzly and our hopes sank. We slept in a bit, it cleared up and we decided to climb the Flatiron or Bugeleisen on Piz Gemelli. This is a famous route up a supremely clean, compact looking ridge, but only finishing halfway to the top at the end of the best climbing. Totally sport bunnies now, we left the packs and running shoes at the bottom, climbed the route (12 pitches, V+) in 2 hours, rapped the route (we finally got sorted at doing this) then ate our lunch. Disgusting isn't it. We waved goodbye to the mountains, shouldered our packs and walked out, heading for our respective homes.

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