Pictures from Climbing in Switzerland
Aug. 15th, 2009 09:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dagibbsThis is a narrated set of 34 pictures from Switzerland. I've hidden it behind an LJ-cut cause I didn't want to throw this onto everyone's home page.
I flew out of Ottawa on Saturday July 18th, getting to Zurich the morning of Sunday the 19th. By the time I cleared the airport and got to St. Moritz, it was about 5pm. It was still about another hour on a local bus before I got to the teleferique (cable-car) up close to the cabin, so I decided to overnight in St Moritz. I took a couple pictures out my window, as St. Moritz is beautiful.
The teleferique comes up a bit below a hydro dam, and to get to the hut, you cross the dam then hike further upwards.
Here we're looking back accross the damn. The mountain in the background is Spazzacaldeira, on which I did three different routes.
Panning left accross the lake for the next two shots.
And looking up the trail towards the hut. If you now where to look, it can be made out -- but it is hard to pick out. The mountain behind the hut is Punta D'Albigna (or Punta Da L'Albigna).
Here are a couple images of the hut, looking down now on it from a bit above. It is Capana Albigna, and is run by the SAC -- the Swiss Alpine Club.
This is Spazzacaldeira. If you look at the right-side of the top-ridge of the mountain, there are two little spikes that stick up with a raised ridge between them. The one on the right is La Denta (the tooth) and the left is La Fiamma (the flame). This is a gorgeous spike of granite on the top of the ridge, sticking up about 20-25m, and narrowing down to about a body-width thick at the top. It is pictured everywhere -- postcards, posters, guidebooks, etc.
We climbed 3 routes on Spazzacaldeira. The pink one is "Via Leni" and we climbed this on our first day. It probably had the hardest single crux of anything we climbed. It actually tops out on a ridge that is slightly forward of the main mountain. Later we climbed the orange route, up to La Fiamma then climbed it. The blue route was a very interesting 5-pitch trad route, though it involved having to sling a rock for the rappel back down.
Me, hanging off the cliff part way up Spazzacaldeira.
One of the days there was a gorgeous sunset, and I managed to catch a couple of really lucky shots of it that came out just beautifully. (No, I have no idea who the person silhouetted in the foreground is.)
The hiking was often quite rough -- lots of big boulders around.
Cairns were often used to mark the trail -- especially across boulder fields where the trail wouldn't be visibly "worn". Sometimes a cairn maker might have gotten carried away, or had too much time on their hands...
I never really got a good angle on La Fiamma myself, but here are a few shots. The first is someone else climbing it, then Reinhart at the top.
For this picture, I'm also at the top sitting in the "saddle" that is visible later in a picture from a guide book. Reinhart is standing on the other side of the top from me. If I looked to my left, the drop is about 300m to the upper valley we're climbing from. If I look to my right, the drop is about 1300m down to the lower valley where the road is. It was a bit misty when we were up here, so I couldn't get a good shot of the long drop to my right.
Reinhart rappelling down La Fiamma.
Poster, postcard, and guidebook picture of La Fiamma, respectively...
This is also taken from Spazzacaldeira, looking down. In the foreground you can see the fronts of my climbing shoes, then just near the edge of the green there is a red "spot" which is my large hiking pack, and behind and to the right of it, on the rock, Reinhart's blue pack. I think we're two or three pitches up here -- probably about 100m or so.
This is Piz Balzet or Pizzo Balzetto (depending on whether you use the Italian or Romanche name.) The longest climb we did was up this mountain -- about 650m vertical, but much longer in total distance. The route we took is called the ghost route...
There is a face in the mountain, but it appears or fades depending on the shadows... like a ghost.
Here is an approximation of the route we went up Piz Balzet. The actual peak that route seems to reach isn't, actually, the final peak -- it is hidden behind that "point" which is the top of the ridge we went up. We didn't quite finish the climb, though, and had to descend a really nasty couloir.
This is Punta D'Albigna.
The pink shows approximately where the route we took, "Steiger" goes up. It was about 15 pitches, mostly sport, though I did do a couple pitches where I was leading most of the pitch trad, though with occasional pitons. We got to the end of Steiger around 3:30pm, but decided to not do the "pyramid" right to the top since that would have been at least another couple hours. Instead we walked off -- the blue indicates approximately the walk-off route. The walk off had some quite unpleasantly scary bits, including a traverse accross some moderate steepness slabs that dropped off to cliffs, and a down-climb off a ledge.
Near the end of the climb we had to cross a ridge -- it is about 70m accross this ridge.
If we zoom a bit closer, you can see the top of the ridge is quite sharp. You don't actually traverse the way Reinhart is sitting, but more often by using the top of the ridge as a hand-hold, and walking with your feet a bit below the top of the ridge. The climbing isn't hard -- maybe 5.2-5.3 but you feel incredibly exposed. Reinhart would happily have soloed it (no rope or protection) but I asked him to take the rope accross and belay me across. Even roped, it was incredibly scary feeling.
Here is another angle on Punta Albigna, where you can see (circled) the ridge shown in the last couple of slides. There's lots of down if you slip & fall from there.
The hiking was pretty rough. This is trail:
So is this:
Just to prove it, this time I captured it with a couple trail markes (the white-blue-white stiped paint is trail marking).
I flew out of Ottawa on Saturday July 18th, getting to Zurich the morning of Sunday the 19th. By the time I cleared the airport and got to St. Moritz, it was about 5pm. It was still about another hour on a local bus before I got to the teleferique (cable-car) up close to the cabin, so I decided to overnight in St Moritz. I took a couple pictures out my window, as St. Moritz is beautiful.
The teleferique comes up a bit below a hydro dam, and to get to the hut, you cross the dam then hike further upwards.
Here we're looking back accross the damn. The mountain in the background is Spazzacaldeira, on which I did three different routes.
Panning left accross the lake for the next two shots.
And looking up the trail towards the hut. If you now where to look, it can be made out -- but it is hard to pick out. The mountain behind the hut is Punta D'Albigna (or Punta Da L'Albigna).
Here are a couple images of the hut, looking down now on it from a bit above. It is Capana Albigna, and is run by the SAC -- the Swiss Alpine Club.
This is Spazzacaldeira. If you look at the right-side of the top-ridge of the mountain, there are two little spikes that stick up with a raised ridge between them. The one on the right is La Denta (the tooth) and the left is La Fiamma (the flame). This is a gorgeous spike of granite on the top of the ridge, sticking up about 20-25m, and narrowing down to about a body-width thick at the top. It is pictured everywhere -- postcards, posters, guidebooks, etc.
We climbed 3 routes on Spazzacaldeira. The pink one is "Via Leni" and we climbed this on our first day. It probably had the hardest single crux of anything we climbed. It actually tops out on a ridge that is slightly forward of the main mountain. Later we climbed the orange route, up to La Fiamma then climbed it. The blue route was a very interesting 5-pitch trad route, though it involved having to sling a rock for the rappel back down.
Me, hanging off the cliff part way up Spazzacaldeira.
One of the days there was a gorgeous sunset, and I managed to catch a couple of really lucky shots of it that came out just beautifully. (No, I have no idea who the person silhouetted in the foreground is.)
The hiking was often quite rough -- lots of big boulders around.
Cairns were often used to mark the trail -- especially across boulder fields where the trail wouldn't be visibly "worn". Sometimes a cairn maker might have gotten carried away, or had too much time on their hands...
I never really got a good angle on La Fiamma myself, but here are a few shots. The first is someone else climbing it, then Reinhart at the top.
For this picture, I'm also at the top sitting in the "saddle" that is visible later in a picture from a guide book. Reinhart is standing on the other side of the top from me. If I looked to my left, the drop is about 300m to the upper valley we're climbing from. If I look to my right, the drop is about 1300m down to the lower valley where the road is. It was a bit misty when we were up here, so I couldn't get a good shot of the long drop to my right.
Reinhart rappelling down La Fiamma.
Poster, postcard, and guidebook picture of La Fiamma, respectively...
This is also taken from Spazzacaldeira, looking down. In the foreground you can see the fronts of my climbing shoes, then just near the edge of the green there is a red "spot" which is my large hiking pack, and behind and to the right of it, on the rock, Reinhart's blue pack. I think we're two or three pitches up here -- probably about 100m or so.
This is Piz Balzet or Pizzo Balzetto (depending on whether you use the Italian or Romanche name.) The longest climb we did was up this mountain -- about 650m vertical, but much longer in total distance. The route we took is called the ghost route...
There is a face in the mountain, but it appears or fades depending on the shadows... like a ghost.
Here is an approximation of the route we went up Piz Balzet. The actual peak that route seems to reach isn't, actually, the final peak -- it is hidden behind that "point" which is the top of the ridge we went up. We didn't quite finish the climb, though, and had to descend a really nasty couloir.
This is Punta D'Albigna.
The pink shows approximately where the route we took, "Steiger" goes up. It was about 15 pitches, mostly sport, though I did do a couple pitches where I was leading most of the pitch trad, though with occasional pitons. We got to the end of Steiger around 3:30pm, but decided to not do the "pyramid" right to the top since that would have been at least another couple hours. Instead we walked off -- the blue indicates approximately the walk-off route. The walk off had some quite unpleasantly scary bits, including a traverse accross some moderate steepness slabs that dropped off to cliffs, and a down-climb off a ledge.
Near the end of the climb we had to cross a ridge -- it is about 70m accross this ridge.
If we zoom a bit closer, you can see the top of the ridge is quite sharp. You don't actually traverse the way Reinhart is sitting, but more often by using the top of the ridge as a hand-hold, and walking with your feet a bit below the top of the ridge. The climbing isn't hard -- maybe 5.2-5.3 but you feel incredibly exposed. Reinhart would happily have soloed it (no rope or protection) but I asked him to take the rope accross and belay me across. Even roped, it was incredibly scary feeling.
Here is another angle on Punta Albigna, where you can see (circled) the ridge shown in the last couple of slides. There's lots of down if you slip & fall from there.
The hiking was pretty rough. This is trail:
So is this:
Just to prove it, this time I captured it with a couple trail markes (the white-blue-white stiped paint is trail marking).
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Date: 2009-09-12 09:46 pm (UTC)P.S. I've friended you, and added you to the gaming invites group, so you can see any gaming invites I post.