By three in the afternoon I could hardly think straight. My office has no air conditioning and this summer it has been getting steadily warmer as the days progress. By just after five I was in Kristian's car as he drove us towards the Walensee. By six we had the car parked and we were walking up the short trail to the two small stacked walls hidden in the forest above the Gallery proper. It was refreshingly cool in the shade, and even with the occasional mosquito whining around it was very nice to be out of the heat.

We stopped below Ottos Mecanique, the plan was to give Kristian as much lead time as possible and this was a good place for it. While a couple of guys led up the 5a line on Ottos right Kristian started up the 4a on the left. He got up the first ledge quickly and easily and then struggled like hell to get up to the second. I believe the technical rating for this climb is "4a my ass". He eventually, after some instruction and encouragement, worked up through the crux. The rest of the pitch was easier and went at a methodical pace as he decyphered the route. By the time he had finished those other two guys had finished up and gone somewhere else. At the top he set an anchor and belayed me up. Yes, that second ledge is a bit hard for the 4a rating, but it is short.

Kristian fighting over the second ledge.

At the top of pitch 1.

Jurg and MC showed up just as I got to the first ledge. I haven't seen them in a really long time and it was a nice surprise to bump into them here. They set up to climb the pitches just to our right.

Jurg and MC are here!

Jurg and MC on top of pitch 1.

I promised Kristian that the next pitch would be easier. But I always say that sort of thing. I honestly don't know, having only climbed it once before back in May. We got things sorted and Kristian headed up again. His pace is slow and careful, it's his first time leading real rock at this level (and only his second time leading outside) so he had good reason to be conservative. Jurg raced up the 5b on our right, passing me at the belay and heading upwards. He looked over at Kristian and gave him a little bit of advice. Kristian kept moving up. After a while it looked like he had found something too hard for him. I thought that maybe the height might be bothering him, but I was to find out later that he had wandered right and onto a 5c line where had come to a stop about three quarters of the way up. After stepping up and down trying to find holds that just weren't there he asked to be lowered.

Kristian heading up pitch 2.

Exhausted leader.

Kristian tries pitch 2 again.

I led it up and found out what happened. Ouch that must have been annoying. I finished the pitch, cleaned off the draws on the 5b part and then started to bring him up. Across the Wallensee I could see the jagged profile of the Muertschenstock looming over villages nestled in its shadow. Jurg was at the belay across from me protecting MC as she climbed up after him. He said that he would like to climb that mountain but he had heard that it is difficult to get to. "It would take two days to climb it" he said. Below us Kristian had fought to within about ten feet of the end when his arms finally gave out. I lowered him to the bottom and then rapped down.

The Muertschenstock

At the base there were about half a dozen guys setting up to seige the routes so we packed up and moved across to Les 7 petites fugues de David and played there for about forty minutes. We both did another lead each and Kristian top-roped a couple of harder climbs. At nine pm we were done. Pretty good way to spend an afternoon.