Fred phoned me up on Saturday to ask if I wanted to join him and Martijn for a spot of bouldering in Ticino. I know I said that despite my dislike of bouldering that I wanted to do this, specifically I wanted to do the photography (like back in Jan 2003). But I was being a moody blighter and the thought of getting to Martijn's place early and then riding in the back of his truck for four hours just wasn't so attractive. Good weather wasn't exactly guaranteed either (although Ticino is usually just fine). So I begged off and wished them luck.

Perversely, when Patrik rang later that night and asked if I wanted to go climbing somewhere I said yes. Real climbing, not bouldering, had more attraction for me right now than even photography. I haven't been outside since last September. So he said that he would speak with Lorna (who had a car and apparantly didn't have anything planned for the weekend) and call me in the morning if it was a go.

I slept through his four attempts to reach me. When I finally woke and spotted the mobile phone I called him back. He told me I had 20 minutes to get ready and head down to Lorna's flat where she would cook us breakfast before we headed off. While hurling my gear into a backpack I noticed that my climbing guidebook had gone awol somewhere, hmmm. Giulia had one though.

Over a breakfast I thought was far too relaxed I sorted out the destination (Gersau, on the shores of the Vierwaldstättersee, better known to english speakers as Lake Lucern) and then called Giulia to see if she could loan us her climbing guide. Breakfast done we zipped off in Lorna's right-hand drive fear machine, grabbing Giulia's guide on the way to Schlieren to get my ropes, shoes and harness. Eventually we were properly on our way. For most of the trip I dozed on and off in the back seat while Patrik and Lorna chatted indistinctly over a random series of music CDs. My only contributions to their conversation were to supply driving directions when necessary. The weather looked great.

We got to Gersau, rolled up the switchbacks into the hills above town and parked the car. After a short walk we got to the base of the first little cliff with which I was familiar. I had climbed this one before in May of last year with Lu and Wolfgang. Lorna watched us for a few minutes and then walked off to explore the region on foot. Back at the wall Patrik at first said that he would probably not lead, but I eventually got him to try a 4b which went pretty easily for him. I led the neighbouring 5b and then he followed me up to the top where there was this small grassed area with a nice view. He leaned back against a tree and took it all in while I set up for our descent. Patrik hadn't abseiled before so I spent some time explaining how it would work and, when I was ready, getting him set up for it. We got down ok, although Patrik uses one of those "toothed" belay devices and this gave him a bit more friction than he needed.

We then experienced a few raindrops but they vanished almost as soon as we noticed them, however it did remind us that the afternoon's weather was supposed to deteriorate. After a few minutes we packed things up and went looking for other climbs, eventually scrambling around to where there were some other people climbing a slightly larger wall higher up. The weather looked like it might wash us out soon, lots of grey clouds on their way over from the north. I hummed and haahed a bit over the guidebook and saw that the easiest climb here was a 5c, which I wasn't sure that I was ready for so early in the season. Eventually I figured that the worst that could happen was losing a draw to an emergency descent. So I suited up and had a go at it. Surprisingly very easy. When I got to the top I heard Lorna's voice and it sounded like she was somewhere up there too. She was indeed, we hallooed and she started making her way down around the back towards the base. Just as I was getting things set for Patrik to lower me off a fairly sharpish rain shower hit us and I figured that with all the grey above perhaps the climbing was now officially over. Once at the bottom I conferred with Patrik and he agreed that bailing now wouldn't be a disaster. Lorna reached us in time to observe first me and then Patrik fall down on the walking trail on our way down from the cliffs.

We just did the tourist thing for the rest of the afternoon, driving up to Ibergeregg to gawk from a distance at the rocks which constituted our next climbing target (although right now there is still too much snow around, so it could be a few weeks yet). The rain eventually set in properly too. Still it was a fun enough day.