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Saturday May 6, 2006 – Ibergeregg (1400m)
Sir Walter Raleigh: Why, 'round the Cape, the rain beats down so hard it makes your head bleed. --- Big chips of ice are smacking down hard, stinging my hands and pummelling my back as I try to set up the anchor. I’d just heard the first heavy crack of what promised to be an intense thunderstorm and this hail followed it a couple of seconds later. Down below, Kristian can’t even raise his face to look up and see how I am doing. The hail intensifies and another thunderclap breaks overhead. I have to get down. --- The day before, both Kristian and I had looked at the weather and the prediction was for mixed conditions. The deal was that if the sun was shining in the morning he would come and pick me up at 8.30. Well, the morning looked bloody glorious. Kristian rolled up in his Audi and off we cruised to Ibergeregg, a small pass in canton Schwyz. We arrived at a bit before 10am. There was a bit of snow on the ground and we reconned the trail for a while before deciding it wasn’t too bad. So we hiked up from the carpark, even through the snow it took only about 10 minutes and pretty soon we were dropping our gear near a small crag. It was Kristian’s first foray into real rock climbing so there were a couple of basic things I wanted to teach him. We set up for him to lead up a short 3b, where he got to place a draw and then set an anchor for me to lower him off. Even though the rock was a little bit slippery he didn’t have any trouble at all and he set up a good anchor quickly, after I lowered him off I got him to belay me while I went up to collect the gear. A number of people had shown up and were setting up pretty much right under our feet. So we moved off to a nearby route that I had climbed on almost exactly a year ago. There was a ton of snow underneath this wall, but at the base there was a narrow gap between the rock and the snow. It seemed reasonable that we could climb Noturno (5b), even though it was a bit slippery. Where to put Kristian for the belay was a bit of a question, but eventually he stood down at the base and belayed for me there (where he would eventually feel like he was standing in a refridgerator). The first part of Noturno is a big offwidth which angles up a little bit to the right. That was really the only interesting and tricky part of the climb, everything else being easy until the last bit which is a short traverse left to the anchor. But I had done it before and it wasn’t too much trouble this time either. After Kristian lowered me off we set things up so that he could top-rope it. He followed the line pretty well, learning some cold truths about the differences between gym climbing and real rock. He got through the offwidth with not too much worry despite having a bit of trouble getting his feet set, and the rest of the climb went well too. Although he said that the top anchor, it’s an open form, gave him a moment of uncertainty. Once he was down I pulled the rope and we then noticed a couple of drops of rain. Hmmm. After a short conference Kristian agreed that we should have a bite to eat before setting off to another area I wanted to visit. The few drops of rain picked up and then we noticed there was some hail mixed in with it. Quickly, we scooped up our gear and dragged it under some pines. We sat there eating sandwiches and watching what would turn out to be a brief assault of rain and hail. Next to us about half a dozen gortexed kids were being taught some ropecraft. It seemed that only Kristian and I were paying the weather any mind. After a short while it dried up and we got moving again. Tracking around to the other side of the largest crag we went to have a look at that pillar Jorge and Guilia and I had fun on last year. It was still there. There was a little bit of rain falling again and we could see a couple of groups of people who were not climbing the big crag behind us. I turned to Kristian and asked him what he thought. I guess he really wanted to be climbing because he was still good to go, rain or no rain. Well ok, I’ve done this before. We stashed what gear we didn’t need under a tree before scrambling down to the base of the pillar. The rain stopped again and then the sun came out. It was even feeling a bit warm! The rock looked a little bit wet but I knew that the climb, supposedly a 5c, was not hard. We set things up and the sun did it’s good work, drying out most of the stone above us. The climb went smoothly enough, that last bloody runout at the end (about 10m) still gave me the willies though. Eventually, I had set up a belay anchor so that I could bring up Kristian. We were discussing the possibility of his first abseil and so it would require both of us being on top to help him set things up correctly. After a bit of shouting we were both ready and Kristian began climbing up. He said something about going off-course at some point, which demanded a scary traverse, but he didn’t seem too shaken up when he finally swung into view. It was pretty cool to be sitting up on top of the pillar again, the views were very nice and the weather was holding. I asked Kristian if he wanted to try that abseil thing, but he thought that he would maybe instead perhaps … um … no thank you. So I lowered him off on the short side and then rapped off the same way. Things were going well, we looked at the guidebook and it suggested a nice 5b (Crossroads) on the right side of the big crag. So we wandered over and set things up again. Overhead the clouds had built up again but we were unconcerned. The climb was very easy, whomever set the grades for this place must have been drinking or something, it is very softly graded. Kristian and I were considering that perhaps this wall might be suitable for his first abseil, he was still keen. So I confirmed that there was enough room for the both of us up there. A bit of rain started to fall. I called down. “Do you still want to climb in this?” Kristian shrugged and said “Sure, why not?” What a trooper. Of course it was right at that moment when the heavens were split by a thunderclap and the hail began to pound down. We bailed and just basically ran for it. The hail was incredible. It felt like an army was shooting at us with buckshot. With the ground rapidly turning white at our feet we couldn’t get out of there fast enough. |