Saturday June 17, 2006 - Stoos (1720m)

Kristian picked me up at a couple minutes past nine in the morning. The drive out to Unterwasser in the Toggenburg was ok but not really fast. We could see rain clouds everywhere and every now and then there were a few spots of water on the windshield. The weather report called for mixed conditions, specifically a thunderstorm in the afternoon. This made me a bit nervous. I wondered if Kristain was nervous. Today would guarantee a slew of firsts for him if we did all we wanted to do. This would be only his second time out on real rock (the first time was at Ibergeregg) and his first multipitch. It took us one hour and forty minutes to reach the pay carpark in the little sylvan valley above Unterwasser. We deposited 5 francs for 12 hours of parking, rigged our gear and then marched off through the cow pats. The car park is 500m below the climbing area, so it was quite a hike to get up there. At about halfway Kristian took the rope.

We reached the base and found a group of six split into two parties just heading up. Sure enough they wanted to do the climb we were aiming at, Via Gondor. Bugger. So while Kristian sat down and ate his lunch I cast about for an alternative start, maybe we could zip by them and get ahead. To the right of Via Gondor are about half-a-dozen two-pitch climbs which terminate at the end of Via Gondor's second. Tiramisu looked easy but the book claimed it was 5c+ on the first pitch, 4b on the second. We suited up and I tried to shoot up as fast as I could, but going for even the first bolt proved difficult. In the end this pitch was quite tricky, lots of stemming and friction with long reaches between holds and a big fold to go over. At the top of the pitch I set the belay for Kristian. The climb had taken long enough for the two other parties to get further ahead of us. Kristian has a hard time with the first half of the pitch and so I had to tension the rope quite often to help him reach those bloody holds. After the fold he does ok though.

Kristian handed over the gear he collected. I asked him how he is doing, and he said he was just fine although he hoped the rest of the pitches weren't like that one. I led the next pitch as well and found it short and easy, with only two or three bolts on the way. Kristian practically sprinted up after me, if the elevation was bothering him he didn't show it. On reaching me he stopped only to pick up a bunch of draws and then headed up on his first outdoor lead. We were fifty metres above the base of the climb and half a kilometre above the valley floor. Good thing the remaining pitches were all 3b. He went pretty well, although it did seem like the experience was making an impact with him. He built an anchor and brought me up. I checked his set up and it looked fine so I kept going. One party was just ahead of us and in a few minutes I reached one of them at their belay. Her anchors didn't leave much room for me to set one up, so I hemmed and hawed about what to do next. These are short pitches (a bit less than 30m each) so I decided to continue up. The route seemed to split into two, because her two partners were fiddling about at the top of a pitch that went to the right of the line of bolts I was following.

I think this side line I took was some sort of short cut. Later we would discover that while the book describes seven pitches, we would get to the top having only climbed six. I now think that pitches four and five were extremely short, and we mostly bypassed them to the left. That would explain why I only found two bolts in 30m of climbing after passing that girl. In any case I found some anchors with about three metres of rope left. I start to set up an anchor and from above I hear "Achtung seil!". A couple of rope ends drop down to me and the second party, who had reached the top, had started to rap down. I made room for them and belayed for Kristian while he climbed up.

The weather had been very good, broken cloud and occasional bright sun made it quite warm. I hadn't brought any food or water with me so I was feeling a bit thirsty but otherwise ok. The party of three with me at the anchor prepared to continue rapping down just as Kristian reached us. He crept through their lines and crap and didnn't stop, immediately going up the last pitch. He said this last pitch was pretty hard for a 3b and when I followed up I thought so also, perhaps we had not found the easiest line. By 2.30pm we were both at the top shaking hands and gazing over the mountains and valleys around and below us. The views were magnificent. To the south and off into the distance we could see the surreal view of the Churfirsten range looking like a row of gigantic dragon's teeth. Egads I was thirsty.

Rapping down took a really long time and because at each anchor I was pulling, coiling and throwing the ropes as well as making sure that Kristian was properly set and safe I was utterly exhausted by the time we finally got to the base. Those six raps were his first ever. Top stuff Kristian! I wanted to get moving fast, to get back to the car where I had left my waterbottle ... dehydration was starting to give me a headache. Fortunately Kristian, hard as nails, carried the rope so it wasn't much of a problem and we got down to the car at 4.45pm.