The last hurrah in Switzerland
We had planned to have a relaxing rest day at a lake with Jiri before I started my journey towards Italy and new adventures, but naturally such plans were binned and before we knew it we were driving up Sanetsch pass to climb one more multi pitch route. Our plan was to climb a short but a bit spicier route at 6a and start driving back towards civilization early in the afternoon.
We scouted the route from our car and thought we knew pretty well where to go, but as it often happens in the mountains, we didn't. We started up questing a line of bolts that we thought would be the line we wanted to climb but after the first two pitches we realized that we were off course. We didn't have a lot of time to spend because we wanted to make it back to Laupen in time so we had to choose between calling it quits and rappelling down or venturing up towards the unknown. We could see bolts leading higher up so clearly there was a route - we just didn't know which one or how hard it would be. It was my turn to lead so I made the decision to give the next pitch a try because I thought I knew that after a pitch or two we would have to be able to reach easier ground.
Once again a solid choice was made and the pitch ended up being really good. There even was one tougher section where Jiri unfortunately took a short fall on top rope and cut his finger on the sharp lime stone. We also lost one quickdraw and one #4 nut on the way up somewhere. Two more pitches later we found an anchor and a sketchy ledge that led us to a surprisingly long and arduous walk back down to the car.
Neither of use knew what we had just climbed, but we had made it to the top :)
We drove to Jiri's home town Laupen and went to swim in a lake there. Swimming felt pretty amazing after not taking a shower in a good while. Towards the evening it was time for me to prepare for the trip to Italy, but not before a proper feast with burgers, pie and ice cream! Thanks to Jiri for yet another great climbing trip in Switzerland!
Mr. burger
Sun setting at Sanetsch pass
A nice view at the top of the Sanetsch pass
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