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Rod's Euro 2009 - Trip Report ~ with updates! 12-Jul-2009 At 11:09:47 PM rod

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finished the bonatti book, very good reading and all the more enjoyable by seeing him evolve personally in later years. given that i look at the mt blanc massif in the alps almost every day its fun reading this stuff before heading out for a climb. onto the boardman, tasker omnibus now...their events on k2 brought home how big an achievement Bonatti's effort on k2 was and the italian FA in general.

what have i been up to...

4 july was my birthday, G headed off for a kite surfing week and I went to Branson. Soloed at dorenaz late, got stormed off the rock by lightning and hail 1 pitch in.

next day was spent at pierre avoi on delikatessen with cyril...L1 completely aided by him @ 6b plus was a pretty good indicator (he's comfortably onsighting near 7b), L2 grading of 6b plus was fairly academic because i found the holds just kept ending up in the couloir heading off to the rhone valley floor 2,100m below - 3 falls, one 15m or so which saw me looking UP at cyril, and about 50kg of rock later i clipped the chains with pleasure. finally i'm looking at we're what i came here for L's 3 through 5. Cyril comes up, takes one look and wants to bail, I suggest taking over the lead but he's frozen in the sub zero temps so its not to be. we rap off, trudge to the top and do some single pitch routes in the sun. we part company and i head to dorenaz for some more climbing, only to receive another hailstone beating.

monday the 6th we hooked up again and headed to evolene, a wonderfully located cliff with an amazing variety of styles. cyril's colleague anouk and a friend jean-marie moos were with us, JM being one of the equippers. very good outing...late in the session i put poor anouk through the wringer as i tried to suss a new line out, 5cm longer reach and its easy but for me its probably a 6b plus approach, 7a crux section into a solid 6c resistance route. i'll head back with the drill and antonin next week to see what we come up with. cyril and JM worked JM's most recent creation somewhere in the 7b plus range...but we still don't know yet.

tuesday the 7th and i've actually spent some money to buy rap rings with the intent to rap into delikattessen and purge it. 2.30 in the afternoon i've done the walk in and i'm all set at the top, look over my shoulder to the rapidly darkening dents de midi - i bravely bail for the car, it starts raining with 100m to go and having accelerated to a trot it's snowing by the time i open the car door!

wednesday...almost a rest day, there's a low snow line at 2,000m but i hooked up late with cyril at the folle illusion wall in bramois. i finally got onto and bagged folle illusion without a warm up through climbing very tactically. after witnessing my "inspiring rest creation" Cyril repeated it and i was pleased for once that he didn't seem to stroll up something straight after i'd been on it. he went on to onsight the hardest route on the wall, i told him he lacked rest creation ability and he had a grin from ear to ear.

thursday and i'm back for round 3 on delikatessen and its another knock out. as if it wasn't steep enough for a heavy fella, today there's a heat sapping wind on a sub-zero day. i rapped in and managed L4 on TR solo but by the time I finished that I was so cold I couldn't move so Ls 3 and 5 remain to taunt me from the Branson terrace. I did a light purge of L2 rapped to the bottom and trudged back up to the top to recover some of the rap rings, lunched and split for Dorenaz again. This time lead rope soloed at Graviere, a spot I hadn't visited in a long time and probably won't visit again...with more experience I was astounded at the soft grades, I also seem to have bagged the nicer routes already. it was good to warm up again though, saw a fox pay a cunning visit to my gear after I was 15 metres from the ground...and i didn't get a storm on the head.

friday walked up to the bouldering area behind the village and had a great time. first time i've pulled down on rock here since last year and there's been measureable progress, bagged a bouldering grade PB on something I couldn't even hold the static positions on last year.

saturday 11th Alex and I decided to head to the Dar at Diablerets. 45 minute approach and you find this alpine meadow with a limestone cliff at the end split in the middle by a waterfall. lovely setting. we did merite alpin by the remy bros...fantastic limestone in Ls 2 through 4, we rate it up there as amongst the best limestone quality we've come across in CH, friction plus. smart bolting, hats off to the lads for this one. good weather and i'd be tempted into a few routes up here. strolled back down into the sun and some bloke from belgium decided to crash his parapent above our cliff so we were treated to a Rega heli rescue close up, nice new looking eurocopter.

today. transit from branson for a rest day in neuch with g, the week's weather forecast looks good for mountain granite and both bernard and antonin are free. Olivier Roduit phoned from the Himalaya - 7,800m high point, returns 15 july and wants to go for a climb...reckons delikattessen isn't one of his faves :)