mercoledì 24 ottobre 2012

Trummelbach 1 +2


Trummelbach 1 + 2

This exploration is about the upper sections of the classic Trummelbach canyon. We are high in the mountain, under the Eiger n-w face and close to the Eigerglacier. This stream does not have a name on maps because it was under the glacier until a few years ago. It is called Trimmelbach on the official maps and then continues down to the Trummelbach. Holzi found this line.

We use the train to go up, as good tourists, under the clouds it was lightly raining !

View on the Eiger, left, and Monch. Our canyon is in the center of the picture, a very little line.

From Eigergletscher station we hike up on the Eiger route that goes to a via ferrata and to the summit, on the right there is some water  flowing, it's difficult to understand which is the right line.

We hike up to reach the snow level, traverse and find easily the right place, the slot is very narrow, here not very deep.

We start fixing anchors and rappelling, it's a slot and sometimes it opens again, we start under the little snow patches.

The view around is quite oppressing with those huge suspended glaciers

Here we have a residual snowfield, covered with debris, we decide to go under it.

We set another anchor, the old snow looks stable, but there are holes, like in the Swiss cheese..

After this rappel we have a short dark section and pass over the snowfield

Here a long elevator, a down climb, rock is very nicely carved.

Open again, but we are not down yet, we get some sun at least !

Nice falls

View on the following falls and slot

Very nice rock, this is Louis, from Morbegno.

Lot of fun climbing inside here

Holzi, the rock has very good grip and we can climb a lot,
but if you find ice here you will need many more anchors

Slot section

Technical climb

Open fall

We finish this section and head down to the next part, we follow this huge moraine

We reach again the river bed, rock is carved nicely again and there
 is a nice kind of side cave

Ohoh, beautiful drop, whithish limestone

Gorgeous rappel

Next one, high quality canyon !!

All is nice, just jumps are not possible but we don't mind

3 more falls and we are at the last drop

Here we are, at the end of this adventure, Holzi and Louis send a high five.


sabato 20 ottobre 2012

Oeschinen


Undere Oeschinenbach

Nice exploration above this beautiful lake near Kandersteg

There are 4-5 canyon around this lake, the Oeschinensee, most of them have
glaciers above so we are here in fall for this exploration with low water level, the sun is only on the other side of the valley...

Upper sections of these canyons, some are not yet explored

This limestone layer is immediately nicely carved, happy !

Clean, and cold, water and good rock, that's perfect, even if the flow is very little.

Nice carvings 

A short connection section

Uuhh Manu...soo hard to fix a bolt !!!

We split the longer rappels at 60-70 meters to make rappelling the rope easier


We really appreciate the view !

Still no sunshine for us...

Before the end this big rappel goes trough this arch-hole in the rock.
To finish the trip we have to swim 500 meters in the lake to go back to the trail !

sabato 6 ottobre 2012

Cadriola


Cadriola

Exploration of a new canyon in swiss with Timo - Kapellbach

With Timo i go for this exploration close to Splugen pass area, we hike up the Val Cadriola, the name of the stream is Kapellbach

Immediately at the start the rock is very smooth and nicely shaped, it
looks very interesting and pleasant !

We downclimb as much as possible

The pools are not deep enough to jump but colors are very nice

The rock is very sticky, it's very easy to walk around

We appreciate the rock layers

Some rappels are very good

Nice carvings

Nice holes in the rock layer

Keep going always same style

There is some gravels in the pools and they are not very deep anyway

Water color is a cold light blue

Fall panorama in a more open section

The mountain in front is also superb

Nice deformation of the rock layer

We reach the final section, the rock is of a different kind and more slippery

Timo is worried but smiling, sometimes too much

Drilling for the next waterfall

It's a nice S shaped waterfall

The last drops are more vertical and engaged; we found a few bolts from ice climbing people. Here it's not easy to avoid the dangerous zone; at the end a nice new canyon rated 2,7/4, more or less