Just back from 10 days holiday, Kate and I started by heading to Central Switzerland to try and climb the West Grat on the Salbitchen (ED), I had tried the route 10 years ago and only managed to climb the first of 5 towers on the ridge.
This time the weather forecast was great as we headed to the Salbit bivi hut. The route begins 5 minutes walk behind the hut so we started climbing at first light the first tower is 9 pitches up to 6a+ from the top of the first tower the view of pitches on the second tower looked amazing an intimidating crack which soars up the front of the buttress, luckily it is easier than it looks. Just where the crack starts getting hard you can move onto chicken heads on the right wall which is superb. The climbing carries on over a further 4 towers with amazing situations and perfect rock, the climbing is sustained in the 5's with lots of 5b and 5c pitches and a few 6a onces thrown in for good measure about 4 pitches from the top there is an A0 pitch which could be a bit tricky for the short but soon leads to the summit block. The last pitch to the summit is a superb needle leading to a tiny summit. A new line of abseil anchors leads back to the hut on the south side of the summit tower, if you follow it make sure your ropes are 50m as the anchors are 48m this allows you to get back to the hut in an hour and half from the summit istead of the previous 3hrs.
Climbing on the West Grat
After a second night in the hut we drove down to the Bregalia and walked up to the Allievi hut we climbed the South Ridge of the Punta Allievi (TD-) the south is a great line with some great climbing but has an easy grassy section in the middle which spoilt the climbing a bit, some mist and near showers added to the interest. We had hopped to stay at the hut for a few more routes but the forecast in the mountains was terrible so we headed for the valley. The next day looked like we might manage a few routes in the Val di Mello but rain stopped play and we headed for the med to climb in the Cinque Terra the area of coast near La Spetzia. The climbing was great
with a mix of single and ultipitch routes above the sea.
Kate climbing in the Cinque Terra