PATAGONIA 2011

Riglos – what a place! The food is good, the climbing is even better and the three course dinner called “menu del dia” – phew! This place I will definitely visit someday again! On the last night after having a few pints of beer and a bottle of wine Jari said Riglos must be the most perfect autumn spot. Good steep rock and demanding routes. Very much like climbing in the Dolomites but lower down and with better temperatures. And the approach is 15 mins or less.

Mallo Pison: Murciana (6c, 300m), October 28th, 2011

On the day we arrived we climbed the Alberto Rabada on Mallo Pison. The route had some very straight forward climbing with a very evident line. The line could be seen half a kilometer from the face since it was all white. The wall is so overhanging it never rains on this route…

In the Spanish topo we thought it said the route was fully bolted but in my opinion some additional pro like a set of nuts could have been useful. For example the first pitch had 6 bolts for 50 meters or so. After the first pitch it was more relaxed, though.

Mallo Fire: Rabada-Navarra (6b, 300m), October 30th, 2011

For our second route we chose something more adventurous and got on the Rabada-Navarro on Mallo Fire. Technically the route should have been easier but there was one thing that made it a little more demanding. This one didn’t have shiny bolts like the most frequented routes have.

Most hard pitches had an 8mm spit protecting the crux move but the easier sections had only odd kevlar threads with different colors. Combined with the suspect rock and difficult route finding the route was much more interesting than the previous one. The route finding was always a challenge since there weren’t any chalk marks. Most often you just had to run it out at some direction and eventually an old rusty pin or an old thread would pop out somewhere. Sometimes it was one pitch left and sometimes one pitch right but in the end you could always find some pro. All in all it’s a stellar route if you like this type of climbing and thus highly recommended!

With many detours we eventually ran out of time and had to abseil down. We figured it was better abseiling down with daylight than pushing it to the top in the dark. The route gave us very much the adventure we were looking for, though.

Below are few pics with topos found on the wall of bar El Puro. If you find them useful please support the bar buying menu del dia perhaps. The prices are very reasonable and I can guarantee you won’t be disappointed.

I had a four day weekend in Dolomites in the beginning of October 2011 with Teppo Saarenpää from Turku. The original plan was flying to Milano and climbing whatever in condition. We discussed Marmolada, Tre Cime, Val di Mello and Valle del Orco among other options. We even discussed driving all the way to Calanques if everything else was out of condition. But this time we didn’t need to utilise any of the plan B’s. Two days before the trip Teppo asked me if we had won the lottery. The prognosis was isotherm 3800 and blue skies for Dolomites for four days! It was more or less summer conditions and this was the first weekend of October…

Our plane landed in Milano at 22.30 and we started driving towards Marmolada one hour later. Somewhere after Trento we put up the tent and in three hours we were on the road again. Once we arrived at the Marmolada parking it was already 9 AM. One thing was sure – we weren’t going to climb up the hill and walk down again in one day. After all Marmolada was supposed be about 800 meters of steep limestone. As we couldn’t see any such wall from the parking spot we guessed it would be a fair bit of walking before the climb, too. Understanding the circumstances we packed bivy gear with us and planned a bivy on the mid way ledges.

Marmolada: Vinazer (6+, 800m) – October 1st, 2011

OK, it didn’t go as we planned. We got a big kick on our fat butts on a mere UIAA 6+ (French 6a) pitch about 200 meters off the ground. We had a topo which said the variation pitch was supposed to be 6+ but it sure was a fair bit harder. Actually it was harder than any of the pitches we did later on the trip and at home I eventually found out we did the crux pitch of Olimpio 6c+. In any case with bivy gear it was hard enough to get us worked out and we lost too much time. We reasoned being too slow and abseiled down. We were also quite worried about any other 6+ “sandbags” higher up. Had we known we did something harder than the crux of Tempi Moderni we might have made different decisions…

Cinque Torri: Via Finlandia (7-, 140m) – October 2nd, 2011

The next morning we woke up at Passo di Falzarego with no real plans. We knew the Finnish route Via Finlandia by Matti A. Jokinen was supposed to be somewhere around. We browsed through the books decided to have a go on that one for historic reasons. We were also slightly distressed about the grades and wanted to check our level before trying anything big again.

Via Finlandia was very nice climbing and the grading was normal. We “accidently” climbed a 7+ pitch on the right side wall and that felt ok, too. This boosted our confidence again and we drove towards the Tre Cime. On the way there we stopped for some pizza and cakes in Cortina.

Cima Piccola: Spigolo Giallo (6+, 380m) – October 3rd, 2011

The alarm woke us at the parking at 4 AM. We were preparing for Comici on Cima Grande but then I had second guesses about the weather. Just before going to sleep we’d met two climbers from Munich who said Brandler-Hasse had been wet the previous day. Teppo said he ain’t going to suggest not going there and I said the same. Then I reasoned if we skip “what would be cool” and focus on “what would be nice” I’d like to climb in the sun in stead of shivering in some shady waterfall on the north face. Teppo said he might have problems of “giving up” if we went back home without trying. Then I spoke about “downshifting” and doing what you actually want to do instead of what you’re expected to do and he started laughing. Few moments later we decided on climbing the Spigolo Giallo and continued our sleep for three more hours.

Spigolo Giallo was stellar climbing and we were both very happy about our decision. The climbing was somewhat runout in the middle part and slightly runout higher up but it was never too runout on the hard sections. The pitons were generally speaking ‘ok’ although some were spooky. For me the most memorable lead was the pitch after the long traverse left. It was steep and the pitons were old. If it had been any less steep it would have been utterly dangerous but now it was exposed climbing, complex route finding, good holds and a potentially huge but clean fall. It really can’t get any better than that!

All in all the climbing went smoothly although there were some 6+ pitches and three parties ahead of us. We started the route at 10.45 and topped out five hours later which was more or less the guide book time. The climbing was as sunny and relaxed as we reasoned. Maybe next year we’re more into climbing something cool again but this time Spigolo Giallo was spot-on decision… =)

I invited my friend Erik Massih from Sweden for my birthday party two months ago and while we were discussing other things Erik mentioned he had booked a sales meeting in Meiringen, Switzerland in June. We spoke a lot about climbing in the Swiss and somewhere in the process we made this plan for climbing there for the weekend before his meeting.

We discussed everything about climbing in Wenden, Graue Wand and Grimselpass but as it always goes the plan didn’t go quite as it was planned. This time the weather was crap in the Swiss and we had to go for one of our plan B’s which was climbing in Presles, France. I’ve been there once before in 2005 and I’d loved it then. Erik had always wanted to go there but never managed so. And now it was only a short 500km drive from Zurich to get there. It didn’t hurt the weather looked most reliable there too.

It was quite a lot of travelling for two days of good climbing but well worth it. Thanks Erik!

Hola!

Joululomat sujuivat leppoisasti Espanjan auringon alla! Kolmen viikon reissu alkoi perus lentokenttähärdellillä kiitos harvinaisen voimakkaan talvimyrskyn joka seisautti keskieuroopan lentoliikenteen vuorokausiksi. No, perille päästiin ja kun sateetkin hellittivät kolmen päivän teltassa makoilun jälkeen, päästiin itse asiaan! Reissusta päällimmäisenä mieleen jäi kaksi reittiä “Bon Viatge” (8a) ja “Energia Positiva” (7c+) sekä erityisen hyvä meininki, josta saan kiittää Leenaa sekä Kolumbian kollegoita JuanDia ja Nicoa! Gracias parceros! Bon Viatge oli ensimmäinen kasi jonka olen kiivennyt, ja täytyy kyllä todeta etteihän se sen kummempaa ollut kun minkään muunkan vaikeen reitin kiipeeminen. Onhan se siistiä kiivetä kasia, mutta mikä hommassa on hienointa, tästä reissusta tuli paljon itseluottamusta ja intoa vääntää kovempaa jatkossakin! Vaikka sporttikiipeily on tuntunut mukavalta vaihtelulta vuorihommiin (=”oikeaan kiipeilyyn”), on hinku isommille mäille kova, varsinkin nyt kun pienen “vuoritauon” aikana oma kiipeily on kehittynyt hyvää vauhtia. Olisi kiva päästä testaamaan omaa tasoa myös isoille reiteille!

Sampsa ja Olli karkaa helmikuun lopulla Patagoniaan kun meikäläinen jää kyntämään loskaa ja tekemään kouluhommia Suomeen. Tulevana keväänä ja kesänä saan kuitenkin oman osuuteni kärvistelyä, nälkää, pelkoa, kylmyyttä ja kaikkia muita ihanuuksia joita vuorilla usein kokee!! Suunnitelmissa on ainakin palata Ultima Thulelle, sekä käydä ihmettelemässä Dolomiittien isoja seiniä. Jottei talvi kuluisi ihan kokonaan loskaisella tasamaalla täällä härmässä, karkaan helmikuun lopulla vielä hiomaan sporttihommia Kalymnokselle!

Briefly in english; I spent my xmas vacations at the sport climbing mecca of Lleida region in northern Spain.  I did climb my first 8a, “Bon Viatge” at Terradets! I know it’s just a number, but it gave me loads of self confidence and a huge ammount of motivation to push my climbing even further! Spain was an amazing place, and I sure will get back to Lleida area and Terradets! Thank you Leena, JuanDi and Nico (links to their blogs above) for making my trip rememberable! I wont be taking part to the Patagonian trip, but I got some other projects for summer and spring, to get my share of bigger walls! And before all that, I’ll be heading out to Kalymnos for a quick stay at the end of february!

Here’s some photos from Spain