Schweiz Plaisir Episode 2: 'Adoption'

After the complications of the first few days, we were due some good luck and this came in the form of good weather and being adopted by the chief of the local swiss alpine club branch.

More animals on the walk in. This time a pregnant mule? Is that possible? Does anyone know?

We slogged enormous rucksacks up to Bollenwees, recommended by the helpful lady in the climbing shop, hoping for a place we could camp for a few days. It became apparent this is a very popular area for swiss climbers and walkers and quite farmy, good for admiring pristine cows and walking on manicured tracks...bad for finding wild camping spots. We were not allowed to camp in front of the huge deluxe 'hut' (if it can be called that?) and it was getting dark. Stumbling further uphill in the twilight we came across a small SAC hut, abandoned as it was a weekday surrounded by a walled in flat area.

The perfect spot. We immediately dumped bags and tipped out the contents and started putting up the tent. Suddenly a light came on and there was someone shuffling around. "Quick, quick lets go!", the swiss are not renowned for their tolerance to rule breaking and we started frantically packing with probably more panic than was necessary. "Really really sorry, we are english!" (Our standard excuse for everything) and we thought there was no one here and we thought we were allowed to camp in people's gardens etc etc....

"No don't go! I love everybody who is coming into the mountains!"

"We are so sorry, we will go immediately....oh you don't mind"

"Would you like tea? Water? Chocolate?"

Once again, we had aquired a guardian angel, this time in the form of Andreas Seeger, head of the local SAC and up in the hut by himself doing some DIY. He had walked from the valley with his pots of paint and brushes.

Middle Earth. Bollenwees. The lake was freezing.

Guardian angel sorted, we could finally think about (and do) some climbing.

Schweiz Plaisir: Episode 1

 Having conquered (?) Chamonix a couple of summers ago, me and Clare were back to conquer the Dolomites, although things didn't quite go to plan (storms and bladder infections and the like) and we ended up exploring some obscure parts of Switzerland......

'You are on holiday? In St Gallen?' 'You are camping?' The incredulous tone suggested that the tourist information in St Gallen was not so used to dealing with tourists, particularly british climbing bums. Logistics were going to be a problem, we didn't have a road map let alone a guidebook and good wild camping spots seemed few and far between. Undeterred (or a bit deterred, but having a lack of other options) we eventually got pointed in the direction of the climbing wall which proved to be a crucial hub of information, guidebooks, showers, wifi and my new favourite drink Ovalmaltine. It was also the most beautiful and massive climbing wall I have ever seen, so perhaps we could just spend our whole holiday here?

Clare uses her reach in St Gallen - drinking water logistics not a problem in Switzerland

Breakfast at the crag!

Armed with our newly purchased guides (turns out there is a fair bit of climbing about, phew!), we headed up to Ascher for the afternoon. For a little known crag, Ascher is pretty Ceuse-like, requiring a fairly hefty walk-in but is a big long crag with lots a sectors and some great views. The remarkable thing about this crag though was the abundance of farm animals. It was like climbing in a petting zoo (no bad thing). A miniture horse, a chalet full of rabbits and a flock of very pristine looking sheep with a handsome and slightly threatening male sheep looking after them.

We unambitiously tried the easiest route on the crag and just about succeeded before thunderstorms descended.

I thought I'd start blogging again

Well this blog has suffered from a rather large break while I had a blogging crisis. This is perhaps not suprising as I am often too disorganised to wash my underwear before I run out, let alone blog about it. I prefer to believe this is because I try and pack rather alot in and not the result of a major character flaw.

But now I have succeeded in thoroughly overuse injuring myself I might give it another go as a rehabilitation activity. I also found it really good to look back over previous posts and remember things that I otherwise would have definitely forgotten. I think this may particularly come in handy when I am 80 and senile and want to revel in past glories but can't remember them. Blogging also seems to be a fabulous procrastination activity for when one should be producing a groundbreaking bit of PhD research.... it will also no doubt be a great tool for developing my writing skills in preparation for writing a thesis (does that sound convincing?).....

Cow print rock tape. Yeah!