Europe! First Stop... Switzerland!

Alex and I returned to the States at the very end of June 2014 after 3 months in South America, climbing through Argentina, Peru, and Brazil. Visiting old friends, seeing new places to climb, and meeting new friends along the way has been an amazing experience so far! We came back home because a few of our friends were getting married and it broke up the trip for us; it was so nice to have some of the comforts of home! Seeing as I didn't have a room anymore to sleep in at my old house, I mixed it up with camping and crashing at friends places which I'm so super grateful for.

  

I had to made it back to Tuolumne Meadows in Yosemite for old time sake. You can only spend so much time away for your favorite place! After making it to Xander & Amy's wedding and Matt & Kelley's wedding, I drove down to San Diego in order to hang out with my extended family for a few days. I hadn't seen Grandma in a long time so I wanted as much time as possible to hang out with her. My Mom, sister, and I took a week long trip to Chicago as well. If you like interactive museums, great food, and a city with an amazing public transportation system, this is an amazing place that you'll have to check out.

It finally was time to continue to climbing adventure, and for us it started in Munich, Germany!!! Alex had a friend that he knew from college and studying abroad so we luckily were able to crash at his place. Our first goal was to get our transportation for the next 3 months. We thought getting a van and sleeping in it would save us the most money along the way; no hostels, no unnecessary camping fees, and if it rains, your stuff is definitely completely dry. Europcar was the choice for us; cheap and the van came in diesel! We built the bed literally in the parking garage of the hardware store. People were giving us the weirdest looks but whatever; we made it work!!! :)

Our first stop, Magic Wood in Switzerland. Luckily, everything is relatively close to each other in Europe. After a 3.4 hour drive, we arrived at the famous bouldering area. Armin (Alex's friend) was kind enough to give us his bouldering pad for this stage of the trip and with my gigantic Asana pad, we were set to try and crush some new, hard boulder problems. The concentration of boulders above 7a/v6 is astounding!!! We could barely contain ourselves with all of the beautiful lines that we wanted to try. The rock texture is very grippy and shreds the finger tips after just a couple climbing days. Alex and I had just under 2 weeks to try as many problems as we could. Unfortunately, I misplaced my camera charger earlier in the trip so I couldn't take any pictures with my camera. Alex has a lot more on his... we'll upload them soon!

Intermezzo, 7c/v9  Super short and super powerful!

The only issue with Magic Wood is the landings; almost all problems have some sort of gnarly root system growing underneath it or some jagged rock sticking up. Having multiple pads under each problem was a must! Luckily, there were tons of other people also climbing there so we always got to have pretty decent landings wherever we decided to climb that day. Overall, I'd say that we were pretty successful; Alex got his first 8a and we both had multiple climbs in the 7c range. Not too shabby!!! I luckily will get to come back in a month and hopefully try some more hard classic boulders, including an 8a+ (v11/12) if I'm lucky!

Switzerland also has tons of alpine climbing, both bolted and traditional. The rock can vary from limestone to granite and there are always bolted anchor stations (suhweeet!). I was talking to my buddy Drew LaPlante and he mentioned a friend of his (Christina Blumenthal) that we needed to climb with, especially if we wanted to do some alpine. I love alpine climbing so it seemed like a no-brainer. Christina invited us over to dinner one of the first nights and we had a great time; talking about our climbing experiences, how we knew Drew, and what places are great for the alpine experience.

She was super generous, letting us stay at her place, cooking us food, taking us climbing, giving us tons of guidebooks of the areas, not to mention giving us 2 of her crashpads! Weather was continuing to be a big issue, raining pretty much half of the days that we planned on climbing in Magic Wood. One weekend, there was a decent weather window so we took the chance and headed up to a place called Albigna for some multi-pitch near the Swiss/Italian border. Boy, am I out of alpine shape!!! There were hardly any cracks, something that I love and anyone who climbs in the Sierra Nevada loves as well.

Gotta love the Marmot hardshell!!! Such a gorgeous setting...

There was so much more face climbing than I realized. You had to trust your feet and really smear on super tiny edges and dishes to get up; and the climb was only 7a!!! It was so great to try a new type of alpine climbing, something that we are not used to. The backdrop couldn't have been any better either; tons of tall mountains all around with swirling clouds and a brisk cool breeze blowing around us every now and then.

One of the only cracks on the entire route! And it was perfect hands!

Once we got to the top, there was a super thin peak that we were able to climb up that barely could fit 2 people! What an awesome way to top out a climb! What we didn't realize is that the gondola that dropped us off at the base of the climb stopped running at 4:30pm and by this time it was after 5pm. That meant we had a 1.5 hour hike back down from the base which normally would take 5 minutes... oh well, we still had a great time.

Plenty of mountains and glaciers behind the man-made dam

This was our 2nd to last climbing day in Switzerland so on Sunday, we went back to Magic Wood to try a couple more classic problems. We were able to pack up our stuff around 7pm and head over to Christina's mountain house for one more night of good company in Switzerland. A dinner with wild mushrooms, some sausages from a gas station supermarket (super high quality...), and a cozy bed in a warm hand-built cabin was a great way to end our first 2 weeks in Europe. I can't thank Christina enough for showing us such an amazing time and to Drew for passing on such a great contact!

Scotty climbing up 'Fiamma' at the top of our route. What a way to top out! :)

Our plan now is to head southeast towards Croatia. Alex has a friend from his college days abroad that grew up on the island of Krk. We hope to stop in Milan and Venice along the way to break up the drive as well. Alex has never been to Venice and apparently one of the largest Gothic churches is in Milan... we'll jut have to see! Who knows what Croatia will have in store for us; hopefully a bunch of rest since we're so trashed from all the good rock in Switzerland! After Croatia, we plan on heading back up to Germany to climb in Frankenjura. David Lam is gonna be joining us out there as well! Tune in next time to see how restful and beautiful Croatia is!

Till next time,
Top Rope

“The love of wilderness is more than a hunger for what is always beyond reach; it is also an expression of loyalty to the earth, the earth which bore us and sustains us, the only paradise we shall ever know, the only paradise we ever need, if only we had the eyes to see.” 
― Edward Abbey