Blog

A Quick Trip to the Alps

• August 2007
• Training Uncategorized

I needed to be in Germany for four days, for the International Trade Show. Now, normally this would be a golden opportunity to spend a month or two in Europe, climbing and traveling around (i.e., eating bread and drinking wine).

But I am right in the middle of my skydiving apprenticeship, in Colorado. I need to do at least 100 skydives by September, because (okay, I finally admit it) I am harboring some intentions which involve jumping and cliffs. And there are big plans afoot for September, such as going to the Perrine Bridge in Idaho where one can learn to base jump (!), and the Moab skydiving boogie at the end of September, which is a huge gathering for skydivers at the Moab drop zone. So I need to stay on track, and keep jumping like crazy for the next month.

All my base jumping friends prescribe “at least” 100 skydives before learning to base jump, if you don’t want to kill yourself. This is the responsible approach to base jumping, and God knows if there’s one thing I am, it’s responsible.

Plus, I’ve been having the time of my life in Boulder this summer–skydiving at the Mile Hi Skydiving Center, climbing up in the Park, training at CATS rock gym, hanging out with friends. So as crazy as it seems to fly all the way to Germany, and stay for only a few extra days of climbing, that’s what I decided to do.

Dean and I left the trade show in Friedrichshafen feeling partied out, and ready to get back to normal life. We decided to head to Austria, to see our friend Beat Kammerlander. Beat is one of the greatest climbers and photographers in the world, and also one of the nicest, happiest people I’ve ever met. He’s spent months in Yosemite and Moab, and has become one of the crew. So we were excited to visit him at his home, and see some of his local climbing…..especially, the Raticon in Switzerland, one of the legendary climbing areas of Europe, and a place where Beat has established and repeated the hardest climbs.

Beat lives in Austria, about five minutes away from the border of Switzerland. How convenient! When we showed up, another friend was visiting Beat, the Italian climber Pietro del Pra, whom we also know from Yosemite. Pietro has also climbed all the hardest things in Europe, and wanted to join us for our tour day in the Raticon–unfortunately it was cloudy and rainy the next morning, so we turned around and headed to the local sport climbing cliff, Voralpsee.

Climbing in Switzerland is fundamentally charming, because they keep cows in all the mountain areas where the climbing is found. These are lovely cows. They are healthy and strong (they’re alpinists!), and they roam around the meadows with big cowbells around their necks, producing a constant melodious sound as they meander. All day you climb above them, feeling like there is some kind of weird mellow neverending trance/techno bellbeat going on. (I do worry sometimes that it’s driving them insane. But everyone assures me that they either don’t notice or don’t care. Hm.)

Voralpsee is a spectacular, steep limestone wall, festooned with small, positive crimpers. The routes are super long, and super fun. Not to mention SUPER pumpy. And you can climb there in the rain, because it’s much, much steeper than it looks. Which you notice immediately, after about two moves.

The next morning looked clear, but Pietro had to meet a friend to go climbing in Austria. So Dean, Beat and I headed to the Raticon. Just driving up there was an adventure, on a steep and precipitous road that abruptly changed from a single lane paved road (with sheer death dropoffs to the side) to a single lane dirt road (with sheer death dropoffs to the side). Beat cheerfully told us about a friend who had driven off the side of the road, for no apparent reason. It makes the Karakorum Highway seem kind of mellow, the road to the Raticon. Fortunately, Dean has an incredible knack for four-wheeling in small rental cars.

Beat decided to take us to one of the classic routes of the Raticon, a ten pitch (approximately) limestone route called Galadriel. He is a perfect host, like all Europeans.

This moderate (5.11, or something like that, those Euro grades are so confusing) route is bolted, and positioned in the middle of the left side of the Raticon, so we could look around and see all the other famous routes of the area, especially the spectacular and notorious testpiece, Silbergeier (which both Beat and Pietro have climbed, of course).

We were quite happy cruising all together on the more moderate Galadriel, enjoying perfect frictiony limestone (especially after the slippery sport limestone of Voralpsee the day before), and the spectacular mountain views all around, out in the distance. What a way to sightsee!

After a quick visit to Mammut’s headquarters in Switzerland on Friday, Dean dropped me off at the Zurich airport. Strange now being in big comfy airplanes, looking out the window, with no way to jump out. I landed in Denver on Saturday night.

Sunday morning, I was right back at Mile Hi, wedged into the bench seats of the Otter with my jumper friends as we flew up to 12,000 feet. So much nicer to be in a plane with a big open door in the side and a parachute on your back….no movie though. Then again, it’s only a ten minute ride….