Goodbye Chironico

After I mainly climbed Chironico and Sustenpass in the past two or three years, it was time to go for something new. It was hard to stay motivated especially for Chironico. In winter there is not much more to climb than there. Sure... Cresciano would be a good option with many nice boulders... but 20 minutes more drive time and more croud on a smaller area doesn't make Cresciano a good choice in my view. Additionally I often go climbing during the week, what means, that I have just a few hours in the evening to go there. More drive time... less time for bouldering. ;)

But we don't have many good spots close to our town. Magic Wood is too far (2h), Sustenpass and other higher situated areas still closed, at Schöllenen it's all done and Wassen has not a big variety. So I decided with my good friend and godfather of my son Lien to spread Murgtal... a nice and quite little spot, which is well known because of some publications, but rarely visited. And this despite of some really good and hard problems up there.


a picture from about 2004... looong time ago ;)


Now in early spring it's just possible to climb the lower areas. The upper sector is closed through a barrier and will open somewhere in May (usually)... depending on the snow up there. But also the "Steibrächer"-sector and a few other small areas offer many good stuff to climb.

During a first check by end of March, I was able to climb some nice lines between 7a and 7c. I was still not in my best shape, after I had a longer period with less climbing, because of the birth of my second son Inea. Sure... I restarted climbing now since a few weeks... but i'm still on the way back and it's getting better and better with every day on the rock.

To my big surprise, just a few days later I had one of my best days ever. I didn't climbed ultrahard routes, but was able to send three nice routes in one evening session.
- Romance Killer, 7C... a hard one with an intense shoulder-crux
- Happy Housewives, 7C+... where I messed up a "second go"     ...and as a last at 10pm
- an unnamed 8A-shield from Fred Nicole at my third try...!!!
Unbelievable! I never expected such a good effort. But it seems that i'm back on track. Three hard lines in one session is quite impressive... especially because of the fact, that I don't feel GREAT at the moment. However... such "magic days" are quite rare and i'm very happy with it. :)

One weeks later then (10. April) the confirmation. This evening I was able to finish my FA-project "Oblivion". At our first visit it felt almost as hard as "Second Life, 8A+" in Chironico, but on this evening I climbed it on my second try. So it has to go down to 7C+...
Afterwards I wanted to check out my second FA-project at Murgtal. But to get a comparison for the grade I went to Gu's new lines "M'raut, 7C+" and "Humorist, 7C+". Despite I hoped to stick one of these lines too... I almost sticked both of them. But at the "Humorist" I got a bad cut on one of my fingers and had to finish for that day.
By hook or by crook it was a great evening again with two 7C+'s. And now I think that this grade should be the right one for "Oblivion" too.


Oblivion (FA)

 "Oblivion" is an extension of an already existing line (unnamed). As you can see on the pic above, I added a new start sitting on the small block and traversed into the existing 7C finish-moves. I'm not sure about the grading of the finish. It's probably easier... but the whole thing I think will reach 7C+. Also because of the needed endurance and the tricky middle part which is not very hard, but you have to climb it first.

I'm wondering that it was never climbed before. But be aware about the fact, that I'm not really sure about this. For me it was a logical line and completes the existing 7C... it's definitely not the nicest one, but absolutely worth to climb it with very nice moves.

Here a vid with my ascent. Sorry for the bad quality... but it was already quite dark and I had to brighten the video, so that it's possible to see something. ;)

cheers