That’s Kenny and I back down in Andermatt after a couple of excellent days climbing up on the rocky mountain of the Salbit. This peak is not the biggest in the Alps being shy of 3000m but it is made for amazing Granite climbing. The ridges and faces are solid, the approach is steady having no glacier worries and the hut and bivi hut are ideal. Now with the new Indiana Jones style suspension bridge in place it’s easy getting from one side of the hill to the other (photo’s to follow).
We managed the West Ridge the first day, which as the guide book states is one of the finest ridge climbs in the Alps. Over a 1000m of ED1 up to 6a climbing, five towers of granite to climb and then abseil then the final summit tower. Each tower giving good climbing and sustained all the way to the end. I have tried this route before with Robin and Sheila but bailed from between the 4th and 5th tower due to running out of day light.
This time climbing as a team of two from first light we topped out after 11hrs of near non stop jamming, flake pulling, granite climbing. Ace!
Yesterday we had an easier day of it on the lesser travelled East Ridge. This ridge is defiantly over shadowed and less travelled by the West and brilliant South Ridge but still carries the hallmark of excellent Salbit solid Granite. The hardest pitches being 5a with some aid, really nice just to be moving fast on solid rock.
Plan now? Not to sure. Think we will head on round to either Saas Fee for some ridge action or round to Grindelwald for some big rock. Watch this space and you’ll find out!
No photo’s down loaded yet, I’ll try and get some on as soon as possible. I took quite a lot of film footage on the West Ridge, which I’ll put together soon.
Time to drive to a new venue, fingers crossed the weather stay as good as it is………….