Via Ferrata with a view

Yesterday was the last of the four day family trip with Dennis parents and brothers.

I found a great viaferrata not far from Chamonix "Via Ferrata de Curalla". Located on the 'Plateau d'Assy close to the village 'Passy'. The guidebook even stated that it was Europe's best and most beautiful one.

Sure, Dennis and I are both more interested in hard climbing then doing a simple viaferrata but as we were with Dennis brothers we thought it would be a good alternative for sunbathing and swimming at Lac du Passy.

Only one of Dennis brothers joined us, Arno.

We drove to the Chemin du Curalla to find a marked parking just uphill in a side street. 

It's supposed to be one of the busiest tours around so we expected loads of beginners. But we were the only ones around.

Close to the parking there's a small shop where you can rent viaferrata sets. 

As we have our own we didn't check the quality. Just want to say that you should be careful and check the safety of your equipment yourself too.

A short 15min hike with signs guiding you in the right direction brought us to the start of the cliff

The viaferrata was graded as AD+ which means just two trades harder then the easiest viaferrata in the grading system. 

When climbing the first meters we found the steep 'nails' in the wall topically harder then AD+ and Arno found it all pretty scary.

We were surprised how well equipped the whole tour was. Perfect over engineered cables, no sharp endings and super solid and and foot placements throughout the whole tour.

The tour has some great bridges guiding you over a big left going traverse to the top of the cliff. 

The view, especially with clear weather, is amazing. One of the 4 meter long bridges is called 'Pont du Mont Blanc'. And with a reason; when you look back from that bridge you have a perfect view on the Mont Blanc.

Though, it's a South facing wall on a height of 1400m making it one big 'grill' when climbing t on a Sunny day.

Make sure you bring enough water and protection against the sun when you decide to go on a bright mid-Summer day.

For an AD+ graded tour I found some sections very 'airy'. And the sometimes slightly overhanging climbing will be hard when you're less fit. 

Also children will have trouble clipping the cable as there's quite a distance between the 'nails' and on the 'cable-bridge' the safety-cable is high above your head. That makes it all quite safe, but hard to clip when you're smaller.

If you're experienced with belaying and the use of a rope on viaferrata's it's possible to use the 'pig-tails' that are secured every three to five meters. This would make the tour a lot safer and easier for climbers that are smaller and/or less experienced.

The guidebook said it would take you 1:30 to do the whole climb. We did it in 1:20h. And we're fairly experienced and as the weather wasn't too good we wanted to hurry a bit to be in time before any rain or thunder would hit us.

We concluded that an average climber would do the tour in 1:45h or more instead of 1:30h.

After an 'airy' ending with yet again a small bridge you end up at the top of the plateau. A marked path leads you down to the parking in a 20 to 40 minute hike with some fairly steep down hill sections. 

All the paths are well maintained especially if you consider it a real mountain-path.

After the climb we drove back to Lac du Passy where we went for a cooling swim.

A brilliant ending of the day was the pizzeria I can really recommend in the town Sallanches.

Super good pizza with Eco-ingredients for a very good price.

Only the logo-sign of the place might scar you a bit, but don't worry, really, it's a good place.

Urlaub

We're on our way.
The engine in Climbuz seems to hold just fine. Some little parts (like the dashboard indicators) aren't working yet and some things still need to be fixed (with Sugru).
And Dennis knows how to fix it all.
Love having my personal mechanic (oh, that sounds wrong...)



And as Climbuz still is not a Porsche or Ferrari we had a climbing stop at Kronthal (yay, sandstone!)



Urlaub, the German word for holiday.

That's what most people call it when you leave your house and get on the road to some sunny destination.
And thats what we just did. At about.

Only difference is that we don't call this holiday. It's our way of living and we have to work for it. Really hard.
Part of our 'holiday' was our annual trip to OutDoor in Friedrichshafen.
Meet our sponsors, see new gear, get a good view on the market I work at (the Outdoor industry), and most special thing this year was the lecture I gave.

And it all went so well.
People were interested, motivated and had so much positive feedback on my lecture.
I'm so motivated now to do this again :)

Other great thing is our new awesome sponsor.
Awesome because they make functional bling-bling.
Eyewear.
And not just a plastic piece that makes you feel like it's all dark outside.
No, real sunglasses. You can even get them shaped for you when you're wearing glasses in your every-day life too.
Luckily I don't need that, but it's possible, and thats cool.
The next weeks in the Alps will be a good test to see how my new shiny sunglasses will last.
If you're interested in bling-bling too, then like the Facebook page and visit the website 
Oh, curious to know what brand?
Julbo, of course :)
(What other brand makes glasses that are actually functional)

And after all that good news we drove to Chamonix. With a sleepover next to a beautiful river at Därstatten (Swiss).







Reason for the sleepover was the stupid petrol-station that took our €50,- but didn't supply us with any Diesel in return.
We had to wait until the shop would be open again to get our €50,- back.
Unfortunately we now missed the finals of the European Championships (sportsclimbing) in Chamonix.



After a break to meet up with Dennis parents (who will join our climbing trip for this week) and a hitchhiker we arrived at camping 'Mer de Glace' close to Chamonix.
It quite weird to be at a campsite. Climbuz isn't used to campsites, and we find it strange to suddenly be inbetween so many weird campsite-people again.
Hopefully we'll manage and get enough climbing done this week.



For now: need-to-climb-need-to-feed-addiction-...

Because of our little petrol issue we didn't have a chance to climb yet (for FOUR days!)
So I need to make up for all the non climbing.
I always feel so guilty towards myself when I haven't climbed for three days. Imagine four days...
The running and hiking I've done instead doesn't count to me... I really need to pull on rock (or ice).

Ibbenbüren climbing weekend

Been quiet on my blog lately.
Sorry for that.

Been busy with...climbing.

A competition in Arnhem (5th, quite okay but should have been better) and last weekend I was involved in family business with Dennis' family (which was quite nice actually) and of course...climbing. This time another area in Germany, not Ettringen but Ibbenbüren was our destination. For the first time.

Eveline told us to go there and borrowed her topo to us. (Thanks)

It was quite okay. Pretty friendly area, good for families, beginners, semi-beginners and even for us there was something to climb.

Though, when you get there for the first time without any guidance it might be hard to figure the right path to the climbing sectors. The 'treasure map' in the topo only helped just a bit...

And when it's as damp and hot as it was this weekend, it's quite hard to climb without chalk!

Most is bolted but I had the chance to play again with my 'Elbsandstein knots'.

Fun and worth another weekend!

Sinterklaas-Christmas-New Year-Birthday-Surprises

Sometimes my family is a bit strange, but that's fun.
We celebrated all big yearly feasts two days after new-years. With surprises and a poem. I drew my brother and had a brilliant idea for a surprise-creation and on the way, with a bit of help from some friends, created a funny poem.
I got a poem from my dad, very sweet and personal and a car-surprise with a new flash-card for my camera. My dad can make poems like no other, exactly grabbing my feelings and even make it in a rhyme.
And of course got some other things, even from Iceland. The best was the little Anasazi rock-magnet (not the 5.10 shoes, a real piece of rock I mean).
Here the pic's.