Easy-moderate Swiss multipitch with great views if you get good weather. Mostly friction slab on slick, polished limestone, with the exception of a vertical 5b final pitch.
Trip Summary
- Location: Grimselpass, “Donald Duck” Sector
- Climbing time: 2.5 hrs
- Descent: 1h15, 8 raps
- Conditions: a bit wet, a bit foggy
- Rope: 70m, though guidebooks call for 2x50. We rappelled just fine with 1x70m rope.
- Pitches: 7 but we simuled the first two and did it in 6.
- Rappels: 8 (utilizing the intermediate rap station on the final pitch)
Approach (10 min)
Finding the parking spot took a minute as our guidebooks and references mentioned parking at the “base” of the dam, but it really was more like just below the top of the dam.
From there, you hop up on the dam and walk about 10 minutes, past the Azalee Beach sector to the Donald Duck area.
Climb (2.5 hrs up, 1 hr down)
The first 2 pitches are easy slab, we we simul climbed and just walked up.
The 3rd pitch gets more slippery and has an awkward move over a bulge to a great belay station where we stashed our backpacks to shed weight given the slippery quality of the rock.
The remaining pitches were unremarkable more of the same slick slab, with the exception of the fun 6th pitch with a slightly more vertical pull on super positive holds.
The 7th pitch is 5b and I found the 3rd or 4th bolt (can’t remember) quite tricky and awkward. There is a “rail” with good hands that sucks you out right, but it is a mistake to follow this as the bolt is actually up and left. I made that mistake and then had to make an awkward cross/step-through move with bad left feet options and was super stretched out. From there, I was in a really bad, tenuous stance to clip and had difficulty correcting it. A fall would’ve meant hitting the ledge below. The bolt was still just a few inches too high for me (a shorty) to reach so I used a panic draw and was able to clip safely. There were 2 quick links on the bolt below, where previous people had obviously bailed.
From the summit, we did 8 easy raps to the bottom with a 70m, despite the fact one of the pitches had been approx. 37 meters. The descent took 1 additional hr.
