So here we are back in Chironico hoping for good conditions; third time lucky, we hope!

Nice and rested from a little tour of southern Germany we were raring to go when we arrived back in Chironico. Amazingly the conditions were awesome too, crisp cold day after cold slightly overcast day; ok not perfect but miles better than before!


First up was a 6a Kay had been working on in the area Borderline, so it felt only right that I do the areas classic problem ‘Borderline’ a superb 7a slab with a big dyno for the top hold, a must do for the whole of Chironico. Making our way around the large boulder field we went back to another piece of unfinished business ‘Power Ranger’ 7b+, a problem I had tried on the previous visit but conditions and lack of skin on my fingertips had me stopped dead at the small crimps on the lip of the small roof. After half an hour or so of working the problem it was another one down. Feeling quite good about my quick ascents a figured it was time to try something a little harder… ‘Doctor Jump’. Still no success; more and more attempts flailing around on the last move and more and more pink pads on my fingertips, maybe it’s just not meant to be. So frustrating feeling so close but yet so far away!


Ok something new was in order so we headed down the road to check out an amazing looking line called ‘Doctor Med Dent’ 7b+. After about an hour of battling with a poor toe placement it made the send so much sweeter; another definite one to do, one that climbed just as well as it looked. The next day we were once again joined by our good friends Nicole and Gogi on their 2 week holiday from work in Germany so we spent a few days showing them around some of the areas in Chironico. The next new problem on the list was ‘Doctor Brush’ a 7c I had spotted on the previous time here but never got round to trying. I spent a good hour trying to stick the first move, a strange drop knee and reach up to a small crimp which for me was full stretch. I finally stuck the move thinking this was one of the many ‘one move wonder’ problems around, only to find the next move just as challenging. A bad smear with the foot and a big reach up to the next ledge off the sharp crimp had my life for about 10 attempts; getting to the same point each time and finding the next ledge just too far out of reach. I was almost ready to give up when I decided ‘ok just one more go then I’ll leave it for another day’ those famous last words… I hit the small crimp, got my foot on the bad smear and pulled as hard as I could on the sharp crimp and just as I moved up to the ledge my right hand popped off the crimp and my knuckles were rather harshly introduced the sharp edge of the crimp. Now I’ve took skin off my knuckles like this before and yeah it’s painful and bleeds a little but never before had it happened like this; a huge chunk was missing from the first knuckle of 3 of my fingers, the sharp pain had me shaking my hands around waiting for it to die down when I looked down to find the blood running from my hand. My hand wrapped in a tea towel I sulked and packed my pad up, one last go resulted in a 3 day rest before I could bear the thought of climbing or possibility of catching my knuckles again.

As the time passed and my skin started to heal the temperatures started to drop and occasionally the snow started to fall, perfect conditions for climbing not so much for living in a van! The nights got closer and I was soon reminded of our time in Albarracin early on in the year. Back to the days of walking in to the crag with shoes inside the down jacket to try and keep my toes from turning to ice blocks in the first 5 minutes of putting them on! Coincidently Ixi, our German friend who we had met in Albarracin turned up in the car park for a short stay in Chironico. The weather then took a slight turn for the worse, just not cold enough to snow so the rain arrived and soaked everything and everyone one. Checking the forecast as we had been on the previous round in Chironico we deduced that the conditions in Brione we marginally better.

Brione is an area I’ve heard lots about but due to the fact that there is no guide book or online topo for the area I’ve never been to check it out myself. Luckily Ixi (the walking guide book) was more than happy to take the short hour drive to Brione to give us a little walking tour of the area accompanied by Nicole and Gogi. The Valley is beautiful and the bouldering is definitely worth writing home about… we enjoyed 2 days of playing around on some steady problems in the meadow and the woods and I even got back on a highball. ‘Black Mirror’ is a tremendous highball slab, a rather entertaining one for 6b+ as all the hard moves are in the last quarter of the giant wall. A good set of pads and a few goes bailing off at the crux had me psyched for the send. A big thank you to Ixi who took some amazing photos from the ground for the first half then ran up the back of the boulder to lean precariously over the top and get some shots looking down at my determined but slightly frightened face!




With conditions looking to improve in Chironico we headed back there for a few more days trying to send a few more projects. Nicole and Gogi headed for Fontainebleau for the remainder of their holiday and Ixi headed back home to Germany. As conditions got colder we found ourselves alone in the car park once again, struggling to warm up and if that happened we then struggled to last more than 20 minutes on a problem before the cold took its toll and our feet went numb. Clinging to the last few days left in Chironico we headed back out to climb for one last session… And a good day all round, definitely in Ixi’s words ‘sending day’. First stop on Kay’s list was a problem called ‘Satanic’, sent first go. Then followed by the extension to the right, sent first go. Keen to follow on from the success I headed back to ‘Doctor Brush’, not as successful since it took me a good 20 minutes to stick the first move but within half an hour it went down. 3 out of 3 not too bad. Next was ‘Fiona’ a tricky slab Kay had tried previously only to grease off the slopey arête a few moves from the top, not today though, after warming the feet and fingers up again this as the others went first go. So 4 out of 4 left the pressure on me for the last problem of the day… 'Doctor Jump'. This problem had my life for a good few sessions, as I explained in my previous post I was continuously getting to the last move and coming off going for the top hold. A few half-hearted goes to warm up again and I was back at that top move, one go my hand popped off the last crimp moving up for the top hold, next go I had my hand on the top only to come sliding off the sloper. Determined not to let it beat me I had a few more goes getting closer and closer when finally, success. So happy, it’s been a while since I worked something for so many sessions getting spat off constantly and then having the sweet feeling of success at the end, after all for me that’s what climbing is all about.

More than content with our success we had more day pottering around Chironico before leaving Switzerland for the last time and heading back to Germany for an American Thanksgiving with our friends Nicole and Gogi. Then hopefully, weather permitting on towards Fichtigelbirge for a scouting mission to see what the not so well known area has to offer.

So now that Chironico is finally finished with; atleast for this trip, here’s the summary…