Gastlosen is one of the biggest sports climbing crags around here, in fact one of the bigger ones in Switzerland really. This is a poor photograph really, I ought to have taken one from the parking or a bit further away. We just climbed in the first sector nearest the parking known as Gravière for all the scree underneath.

I’ve got some older photographs and you can start to see what an amazing area this is for climbing, it’s a long ridge with climbing either side. We were on the eastern side of the north-south running ridge but there’s climbing on the western side as well.

These two (above) photographs are taken from the western side near Chalet du Soldat which is a good base to climb on that end of the ridge.

Some more wintery shots from the eastern side taken in October 08 and March 09

Tags: Gastlosen | rock climbing

I’d not really known this crag was in Vercorin, that seemed odd but it’s not in the local guidebooks and I’ve never heard anyone mention it. When we got there part of the reason became clear, for a start, it’s below the normal winter snow line so I’ve not skied past it and second, the track down to it is around TD which is  deterrent.

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Tags: Climbing | rock climbing | Vercorin

I was over in North Wales for an SPA training with Phil George, despite being certain of rain it was actually great weather and we had a great couple of days. Phil is a great teacher, he’s an IFMGA guide and really knowledgeable and enthusiastic on all everything mountaineering and climbing. After the first day out me and the other two guys decided to go climbing up in Bus Stop Quarry, this is on the HVS Solstice which I think Phil did the first ascent of in the mid-eighties, my old guide has that I repeated in 1987 which sounds about right.


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Tags: Climbing | North Wales | rock climbing | SPA