Barbara’s had a tough week and decides not to join Bert and I climbing. Instead she’ll go off and do something ‘less energetic’ – like a five hour walk from Arosa to Davos. Much needed (and treasured) time just to herself! So we head back to Brüggler…
When I let Bert know, he says “ok, then we can take the small car, see u later”. This translates into, ‘I’ll pick you up in the 88 soft top Carrera’, which happens to be a perfectly good car to use to get to the base of the ‘klettergarten’ (climbing area).
As we hike up to the climb, we realise there are a few other parties making their way to the same climb. So we decide to divert to its neighbour. Initially this seems like a great idea. Until we get to the top of the second pitch, where we get stuck at a belay station for at least half an hour… I’m half hanging in my harness, half standing on one cramping foot precariously balancing on a tree trunk projecting from the rock, while waiting for a party ahead taking forever to clear the pitch.
It’s here that we realise there are two other parties on this route. One rope consisting of a threesome, and the second who will end up sharing most belay stances with us, consisting of a pair. The two parties, we find out during the course of our spending time together on the stances, are climbing together. We only figure this part out after I made it clear, that the threesome ahead – their mates – were super slow and holding the twosome and ourselves up. Oops! Then we discover that they’re using the sport route to practice placing ‘trad’ gear… which, from a safety perspective is great for them. If they get in a jam they can clip into a hanger. It also means that they’re taking possibly twice as long as they should to clear the pitch! Which for parties waiting to climb is not so great!!
We finally escape the ‘queue’ on the final pitch. Climbing a brilliant 5a pitch, instead of the simpler 4b. Saving ourselves possibly half an hour of further waiting!
On our way back we agree we should avoid the easy climbs from now on. Especially on sunny days when lots of people take to the rock…
Holdups despite, the day and especially the more challenging final pitch makes for a perfect mountain day!
View towards Bockmattli 
Bert on the second pitch Berry tree finding a place to grow Bert starting on the final 5a pitch Bert nearly at the top The knife edge ridge heading towards the summit cross on Brüggler
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