Czech Climbing

"The above mentioned valley offers beautiful multi-pitch rock climbing on nearly perfect granite." Hearing this from our friends, copy of article from Montana (Czech climbing magazine), brief info from google and the Swiss motorway sticker stuck on the windscreen of our car since the March skiing trip to Tignes was all it took for us to book a week off work and go.

Equipped with copies of the climbing guidebook for the area, the fellowship of the four climbers left Prague shortly after midnight heading for Rozvadov (Czech-Germany border crossing) and after approx. 10 hours of driving landed safely in Göschenen and then followed very twisty mountain road towards Göschener Alp to the camp site. Our idea of wild camping only lasted till the first "No wild camping" sign. Similar signs are in abundance in the whole valley including higher altitudes :-(.

The camp site offers a mixture of rather confusing warnings and instructions where to pitch your tent, where to park your camper van and your car a.s.o, and also a little shelter with two toilets and running cold water. The camp site owner turns up every evening and using the password "bezahlen" (meaning to pay in German) charges 6 Swiss franks for person in a tent. At least some basic german is essential since the owners do not speak (or refused to...) any english at all.

Finally, the climbing! Across the road from the camp site there is a number of bolted routes. Grades vary between 5 to 8- UIAA and the routes are especially suitable for a sunny afternoon after rainy night and morning. Slabs of Glattenberg, located near the Bergsee hut and also called Klettergarten Hüttenfells, turned out to be a very convenient way to get accustomed to the local granite. We climbed 3 pitches long Addlerblick (6-), first pitch of Königsweg (5+), Bügeleisen (5+) and Solo Trip (6). Glattenberg is around 90 minutes walking distance from the Göscheneralp lake car park. There are actually three car parks by the this lake, the first one on left hand side of the road as you drive up is free (and also the smallest).

Walking a little further, that is approx. two and half hour from the Göscheneralp lake, will take you to the bottom of the Bergseeschijen peak (2815.5 m.). The peak offers a number of multi-pitch routes varying in grade. Our eyes were firmly set, after failed attempts on harder pieces ;-), on 10 pitches long S-Gratt (3 - 4-) and 8 pitches long Tonis Lust (5 - 6-). S-Grat is easy but exposed route with most pitches and all belays bolted. Tonis Lust is beautiful climbing on compact rock except the 4th pitch which contains some loose rocks. Belays are also bolted and so are the cruxes, but do not forget to bring your nuts and cams. Unfortunately, as many alpine classics, Bergseeschijen can get very busy on sunny days especially the famous routes described above.

Since we had many Scotland-like days when the sun came out for a few moments in the afternoon, here is another tip for afternoon climbing. The Sandbalm area is located 15-30 minutes walk from the car park in the sharp bend between two tunnels (the starting point for the Voralp hut). Our breath was taken away by the route called Bijou (6+ with crux graded 8+ or 6A1) where the only features on the slab were little crystals of flint. The Sandkante route (Rägäboge in guidebook terms) on the right-hand side of the wall is of a similar character. The first three pitches are fine with grades 5+, 6- and 6+ but the 4th pitch graded 8+ is out of our league at the moment.

With reference to Scotland again ;-) here are some additional recommendations. On the camp site it is better to pitch your tent in the area across the river because meadows by the roadside tend to change into lagoons during longer downpours. And if it is already raining in your tent you can use the shelter with toilets and running water instead, given the camp site owner permission. It did not seem to bother her but the camp site was almost empty at the time.

Driving directions:
Prague-Rozvadov-Münich-Memmingen-Lindau-Bregenz-Höchst-Sargans-Wollerau-Schwyz-Altdorf-Göschenen (approx. 800 km)

Notes:
- Section Lindau-Höchst consists of a few kilometers of Austrian motorway (motorway sticker required). It is possible to avoid this by going through the centre of Bregenz but, since almost everybody is doing so, the roads tend to be congested.

- The motorway near the Gotthard tunnel is often heavily congested too but there is a few kilometres long separate lane for Göschenen and Andermatt exit to avoid the traffic.

Guidebook and maps:
Clubführer Urner Alpen 2, Tonni Fullin a Andy Banholzer, SAC
(Available at the Czech Mountaineering Club library)

Gotthard, Wanderkarte mit Bike-Infos 1:25 000
(This map seemed better and clearer to us than the one recommended by the above mentioned guidebook.)
Maps can be purchased, for example, in a bookshop in Schwyz.

Links:
Weather
http://www.meteoschweiz.ch
Prognosen/Lokalprognosen Schweiz/[Göschenen postcode is 6487 :-)]

Camp site
http://www.zeltplatz-mattli.ch

A handful of photos: