After an exhausting week, I was not at all looking forward to our climbing course on the weekend; I actually wanted to stay home and sleep. The weather forecast was not promising, but after Kay checked on Friday evening, we were told chances were 50/50, so we still had to prepare the climbing gear. Sigh.
The next day, Kay got up at 5:55am to call and check if the course was on before our 6:30am train to get to Solothurn on time for the 8am course. I was not a happy girl when Kay came back to bed to tell me the course was on and it was time to get up. I was a grumpy, grumpy, tired Katie. But we got ready, caught the train, and arrived at Bergsport Bordogna in Solothurn just in time.
I was still not in the greatest mood as we drove to Farnern. It was 9C/48F and COLD. I did not bring enough clothes for it to be this cold. I was not really a happy camper as we started our first ascent. But, by the time we climbed all the way up and were taught in Schwiizerdütsch how to abseil down, the sun was shining some and it had warmed up to a brisk 13C/55F. It was at least warm enough that I could feel my fingers on the rock again.
And look at me there, abseiling down like a rock star. I was terrified to do it by myself the first time, but it was quite fun!
As this is considered “sport climbing” in English, where the route is set up beforehand with anchored bolts, Kay and I would climb up in turns using express quickdraws while belaying each other as the other person climbed.
It’s always a little confusing for me to explain it in English because I am learning the climbing terms directly in German and they are not words I am familiar with in English. Everything in the climbing world is new to me and because our courses are in German, I am actually more comfortable giving all the climbing commands and information to Kay in German.
We climbed two multi-pitch routes. Since I was feeling a bit more nervous, I usually had Kay do the lead climbing and I trailed behind picking up the quickdraws on the way up.
There was one route that was hard to make ground for the mid-point and I didn’t want to climb past him and keep going up, so we switched mid-route and I had him continue. I’m glad, because just after the grounding area was a very tricky part and I completely lost my footing and fell, which always scares the bejeezus out of me, but it was right by an express, so I didn’t have anywhere to fall and did not hurt anything more than my nails.
They say with climbing that in order to progress, you need to push yourself to your limit and that falling means you have pushed yourself to that limit and that you will learn from it. So while it is scary to slip, it means that I am trying hard to become better at climbing.
Below is Kay starting his descent and some of the group waiting at the bottom.
It was our first time using our new climbing shoes on real rock outside, so that was nice, but a little tight after awhile.
My mood improved a lot over the day and while I had some, “Oh shit, what am I doing here?!” moments on the rock, I was happy that I went and proud with what I accomplished.
We have our own shoes, belts, rope, and helmets; now all we need is our own express set, belaying device and break, some locking carabiners, and a belay station sling so we can start climbing any preexisting route, which we have plenty of in this country.
I still really recommend the climbing courses through Bergsport Bordogna because they are great value for a whole day of climbing. For beginners, you pay just 90CHF and the course is from 8am-5pm and includes all your gear. You would easily pay 300CHF for the same service in a climbing hall and would probably learn less.
For course level 2, we paid 110CHF and they provided all the gear we did not have ourselves yet. It’s not often you find an all day activity like this in Switzerland for so cheap!
This is the rock formation we climbed up to from the parking area.
It’s always insanely beautiful in the countryside. There’s also something really calming about being in the wilderness with only the sound of the cowbells jingling in the background.
So now Kay is buying the rest of these items for us so we can go climbing outdoors. Our only problem is transportation, as most of these routes are very faraway from public transportation and we just have Kay’s motorbike. We are looking into buying a pacsafe bag so that we could lock up the bike gear to the bike and avoid schlepping it up the mountain with us.
