With Golf gloves in the wall

In Pratteln, a suburb of Basel, is a shining complex of shopping and logistics centres. Basel – the northernmost city in Switzerland. We are, therefore, in a non-Alpine environment. Even more astonishing is the Episode that takes place once in a while in the middle of the shopping Paradise of Pratteln, where between furniture stores and a bathing temple is also a Golf shop is housed.

men and women enter the Store, which don't look even after a round of Golf. You go straight on the shelf next to the cash register and buy gloves made of white leather. As the seller asked once, marveled at the peculiar customers ice climbers: from Russia, Canada, South Korea, the Czech Republic. They found in the Golf gloves are the ideal textile for their sports, which they called "dry tooling" and not very enlightening and detailed, this is ice climbing without ice. And what still more surprised: they were not at all in the Alps, her destination was around the corner.

and experience

In Diegten, not far from Pratteln, is a nondescript cave. It is moist, shady, muddy – and the reason for the mountain rising clientele load in the Gulf. The noise of the highway blaring in the vault. It is a place where you are not thinking of Staying – and not to Climb, because the Rock is wet, brittle, and strongly drooping. A small waterfall falls over the edge and splashing listlessly on moss-covered stones.

dry-tooling is rock Climbing in the ice climbing gear, so with crampons and pimples. But you move not in ice, but in the more-or-less dry Rock. The poor quality of the Rock here has advantages: In the rather soft lime rock you will find better support with crampons and pimples and is moving in a Terrain that is not suitable for "real" Climbing. It looks weird, and it sounds like a crime, if the Rock under the Maltreatment of the iron "hisses". The question is justified: What the hell is this?

Video: In the Diegter grotto The description "ice climbing without ice" is just as confusing as applicable. Video: Luca Osswald

"I see it as ideal preparation for alpine North faces", a German mountain climber information, in the grotto. "In the North wall area you must be able to also handle the Rock with crampons and ice-axe, here you can find a good Practice area. In addition, you can train here are also good for ice climbing as long as the Waterfalls are still frozen."

in fact, it is in a combined wall, such as the Eiger North wall, alternately both in the Rock and in the ice on the road, so you are able to deal in the Rock with crampons and pimples. This requires a good sense and a lot of experience. Sometimes there are only inches width so that you put on the Hoe and then carefully can strain. You have only changed minimally with the angle, slipping away already.

by the expansive roof of the cave routes.

Also Slovak climbers present. They attest to the Diegter cave "reputation", at least in Europe there is for dry tooling little Better. You yourself live in Zurich, but many of our colleagues from the East would travel here to try the famous routes.

There is not only a Practice area for North walls in Diegten. Also by the expansive roof of the cave routes. They are called "Ironman", "Superman" or "Batman" and were at times the most difficult in the world. It is reminiscent of bats, if the Drytooler gymnastics by the Overhang. This has more to do with ice climbing and the North a lot of walls – even if dry-tooling is originally anchored there.

ice climbing took place a long time only on the big Alpine walls. Ice cream was either an obstacle on the way to the summit, or the opposite: A Eisauflage can also mean the only way to the summit, while snow covered or wet rocks are insurmountable. Vertical ice was not observed by mountaineers for a long time. It was considered impregnable, and in addition, the frozen water is not led cases to summit.

Then the ice-axe came on the market, which were no longer straight, but curved shafts and suddenly the Vertical was interesting. For example, the Breitwangflue in Kandersteg to the coveted goal of a four-hundred-Meter-high wall of rock, over which waterfalls pour. In the Winter they freeze into huge icicles, where up is climbed. Often, you will reach the free hanging pin through rock passages, this was the birth of the "Mixed climbing" – of the modern, combined climbing.

Premiere in Europe

Also available in Diegten in cold winters ice. The waterfall freezes, then, a powerful icicles, sometimes it grows to form a continuous pillar, to the floor. The German climber Robert Jasper took advantage of 1997, a few ice, in the grotto, the Mixed-Climbing. He overcame extreme difficulties in the Rock to a delicate icicles to get out. "A new Dimension?" he asked at the time; his Route by the name "Trait de Lune", is considered to be one of the first Mixed-climbing in Europe. Jasper knew that you Could export this style in big walls, then new futuristic lines.

And so it came to pass. Jasper was spectacular lines are known, such as "Flying Circus": a series of icicles at the Breitwangflue, which are combined through rock passages to a 165-Meter-long Route. The newer routes in Diegten get by without ice, which is why the description "ice climbing without the ice cream" is just as confusing as applicable.

dry tooling established itself also thanks to the Ice climbing competitions as a separate discipline. If the ice climbing makes the world Cup in Saas-Fee, where the car Park is converted in the village to the Arena, make the international athletes, often, a trip to Diegten. And if you need new gloves, go to Pratteln.

(editing Tamedia)

Created: 29.11.2018, 20:37 Uhr