Multipitch and roofclimbing

When driving from Geneva towards Chamonix you´ll drive through a valley with big walls of limestone. I would guess that for most people these walls look completely inaccessible but funny enough there are loads of established routes on almost every wall you can see.
Me and Gustaf Larsson went to check out the Balme cliff a coulpe of days ago. This wall is probably the most accessible of all the walls in the valley and up to 200 meter high in places. You park your car and at less then 5 minutes you are the closest climbing routes. Because of being the first multipitch for me this season we picked an easier route and with the possibility to combine it with other routes, in that way we never had to exceed 6b if needed. It was still a bit cold when we started of and Gustaf was keen to tie into the sharp end. The first pitch we both needed to get used to the rock a bit but soon we were at the first belay. From here we encountered what is so typical for the l´Arve valley the bolts are pretty far apart… Most is bolted on lead by very strong climbers so often you just find bolts at the best handholds. It was my time to lead so nothing to complain about and just do it! It all went really well from here. The climbing was great apart for some short sections with crappy rock (had a 10 kilo rock in my hand which I had to throw down…). I felt so comfy that we spiced it up a bit and tucked in two 6c+ pitches. The way down is fairly easy you just rap of fixed anchors. To get some more workouts we climbed 4 more pitches on other parts of the wall. Al together we climbed almost 300 meter in 9 pitches at lowest grad 6a (easier than that is hard to find in this valley) and hardest 6c+.
 A great start to Multipitch season! More of that!

Gustaf following on a fantastic(mostly) 6b+ pitch

First pitch!

Some days later me and Steve Pearson went to a crag on the Italian side called ´´Sarre´´ roof in the Aosta valley. This place is surreal! First of all it is super steep; you can easily climb here when it´s pouring down with rain. Second of all it´s more or less man made with drilled holds and last but not least you´re climbing above a working railway. I got spanked big time, the climbing is cool but hard. I managed to climb a 6c and worked on a 7b whilst the others at the crag were warming up on my projects, sending 8a and working on 8b+ routes. Give me a bit of time and practice and I’ll fight together with the other climbers, this is a place to come back to!

only in Italy

If you´re belayer lowers you to much
You get hit by the train... it´s al about
trust in climbing...

If you don´t like rain...