Rigidalstock & Brunnistock Via Ferrata Trip (29th July 2007)

We had come up with the idea to go and do a via ferrata in the Swiss Alps. In a free leaflet we identified the Rigidalstock route with a moderate grade of K2. That seemed perfect for a beginners tour as Reto and Thomas had never been on a via ferrata before.
We left Zurich on Sunday, 29th of July 2007, early in the morning by train and got picked up by Reto in Luzern. We then drove to Engelberg and took a gondola and a chairlift up to the Brunnihütte (SAC).

Map showing the Rigidalstock area.

Despite the weather forecast, the temperatures were quite low, combined with a fresh wind made us feel a bit cold. This got better during the ascent to the entry into the via ferrata. Here we had a snack and geared up.


The team ready for action: from left to right: Andy, Anna, Reto, Thomas

The technical difficulty was pretty low apart from some sections of steepish character which I thought to be somewhat interesting. Altogether a straight forward, enjoyable climb with good views; just the right thing to get started.


Thomas climbing near the summit. The via ferrata runs along the ridge visible below.

We beat the time to the summit by half an hour and reached the summit (2593m) right on lunch time. The view was really cool, also geologically speaking as one could observe the layering of the rock.







Me on the summit with some interesting ridge behind me, showing how the rocks were lifted up and tilted by almost 90 degrees.













The happy team on the summit!


The descent was a bit trickier than the ascent, but that came as no surprise.
Back at the hut we had a coffee break and watched some rain drift closer, thus we dislocated into the huts common room. We reckoned that it would be too wet to have a go at the Brunnistock featuring a K4 route, too bad. But the rain was short lived and we got back outdoors the ground was already dry again. The weather seemed not too bad and we decided to have a shot at it.
Thomas decided to do the easier route (K2) while the rest of us went for the hard one as we felt we needed a challenge.
Well, we got one! This via ferrata started on a vertical wall, thus one could only hold onto the iron bars that were glued into the rock face. Having a look at the steel cable running alongside and noticing the rather long gaps between anchor points we realised : "You don't want to fall HERE!!!"
The route also required some twisting, that was something new for me, I was in front and exclaimed one time after another: "Whoa, this is exciting!!!" and "Holy maccaroni!". Anna climbed after me and Reto brought up the end. We were all happy to have attached a further sling and carabiner to our harnesses. This enabled us to get a break once in a while and I got the chance to take some cool shots cause I had fitted another sling and 'biner to by backpack, thus could hang it comfortably next to me to get at the camera.

Anna getting onto the dodgy traverse while Reto is a few metres further down.


A very interesting moment was when we had to traverse along the wall, stepping onto the iron bars and holding on to the cable which was not really taut, thus one had the uncomfortable feeling of being drawn away from the wall while the being clipped into the same line, i.e. no backup whatsoever!
Alpine feelings came up when tackling a slightly overhanging bit of cliff during increasing wind mixed with some rain drops beating down. The pack straps were flapping around and behind us a chopper of the REGA (Swiss Alpine Rescue) was circling in search for a landing spot after having just winched up some climber from the Rigidalstock route.
The finally excitement came on form of a cable bridge!







The cable bridge.



















Anna feeling very happy after having been a bit anxious at the start of the bridge.





















Thus ended an awesomely cool day!

Hey everyone, live is good and adventures must done!!!

Cheers
Andy