So 2017 is the year where I aim to tackle a long term goal: Finsteraarhorn.
Its north/west faces - as seen from our city:
(Finsteraarhorn is the one on the left; the big block in the middle you see is the Eiger North Face)
Close up:
The approach west face from frontal angle:
I see that peak each clear day in a distance and long for climbing it for some time now. It’s the highest peak in our canton (state) with 4'274m/14’022ft. Very remotely located; it takes a day hiking/skinning only to get to the foot of the mtn; there you sleep in a cabin to tackle the remaining 1250m/4’100ft the next day. Big parts of the ascent is glacier terrain, many steep slopes with hardpack/ice are to be expected.To get to the peak, climbing is involved.
Begun to prepare for this peak some time now. Measures like
- Quit Smoking which turned out very well, lungs have recovered surprisingly well from 25y of smoking +1 pack a day.
- Done mountaineering courses and picked up climbing again to get the necessary routine with all the glacier travel stuff from simple tasks like rappelling to crevasse rescue. Did some high alpine climbs in summer to check that fear of heights is not a problem even in exposed terrain. Should work. I’m still no friend of walking over swinging rope bridges :blink: but exposed ridges are fine.
- Considering the skinning/riding, the riding part doesn’t scare me, I'm somewhat confident that I can handle the terrain and I’m fairly certain that the Solution will get me down safely, I trust this board a lot. But skinning up in such terrain is a different animal. I’ve collected some experience skinning steep n icy terrain in Svalbard last season and recognized the limitation of soft boot splitboarding. Whole lot of additional energy is lost having to slam the edges into the icy slope compared to skiers. Crampons only partly helped. Got a AT boot set up meanwhile in the hope, that this will substantially improve the skinning part :hope:. Very curious to try it soon.
Main problem I see is the fitness level. Even though I've increase my overall fitness level quite a lot in recent years - 10y ago even a short 2000ft ascent was a big challenge - it's still not where it should be. From experience I know that meanwhile my legs can sustain a 5000ft ascent, but on lower altitude. Highest mtn I’ve ascended with a split so far was 11’220ft, but I had reached that one on the gums of my teeth. For the targeted peak, I must have more reserves, and not only legs but also arms to cope with the climb. I.e. I've got to get the fitness in advance and not thanks to the climb. Being an outdoor person, I gain my fitness doing all kinds of outdoor sports on a regular basis like horseriding, hiking, mountaineering, but all of them are leg/core dominant. Never done any real fitness workout. My arms are a joke. I don’t even manage one (1!) decent clean real push-up. Well... just do a workout! - you probably say. That’s the problem. I absolutely hate gyms, I hate to swim, yoga is boring, aerobics and all those fancy indoor workouts are meh... and if it’s meh, I won’t go. I’m not determined enough.
But... there’s hope. A colleague convinced me to accompany her to a fitness-boxing lesson yesterday and... wow, that was fun. Very pushing, very exhausting. And very interesting to see the reaction of my different muscles today: legs have a dusting of soreness, core as expected nothing (dressage horseriding makes for a very strong core, even though many ppl don’t believe this), but the upper arms? I can barely lift them today :laugh:. Subscribed to become member of the local boxing club - lol - and aim at going three times a week.
Sooo... I've 14 weeks left to prepare; wonder how long it takes till I manage my first real clean push-up
Its north/west faces - as seen from our city:
(Finsteraarhorn is the one on the left; the big block in the middle you see is the Eiger North Face)
Close up:
The approach west face from frontal angle:
I see that peak each clear day in a distance and long for climbing it for some time now. It’s the highest peak in our canton (state) with 4'274m/14’022ft. Very remotely located; it takes a day hiking/skinning only to get to the foot of the mtn; there you sleep in a cabin to tackle the remaining 1250m/4’100ft the next day. Big parts of the ascent is glacier terrain, many steep slopes with hardpack/ice are to be expected.To get to the peak, climbing is involved.
Begun to prepare for this peak some time now. Measures like
- Quit Smoking which turned out very well, lungs have recovered surprisingly well from 25y of smoking +1 pack a day.
- Done mountaineering courses and picked up climbing again to get the necessary routine with all the glacier travel stuff from simple tasks like rappelling to crevasse rescue. Did some high alpine climbs in summer to check that fear of heights is not a problem even in exposed terrain. Should work. I’m still no friend of walking over swinging rope bridges :blink: but exposed ridges are fine.
- Considering the skinning/riding, the riding part doesn’t scare me, I'm somewhat confident that I can handle the terrain and I’m fairly certain that the Solution will get me down safely, I trust this board a lot. But skinning up in such terrain is a different animal. I’ve collected some experience skinning steep n icy terrain in Svalbard last season and recognized the limitation of soft boot splitboarding. Whole lot of additional energy is lost having to slam the edges into the icy slope compared to skiers. Crampons only partly helped. Got a AT boot set up meanwhile in the hope, that this will substantially improve the skinning part :hope:. Very curious to try it soon.
Main problem I see is the fitness level. Even though I've increase my overall fitness level quite a lot in recent years - 10y ago even a short 2000ft ascent was a big challenge - it's still not where it should be. From experience I know that meanwhile my legs can sustain a 5000ft ascent, but on lower altitude. Highest mtn I’ve ascended with a split so far was 11’220ft, but I had reached that one on the gums of my teeth. For the targeted peak, I must have more reserves, and not only legs but also arms to cope with the climb. I.e. I've got to get the fitness in advance and not thanks to the climb. Being an outdoor person, I gain my fitness doing all kinds of outdoor sports on a regular basis like horseriding, hiking, mountaineering, but all of them are leg/core dominant. Never done any real fitness workout. My arms are a joke. I don’t even manage one (1!) decent clean real push-up. Well... just do a workout! - you probably say. That’s the problem. I absolutely hate gyms, I hate to swim, yoga is boring, aerobics and all those fancy indoor workouts are meh... and if it’s meh, I won’t go. I’m not determined enough.
But... there’s hope. A colleague convinced me to accompany her to a fitness-boxing lesson yesterday and... wow, that was fun. Very pushing, very exhausting. And very interesting to see the reaction of my different muscles today: legs have a dusting of soreness, core as expected nothing (dressage horseriding makes for a very strong core, even though many ppl don’t believe this), but the upper arms? I can barely lift them today :laugh:. Subscribed to become member of the local boxing club - lol - and aim at going three times a week.
Sooo... I've 14 weeks left to prepare; wonder how long it takes till I manage my first real clean push-up