Perfect autumn- weekend in Ticino

On friday evening Nikolay and I, with Denise Wenger and Tobias were heading to Ponte Brolla, Ticino, where we met with some friends: Felicitas Feller, Fränzi Feller and Sigi. After some spaghettis we went to bed in our tents on the camping Piccolo Paradiso. The next day some other friends, partly out of the expedition team from the SAC, and Steffi, joined us. So we were a hug group climbing and having fun in the sector Prato in the Valle Maggia. On sunday we enjoyed the perfect climbing weather in the sector Russo.

 Prato, Valle Maggia, Ticino

 Nikolay in the 7c+, Prato

Steffi in the 6a, Russo

Everybody around the campfire

Biking in Gran Canaria

With my parents I went the last week to Gran Canaria; an island know from the most people as one where lying on the beach and partying is the main activity...but we get to know this island from an other point of view. In the small but sweet Finca "Villa del Monte" in St. Brigida we found a perfect home and got a perfect service from Petra, the owner. Our daily program consisted of 4 parts: 1) Bike tour with the canarian mountain biking champion. He showed us very nice pathes and we did a lot of "crazy" downhill. 2) Siesta 3) Beach 4) Eating a tasty dinner :-)

One day we also went to the south, to see the dunes and another day we went to the north to enjoy the completely diffrent landscape there.

A huge thanks to my parents for this amazing week!

All the "Bayard's" on a beautiful biking trail in the north

 

Las Palmas, the capital, with its houses of different colors

 

The name Gran Canaria comes from the spanish word "can"= dog

The downhill part

A view in the south part of the island

The dunes in the south, close to Maspalomas

The last vulcan which was active on Gran Canaria

Dinner in the Finca

Mountain Academy in Cabane du Grand- Mountet

I'm back to civilisation after an amazing week up in the hut of Grand- Mountet. With the Mountain Academy team we spent there really good days with perfect weather and did some really nice mountaineering: Blanc de Moming, traverse of the Zinalrothorn (Rotgrat/Nordgrat), Pointe de Zinal and the Besso. We had a lot of fun also around the hut: bouldering, playing UNO, washing hairs in the fountain, stone game and so on and on!

Thanks to everybody and "Hakuna matata" :-)
By the way, congratulation to Nikolay who climbed the Bonatti-route on Matterhorn north face.

 All the group on the Blanc de Moming

 On the west ridge of Besso

 Cool temperatures in the morning

 An amazing view: Wellenkuppe, Obergabelhorn, Matterhorn, Pointe de Zinal, Dent d'Hérens, Dent Blanche

Flo on the way to Pointe de Zinal

 Last evening: Hakuna Matata

To see more of the pictures from our photographer David: click here 

To see some of the reports: Seb Foissac, Simone from Aku, Jérôme

A hug thanks to the sponsors: Mountain Hardwear, Black Diamond, Aku