Gore-Tex Experience Tour Casting: Finale

I should start off by saying it was a great weekend. No doubt about it. For me, it was a very quick weekend and only left me wishing for more.


My flight out of Valencia arrived ontime but flying out of Madrid, we had a bird lodged in the engine which caused a 1:30 hour delay. I arrived in Zurich around 1PM, the same time I had to be in Interlaken for our climbing gym session. Thankfully, Alex (Gore-Tex's representative from thier PR agency) was very collaborative and waited for me at the airport and advised the rest of the group that I would arrive late. Meanwhile, Tomasz, Robert, and Daniel were at K44 climbing gym gettin with it.

I arrived directly to the climbing gym in Interlaken at 3PM. I was happy to have finally arrived. I shook hands with Robert and the rest of the guys and was ready to do some climbing!! However, Robert took me aside to assure ourselves that I knew the ropes and that I could handle belaying, etc. Once that was over, I started leading on a route of green holds marked 5c. It was quite easy, so after watching Robert easily link up a 7c route on the wicked overhang, I went for a 6a+ route with black holds. I had to do a hang-doggie half way to rest my arms. It was a route that was quite overhanging but had excellent holds all the way up. By the time I came back down, my arms were already pumped.

Robert took his turn again by linking a 6c+ and I wanted to link something a little more tough, so I went for a 6b+ with blue holds. Overhanging the whole pitch, I burned out half way when I spent too long in one position to clip in....after a few more attempts, I asked Robert to lower me so I could rest a little and try again. However, as I touched the floor, it seemed that Robert was in a hurry to get to Grindelwald. Eventhough, I could've spent at least another hour in the gym, I passively went along and we packed our gear and went on our way another half hour up the road to Grindelwald.


Grindelwald is a special place to be. Being familiar with the mountains that surrounded us, I was very impressed, you could feel the Eiger hanging over you....


We checked into the Hotel Caprice. What a cool place! The first thing that surprised me was the girl at the front desk decked out in the typical swiss outfit you might see on the St. Pauli Girl Beer label (except she wasn't blonde). Once we checked into our rooms, I had another surprise. The porch looked directly onto the Wetterhorn North face.

So I showered and went down stairs to share a beer with the rest of the guys before dinner. We all got to know a litte about each other during our pre-dinner brew and over dinner. Yet, the main topic of conversation was getting know some of Robert's experiences in the mountain. His experiences that I most remember is his most recent adventure to the Tierra de Fuego in the Patagonia for a first ascent on Mt. Saramiento and some of his first free ascents on the Eiger, such as the Harlin Direct (7a) and the Japanese Direct (8a). I would have liked to hear much more of Jasper's stories but, finally, Robert asked us to share our projects one by one so that he could get a feeling of what we wanted to achieve.


Daniel started and he came just a bit more prepared than Tomasz and I. He had written a speech on paper and quoted it for us. It was nothing descriptive nor technical, just emotional and maybe a bit cheesy, haha. After Robert asked Daniel a few questions. I followed with my idea - the NW face of the Dome de Neige via the Mayer Dibona with a possibility of descending on splitboard. A descent on splitboard obviously didn't add up for Robert (find video here). Finally, Tomasz explained his idea. Like mine, ambitious, creative....and didn't add up for Robert. At this point, it was obvious who was going to walk away with the prize, mainly because neither of us had any real experience ice climbing and Daniel had busted out a written speech...the difference maker. We ended the night by watching the IMAX film, The Alps, and double checking our gear for the next day's activities.

On Sunday we were up and at 'em bright and early to catch the 7:15 train to the Eigergletscher stop at 2320 meters (see map). We were out of the train and snowshoeing at 8:30 (a quick and easy way to knock out a long approach).






From here we traversed out of the ski area and onto the north side of the Eiger. The snow was decent and fun. Daniel took a couple of face plants as he opened trail that Robert had lightly and quickly gone through, and all of us took our turns sliding on our butts in the steep sections of delicate snow. After a fun 20 mins. we had arrived to the base of our climb for the day. A short, thin, mixy section of ice with two nice icicles hanging from the top of the pitch.




Of course, Robert opened the pitch for us. Slowing making sure of his moves on the crappy ice, he placed the first screw about a third of the way up. Then a second pro with cord around the large icicle on the left welded to the flowing ice below. Finally a second screw on top of the icicles. At the anchor point which turned out to be a rock that Robert had prepared the day before, I lowered Robert to our stance.

Daniel went first and lowered a few meters from completing the pitch. I went and slowly completed the pitch on my first attempt. Tomasz followed me and also lowered a few meters from completing the pitch. We all took turns going a second time. Daniel and Tomasz completed the pitch on the second attempt and I went last to clean the pitch. After removing the last screw I was exposed to a pendelum and with a wrong placement of the ax, the thin ice released and I went swinging below the anchor. A small flight with no problem!

Robert estimated a two hour descent from out stance to the train. His ideas was to cross the north face of the Eiger on the snow banks below the face to show us the various ascents up the face. It was a splendid descent with many photo-ops and very informative. The face is ever changing with each meter of the traverse, sometimes seeming small and other times seeming huge. Some ascents you cannot see until you reach a certain point and others are obvious from almost all points.


Thanks to our snowshoes, we made a very quick descent and missed our train by 30 seconds and waited another half hour at the station eating and rehydrating. We arrived in Grindelwald again at 2:48 and quickly changed and packed our gear into vehicles. With time running short to catch our respective flights out of Zurich, Robert decided to present the winner in the hotel parking lot. Of course, Daniel got the prize. Congrats Daniel!


Gore-Tex was kind enough to give Thomasz and I a few articles for making the casting. Thomasz took home a Pro-Shell jacket from thier product testing line and I will supposedly be receiving some sort of running shell by Gore-Tex...Thanks Gore-Tex!!

I made it to my flight with time to spare. I washed up, French-style, in the bathroom in front of my gate, drank a beer, called my wife, and happily took the flight back to Madrid to make it back to work for Monday morning in Sagunto. This week while I have been at work, I have been thinking a lot about this past weekend. I couldn't have asked for anything better. Having not won the Gore-Tex sponsor, will only make me a better climber. I will be more motivated to push my psychological limits, my physical capabilities, and accomplish goals on my own. From this experience I keep remembering what my old Football coach used to tell me, "If you lose, train harder, practice harder, get better, and remember there is always someone out to take your spot."

Cheers Friends!

This blog will not end here. Follow my adventures in Spain as I progress to become a better alpinist throughout the european ranges. I have trips planned to the Pyrenees in the very near future and another trip to the Alps on the horizon. Here you will find lots of rock climbing, ice climbing, backcountry splitboarding, training and nutrition articles, and just about whatever has to do with the mountaineering spirit always striving for a pure alpine style.

Thanks to my very supportive friends you can find at elev-arte.com and ritacuba.com.