Another Day in Paradise

Overview

The "Another day in paradise" is a modern (sport)climbing route on the famous NE-face of the Piz Badile. As all routes on the Piz Badile it offers awesome climbing on typicall Val Masino granite (chickenheads, flakes, slabs, etc). Other than the famous Cassin route on the NE-face, this route is well bolted and therefore more like other modern sportclimbing routes. Still, a basic alpine climbing knowledge is very usefull, especially for the approach and the last pitches, which are protected rather bad.

The climbing is very homogeneous so be sure that you can tackle most of the pitches easily, or else the climbed will be too timeconsuming. If you can handle the climbing difficulties, the route is really "a paradise". Pitch after pitch of beautiful climbing in the athmosphere of the impressive NE-face of the Piz Badile!

First ascent: Bruno Müller, Kurt Müller and Hans Zgraggen (1991). A part of the route (about the first 8 pitches, are re-bolted in 2003). Unfortunatly the upper belays hasn't been renewed..

Getting There

From the Sasc Fura Hut 1904m. (see main page for description): Take the path behind the hut up towards the Nordkante to the notch in the ridge before the start of the main difficulties. It is possible to bivi on the approach or at the notch (recommended!).

Descent from the notch to the ledges that cross through the NE-face (same ledges as used for the Cassin), which may require a 20m rappel. On the ledges, you can easily reach the start of the route, unless there is no snow on the legdes (then a bit tricky!).

The first pitch starts just after the highest point on the ledges and can be recognised by a well bolted belay about 3 meters above the ledges.

Sacs Fura hut ---> Another day in paradise: 2 hours.

Route Description

In General: Route finding can be a bit challeging, especially because of the invisibility of the bolts. But, if you have a good description, you just need to trust that you'll find them while climbing higher. Most of the route heads slightly left (while looking up).

Attention: the first pitches can be (very) wet after a bad weather period!

Another Day in Paradise 6b (6a obl.):
Pitch 1 (35m, 6b)
Pitch 2 (35m, 6a-)
Pitch 3 (40m, 6a)
Pitch 4 (40m, 5c)
Pitch 5 (35m, 5c+)
Pitch 6 (40m, 5c+)
Pitch 7 (35m, 5c+)
Pitch 8 (50m, 5b)
Pitch 9 (20m, 5b)
Pitch 10(45m, 6b)
Pitch 11(45m, 5c+)
Pitch 12(45m, 5b)
Pitch 13(50m, 5b)
Pitch 14(45m, 4b)
Pitch 15(40m, 3b)

Time: 4-5 hours from the base to the exit on the North ridge.

Descent: There are two options for the descent. First: rappel down the Northridge, which can not be recommended because this is a quite long and demanding descent requiring many rappels. The best way is to just rappel down the route. The upper belays may not be 100% new, but there safe enough to rappel. Once down, just follow the ledges to the notch on the North ridge and descent towards the Sacs Fura Hut.

Time: about 2-3 hours from the North ridge to the hut (if you descent along the route and good at rappeling).

Essential Gear

We didn't place any additional protection untill pitch 14. Only the last two pitches may require some additional placement of protection. Therefore you can choose the rappel down after pitch 13 (end of difficulties), and you probably won't need any nuts or cams. Take about 10 extenders, helm and bring your climbing shoes.

Mountainboots can be needed for the approach, when there's snow on the ledges (check at the Sacs Fura Hut!). You can leave your boots and sacks at the ledges.

External Links

Capanna Sasc Furä (1904m.)
SAC Bregaglia Clubhütte
Tel: 081 822 12 52
Opened: 1.7. - 30.9.
Website:www.vs-wallis.ch

Guidebooks:

• Jürg von Känel, Schweiz Plaisir Sud (2003), ISBN 3-906087-17-4.

• Sertori and Lisignoli, NICHTS ALS GRANIT - MASINO BERGELL DISGRAZIA, ISBN 88-87890-35-8

Map: No map needed for the climb. Maybe one can use it for the approach. SAC-map: 1:25'000 Map: 1276 – Val Bregaglia / 1296 – Sciora

Trip report (picture's only): from former SP-member Ullrich Prinz
Digital map - www.mapplus.ch
Weather forecast - www.meteoschweiz.ch
Time schedule train/bus - www.sbb.ch

Images

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