The summer brings tourists, pollution, noise and a grumpy mood, so we opted for a corner of the island where we wouldn't see anybody. My young swiss friend is always agreeable as long as he has good routes he is happy, so far a good plan. The car park is fool, looking down at the small beach it is also full, clearly there is very little tourism planing any where in Europe or in the world in general!
Patrick on Tirpitz a fantastic route, many boulder problems separated by rest platz.
Shade is essential, humidity is high, free wild figs, and hungry ants on one of the warm ups….
The initial move onto Tirpitz is a bit of a wide bridge over a 20 meter drop!
Some warm ups, a great 6a arete called Rocket man, 6a 30 meters, it climbs straight out of vines and figs into a breeze! Then we did Gormangast 6a, a hanging fig tree, ant colonies, and exposure guaranteed. We had had a few hard days and I was keen to see how Patrick did against Tirplitz as he was climbing well and his foot work was tip top. Tirplitz was a route that when I did the first ascent had me fully gibbering! It is a rising line to the left, and the exposure seems out of proportion to its length! How would Patrick do I wondered? Well he wobbled, and did a lot of talking to himself, and did a great lead. It's a great route and I think it's wonderful must do in this grade 7b (or 12b)-classic scare!
