Pissevache - Bravo Lapp

Alison on pitch 5 of Bravo Lapp, Pissevache, Switzerland

For an extended summer holiday, I came out to Chamonix yesterday to visit Alison and James, to see what the weather would be like for climbing. The weather forecast for today wasn't great, and rain was due around the Chamonix valley by midday. So trying to avoid the rain for a few more hours, Alison and I headed over the border to Switzerland hoping for dry rock until early afternoon, before the rain set in. We chose from the Plaisir West guide book 'Bravo Lapp' in the Pissvache area (Bas Valais) which is 10 pitches with 3 of 5b. The first crux of the day was navigating the tiny narrow steep streets of Les Granges trying to find the parking. The next difficulty was following the approach topo to get to the crag (don't purely rely on the guide book). Eventually we found the start point of the climb, a little later than expected and so the fun started with climbing. The drizzle started in about pitch 3/4 but was only light so we pushed on. We found the tree house half way through the day - but somehow missed the beer (with adjacent honesty box). Maybe this was fortuitous, because if we weren't so quick on the next 2 pitches the rain would have started before the fun 5b pitches and made us start a retreat. I think the team behind us got here a little late, and abandoned their day at the treehouse (probably with the beer) - so did they stop due to the rain, or beer?. Pitches 8 and 9 were the best of the route. Even the route through the cliffs back to the path were an adventure - and so in increasing rain we got to the car happy that we'd made the best of a poor day.

Definitely go and do it.

Alison on pitch 7

The 'tree house' that we passed along the route.

I still can't spot the beer and honesty box

The upper section of pitch 8, just below the belay

Pitch 8