Voralpsee

The climbing spot is a small but special in every respect. Located near a wonderful small lake in the Alps and the mountain scenery is amazing. The climbing wall looks like being cut down with a sharp knife: a plain face, 30° overhanging and without larger rock structures.  Small waves cover the rock face and make them look the same at every place. It was really stunning when we saw it for the first time.

An outstanding climbing spot

The routes are technically challenging with small holds and afford a superb endurance. We took some time to get used to this style of climbing. The thing I was most happy about, was that you can compensate a lot of powerful moves by efficient movements and technical skills. The limited amount of routes with about 15 routes is a clear downside: in the main session, this place will probably be crowded. Also, you have to climb about 8a to have some fun at this special place …

Which routes can we recommend?

That’s an easy question: all of them. These routes are superb but graded super hard. The only easier route we tried was ‚Alaska kid‘ (8a) – all the other ones including ‚Lucy‘ (7c+) and ‚Grenzgänger‘ (8a) were pretty hard for the grade. But at least for me, this makes the ascent of such routes a little bit more valuable.

The Swiss climbers

It was impressive to see the other climbers there. Everyone climbed at a solid level and was super friendly. The Swiss climbers often came in the afternoon after working and took down a bunch of routes just for training. One day, we saw an 11-year-old girl checking out those routes up to 8a+ one after another. To see the next generation climbing was impressive and inspiring. Saying she also found the routes hard for the grade was somehow reassuring …

What to do if it rains?

After the first two days at the Voralpsee, bad weather was forecasted. We considered visiting Bürs which is near the Voralpsee in Austria and stays dry even in the rain. But the forecast was super bad, so we switched to the South Side of the Alps and went bouldering in Chironico. The warm sun and the nice boulders in Ticino were the perfect decision …

Voralpsee – an outstanding climbing spot? Yes, for sure! But the limited amount of routes and the required high climbing level makes the Voralpsee to an quite exquisite climbing spot suitable only for a few climbers …