James Rush was visiting us for a few days. He and I had already gone and climbed a multi-pitch route on Mt Pilatus two days earlier. Yesterday he spent trawling Zurich for interesting things to see. By today James was ready for another day of rock climbing. We borrowed der weisser Panzer, Jorge's gigantic jeep, once again and headed off again into the alpine wilds of central Switzerland.

After swooping through Schwyz so James could see the Grosser Mythern we drove up to the Ibergeregg pass, stopping just short of the top to do a bit of hiking so he could look at the valley and the snowcapped mountain chain on the other side. After a few minutes of walking around and taking some photographs, we moved the car up to the top of the pass where there is a restaurant and a carpark. We parked the jeep there, collected our gear and headed off on foot to the Kleiner Schijen - which is a collection of tall rocks marking the peak of a small rise about 15 minutes walk from the car.

We first went to the lower block marked as "Sektor D" in my copy of Plaisir Ost and went to look at a route called Nord-Kante (two pitches of 5c). I have since found another reference to this on the net, calling that block the "Vorgipfel" and that climb Nordwand (first 5c+, second 6a+) - and honestly, I think my guidebook underrated the climb a bit. Anyway, we were clueless as to the trouble we just signed on to and set up confidently, James opted for the first pitch and so we fired him up. Fortunately, today he remembered to bring his shoes. Well things went ok of course, because I'm writing this now, but it wasn't at all certain we would get away with it at the time. James got up about 5 metres and found himself laying back on a steep flake without anywhere to put his feet, he was murmuring misgivings but I didn't pay too much mind - he's a gun climber now. I don't know how James led it, because when I got up there I couldn't follow! - I slipped right at that point, and it took some doing to get by without further embarressment. When it was my turn to lead the second pitch I had trouble right away, had to fight like bloody mad and clip everything in sight to get above the first crux. Near the top I somehow got mud on my shoes, making them all slick with the next clip still out of reach - argh, not great. We finished it, but it wasn't particularly pretty. Ibergeregg was getting a few kicks in early.

As we rapped down the both of us agreed that we were done with epics already. We made a gentlemen's agreement to wack the other one upside the head if that ever happened again. I led the way up to sektor B where James led a nice climb called Noturno (5c, but strangely far easier than the previous 5c route). James swept up there like gravity wasn't paying attention. I lowered him off and then had him belay while I top-roped it to clean up all the draws. We stayed put there for a bit and both had a go top-roping the neighbouring 6b (dunno it's name, but it was pretty tough). After this we wandered up to the big main block and I led Blödes Eck (5c+) which was actually a lot of fun. James top-roped it to clean off the draws and nearly sliced his fingers off on a sharp edge - he wasn't too pleased about that.

We were baking in the sun under the Eck, most of the previous climbs had been in the shade, but we had moved around to the south side. Further around was Crossroads (5b) and James led that one. I had been caught in a hailstorm last time when I went up it, there's no point tempting fate so I demurred. We moved on to our last climb, a pinnicle that I really enjoy when I come to Ibergeregg. Apparently it's named "Sporn", but it has a great climb on it called Klemmen und Stemmen (5b) that I've done before. I sent James up it saying something about a "bit of a runout" at the top, which he found to be heaps of fun when he found it. I followed up, cleaning the draws he left in his wake. James lowered me off and I grabbed my camera to take a few heroic-explorer-type pics of him on top of the pillar.

Pretty bloody good day of climbing that was. I hope James comes back to Switzerland some day, there are a few other spots he should see. The Bruggler for a start.