After another day of coming agonizingly close to my current project in Brione yesterday and it was back to Valle Bavona today. This time in the company of Jan Hojer and his girlfriend Lulu. (I had the opportunity to meet and climb with Jan in Rocklands this past summer and I’m sure most are familiar with the incredible trip he had). My main objective was to check out Nalle’s new climb Momentum and possibly give a few tries to the Cart Project made famous by Chris Sharma in one of the Big Up’s Dosage Films. Nalle had generously provided me with a nice description and map on how to find the boulder and surprisingly enough it’s pretty close to Heritage. We found the boulder after a bit of running around, threw down the pads, and started having some goes. Momentum boils down to one significant crux move. Three moves of 7C on good edges leads to a large pull off a small right hand crimp to a flat full pad edge. It’s easy to generate the “momentum” to the hold because of the fairly good feet, but if you move too fast you risk cutting feet and having to hold a heinous swing. After the move to the flat edge, you are faced with one more large, but much easier move to a flat sloper pinch and then a few more big moves on “jugs” to the top. After a few goes I was sticking the crux move, but my feet kept cutting at the last second pitching me off the wall. Jan, after taking a few burns to warm-up, quickly stuck the crux (not from the start) and went to the top after a few goes. After a bit of rest and a few more falls from the bottom, he completed the 2nd Ascent.

Jan Hojer nabbing a quick 2nd Ascent of Momentum in Val Bavona, CH

Grabbing the crux right hand crimp

It was a super impressive effort on his part and I was psyched to be a part of the action. I ended the day with a couple near sends, giving up entirely on keeping the foot on for the crux and just holding the swing. I nearly held it probably 5 times, but a lack of skin on my right hand was causing the crimp to slip when I really needed it to stick. A few days of rest and a few more goes and I feel confident I can finish it up.

Getting close to completing the crux move.

While it seems that the 8C grade is probably not going to hold, all things considered, this is a FANTASTIC addition from Nalle to the area of Val Bavona. Another line that ranks extremely high in terms of quality and uniqueness of moves. It’s rare to find such gymnastic hard edge climbing here in Swiss and this boulder fits the ticket.

Wandering around in the woods a bit more today I found probably 6 new hard lines that are in need of some cleaning and climbing. These consistent experiences in Val Bavona further emphasize the vast potential that surrounds us. It’s motivating for the future.

On the way out of the Valley we made a quick stop at the Cart Project. Gave it a couple tries. Feels doable. Pretty sweet moves.



