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The majestic Matterhorn Mountain (no, not the ride at Disneyland, this here's the real thing) |
Profile shot of the Bee House crag |
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The many beatiful lodges and inns of Zermatt nustled in the mountains |
An aerial shot of the little village of Zermatt taken from the Bee House |
Swizterland was the last destination on our summer vacation to Europe (which also included France and Italty), and it was here I was finally able to get in some climbing after dragging around 70 pounds of climbing gear for a week of a half. I knew once we arrived in the famous town of Zermatt that there would be climbing. It's a mountain man's dream come true; a little town nustled inside the Swiss Alps with skiing, rock climbing, alpine climbing, and hiking all within the city limits! No gas engine cars are allowed in the city (only transportation by train, electric bus, or by hiking/biking is allowed) so this keeps the city very clean and unpolluted, just like most typical Swiss cities. As a climber, I knew I was in heaven by just walking down the city streets. In a typical block, I'd encounter a climbing store (stocked full of Mammut and Arc'Teryx products), a Swiss Army Knife store, a barbecue braut stand, and a pub...what else does a guy need?? After carousing several climbing shops, I got the idea that I wanted to do some multi-pitch sport climbs when I saw a brosure on sportsklettern (sport climbing) on the Riffelhorn, a smaller mountain nearby the Matterhorn that has many beginner-intermediate routes. However, in order to even access the mountain we had to buy a train ticket for 40 swiss francs (which is about $50), so I decided to stick to a nearby local spot that we could hike to for free. After talking to a local climber at a store he directed us to the closest crag to Zermatt, called the Bee House.
Climbs Done:
Bee House
| Approach | 15-30 minutes up moderately inclined hills |
| Poison Oak | Very Low |
| Sun Exposure | High middate, low late afternoon |
This crag has sport climbs at all levels and could be seen from our hotel in Zermat. However, my family and I got totally lost attempting to hike to this spot because we took a hiking trail out of town expecting it to eventually lead uphill to the base of the mountain. This was not the case, so we ended up looping around and finally making our way back to the correct trail that was practically back in town. Overall, we turned a 15-30 minute hike into a 1.5 hour hike, so I decided to take some pictures on the way back and posted them on RockClimbing.com to prevent retarded tourists like ourselves from getting lost. This crag is a great place if you want to go out real quick and get in several climbs without taking up your entire day. Within 15 minutes of town, you can get in a bunch of sport climbs ranging from 5.6 - 5.11+. The rock quality was a little worse than I expected. Although it was a kind of granite (I believe), certain routes were dirty and even had some red ants to compete with! Other climbs seemed to get heavy traffic and the holds were starting to become a little polished. Nevertheless, I was glad I was able to get in several climbs despite having a swollen ankle and hiking around half the day lost. Also one thing that I found interesting was that the locals had painted on the route names and ratings on the base of all the climbs and I found it really easy to determine what to climb since I hadn't bought the guide. I thought this was a cool practice, but I imagine the climbing guide writers wouldn't have thought so!
Note on climb ratings: * - Good, ** - Excellent, *** - Classic
