Piz Badile 3308m
Speed ascent northeast face - Cassin
The north-east face of Piz Badile is one of the six major north faces in the Alps. I successfully completed the speed ascent of the "Cassin" route in 2016. Together with Richi Arnold and Christian Gisi, I set off from my home in the canton of Uri to the Engadin. We quickly completed the ascent to Sasc Furä. In the evening we did a long interview behind the hut, but my concentration was not on the interview, my thoughts were already on the wall, on the wall of tomorrow. It wasn't new territory for me, I'd already climbed this route twice. Always secured with a rope and in a rope team. But tomorrow I won't have a rope with me. I know where the most difficult parts are, I know exactly which holds to hold and I know that I can do it!
I didn't sleep that well, of course I was nervous. The good thing about fast ascents is that I don't have to get up so early. The other climbers had already set off for Badile a few hours earlier.
The three of us also set off in the direction of Piz Badile. However, we didn't go where the majority of climbers start. I decided to enter the north-east face from the glacier. There was no question about it, as the first climbers had climbed from the glacier, so I wanted to do it exactly the same way. The helicopter arrived just a few meters below the start and I wanted to document the whole ascent live. I got ready at the start, changed from my mountaineering boots to my climbing shoes and soon we were off. The conditions were perfect, almost everything was dry and even the large chimney in the upper section was easy to climb. I reached the summit in exactly 52 minutes, a great experience. Everything went exactly as I had imagined.
At the summit, it was time for another interview. Eventually the helicopter came again and picked the team up from the summit and brought them down to the hut. I then climbed back down via the north ridge. I encountered various rope teams on the ascent and especially on the climb down. I apologized to each person about the helicopter and hoped that the noise hadn't disturbed the other people too much.
I would like to thank the whole team. Of course I climbed the route alone, but without the support of the team it would hardly have been possible.