Kater Garfield at Chli Bielenhorn – Cracks, Slabs and Questionable Ethics
Another sunny weekend in a summer that seemed determined not to end. I had been wanting to return to the beautiful granite walls of Chli Bielenhorn for a while, and one route in particular had been sitting high on my list: Kater Garfield.
It has a bit of a reputation. The line is bold in places, the bolting is airy, and everyone seems to have a story about the slab. At the same time, it promised exactly the kind of climbing I love: cracks, jams and beautiful granite. The line has been re-bolted a few years ago by local guides R. Imsand, A. Rüedi https://www.bergsucht.ch/products/chli-bielenhorn/
Too many partners for once
Normally I spend half the summer trying to persuade people to come climbing. This Saturday, for reasons I still don't understand, everyone suddenly seemed to be free. In the end I chose two friends I hadn't climbed with for a while, Filip and Elena. Elena was already thinking of heading into the same area and told me she had the perfect route for us.
Being three also had one obvious advantage: spare arms and spare hands.
The discussion started in the car. Kater Garfield or something else? Hllena had reservations. She had repeatedly heard that the crux was seriously hard: a delicate slab move, basically balancing on a single granite crystal. Which was slightly ironic, because of the three of us she is probably the strongest technically and certainly the one with the most endurance.
Ladies first. Wrong route.
We eventually drifted towards another line. And, being gentlemen, we went with the traditional rule: ladies first.
The problem was that ladies first took us onto the wrong route ;-)
I found myself seconding the first pitch, eventually building an improvised belay and lowering back down. By then it was already around 11:30, perhaps closer to noon. There was not much day left for philosophical discussion.
I made the executive decision: guys, we are climbing Kater Garfield. Full stop.
Now this is more like it
From there the day changed completely. Kater Garfield is genuinely beautiful. There is a bit of everything: hand cracks, foot jams, finger cracks, wild roofs and superb granite climbing. The route has character from beginning to end.
The second pitch of Kater Garfield goes already in the anthology.
And then, inevitably, came the hot potato: the slab. Of course it was my lead.
The pitch is psychological. Interestingly, I did not find the main slab sequence as desperate as its reputation suggests. The real problem for me was the final section reaching the belay. With the distance between the bolts, a fall means a few metres of airtime. It is not particularly dangerous, but it certainly gets your attention. If you come off, remembering to run a little down the slab is not a bad idea.
The slab, no comments needed
After three or four attempts to reach the belay, however, I decided that honesty was more important than heroism. A team on the neighbouring route happened to be rappelling past the belay. I politely took hold of their rappel rope and pulled myself into the station.
Ethics? I have never had much climbing ethics anyway. I climb because it is fun. On this occasion, ethics went firmly under my feet.
More superb climbing to the top
The following two pitches were excellent again. By the time we reached the top we were properly tired, much like after Laura on the Teufelstalwand the weekend before. Perfect weather, a superb route and three rather cooked climbers.
One last hard 5* pitche elegantly mastered by Helena
About those grades
My impression is that Kater Garfield is significantly undergraded compared with other routes of supposedly similar difficulty on the wall. The obligatory grade on the slab is particularly difficult to define. For someone who is very comfortable on granite slabs — especially climbers accustomed to Ticino or Val di Mello style friction climbing — it might genuinely feel around 6c or 6c+. For others like us, the same sequence may feel extremely hard.
The remaining pitches are sustained too. Several sections felt around 6c+ to 7a territory to us, and some moves could easily feel harder depending on your preferred style. In other words: do not let the numbers make you underestimate the route.
We rappelled down and made the familiar short walk back to the car. One of the pleasures of Chli Bielenhorn is how accessible it is: in well under an hour you can be back at the car after a day of excellent granite climbing.
Then the obligatory beer, and home.
Maybe this was the last proper multipitch route of my season; family commitments are waiting now. If so, Kater Garfield was not a bad way to finish it.
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