Laura at the Teufelstalwand – Thin Cracks, Perfect Granite and a Proper Fight
After a summer spent being both a dad and a guide, arriving in top shape for an ambitious crack route is never guaranteed. Laura had been on my list for a long time, but it was always difficult to find the right partner for a line that is so technical and so dependent on good crack-climbing skills.
By mid-September the stars finally seemed to align. The Teufelstalwand is often too hot in summer, but the cooler temperatures were now perfect. I asked Sam, and it turned out Laura was high on his list too. We met in Andermatt — him coming from Ticino, me from Zurich — and started with the usual morning debate: which gear to take, which gear to leave behind, and the nagging certainty that one of those decisions would come back to haunt us.
The morning was crisp and already had that first hint of autumn. We knew the day should warm up without becoming excessively sunny, so we started fairly light.
The first approach pitches to the route
A familiar approach, a new fight
This was around my tenth route on the Teufelstalwand, so the approach has become familiar. We moved quickly. A few teams were already on other classics such as Alpentraum and other well-known lines, but Laura was free.
The first two pitches went smoothly and we alternated leads without major drama. Then came the 7a corner — the pitch that, on paper, is the hardest on the route. It absolutely lived up to that reputation.
Straight into the deal of the day: thin hands!
The crack is small, the finger locks are thin and precise, and the exit becomes a classic Teufelstalwand puzzle: a slightly morpho move onto a slab where the sequence is not obvious. Sam led it, and I took the next pitch, another superb mixture of crack climbing and classic granite laybacking. As almost everywhere on Laura, all protection has to be placed on lead; only the belays are equipped.
It never really gets easier
At the end of that pitch we looked at each other and said what both of us were thinking: hopefully the remaining 6b+ pitches are not all this hard, otherwise we are going to reach the top completely cooked.
They were.
Pitch after pitch, the quality stayed exceptionally high — but so did the pump. One recurring theme was thin hands and finger-sized cracks rather than the comfortable hand and foot jams I personally prefer. There are relatively few sections of true hand jamming. More often you are climbing on finger locks, thin cracks and polished granite footholds.
Our morning gear discussion also came back to punish us. We had left the red cam behind and taken only one yellow. On the few sections that actually widened enough for a red cam, I did not have one — which meant trying to make a green cam work where it really did not belong. Ironically, one of these pitches was also one of the most undergraded sections of the route. The topo gives it 6b; it certainly did not feel like a friendly 6b.
The sting in the tail
By the penultimate hard pitch the fatigue was obvious. This is a demanding and awkward pitch to protect, officially around 6c or 6c+, but to us it felt substantially harder — more like a solid 7a or even 7a+ when tired.
The final real pitch is given as 6a. It is indeed comparatively difficult to protect, as the topo suggests, but I took it and climbed it fairly quickly. A small rope-jam episode in a tunnel-like feature near the final belay added the last bit of entertainment.
We topped out sometime after five, happy and properly tired.
A route for specialists
Sam was slightly less convinced by the route than he had expected to be; I liked it a lot. My feeling is that Laura is a route for specialists. If you enjoy thin cracks, finger locks and placing gear continuously, it is outstanding. If you are hoping for repeated hand jams and straightforward crack climbing, it is probably less your route.
The finish is classic Teufelstalwand: you suddenly emerge onto that almost dreamlike little plateau and woodland above the wall, surrounded by low pines, alders and juniper. I have reached it many times now, but it remains one of the distinctive parts of climbing here.
Guide's notes
Style: sustained trad climbing on superb granite, dominated by thin cracks and finger locks. True hand and foot jams are relatively limited. Expect slippery or polished footholds in places and a lot of gear placement.
Rack: I would recommend a triple set from approximately 0.2 to 0.5 or 0.75, then doubles from around 0.75 to #2. A #3 is useful and, in my view, worth carrying; a #4 can also be useful. These sizes refer roughly to Black Diamond Camalot / Totem Cam ranges. We did not carry nuts and did not miss them.
Gloves: thin crack gloves can help, but they should be slim enough not to interfere with finger jams.
Grades: my impression is that most pitches deserve at least a '+' compared with the published grades, and a few feel a full grade harder. In particular, the section with the offwidth-like feature and the penultimate hard pitch both felt closer to 7a/7a+ than the grades suggested.
Obligatory level: the route protects very well almost everywhere. Apart from the final 6a, there are no particularly dangerous runouts. Because the cracks take gear continuously, the true obligatory free-climbing level is not excessively high — around 6b+/6c in my opinion — and harder sections can be negotiated with aid on the protection if necessary. The neighbouring Eternal crack, while globally easier has a bit more of run out section than Laura.
Logistics: take plenty of water. Hauling a pack would be awkward, so one pack between two works well, although the second climber obviously carries more weight. A headlamp is sensible.
Closer to home than you think
The rock is sublime. I love Cadarese and I love places such as Yosesigo, but days like this always remind me how little you actually need to travel for world-class crack climbing. Some pitches at the Teufelstalwand genuinely have the same flavour as the great granite crack lines farther away — with a fraction of the logistics.
For a weekend of hard trad climbing, sometimes the obvious answer is simply to come back to the Teufelstalwand. Thanks to Andreas Stalder for setting up this Masterpiece! Can't wait to be back to check out the Florina!
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