Rockclimbing.com

Welcome to this "Small, hilly country. Tiresomely neat." by Douglas Adams in 'Mostly Harmless'.

Even if Europe's highest mountain is over the border, Switzerland does have the largest concentration of summits over 4,000 meters in Europe and a proliferation of climbs - rock, ice, mixed, bouldering or scrambling. A quarter of its territory is covered with forests, over 60% is mountainous.

The country itself is as diverse as its climbing scene, with 4 official languages - predominant ones being German (North and Center) and French (West), the two others Italian and Romansh. More than 20% of the population is made up of resident foreign workers.

EMERGENCY NUMBERS

As all over Western Europe, it is 110 for police and 112 for emergency, although it is not consistent over all cantons. In some cantons 112 does everything, in others you need 144 for ambulance. REGA helicopter rescue is always 1414.

CLIMBING REGIONS

The break-down by regions follows a more or less logical geographical orientation as detailed by numbers on the map below.

The most famous mountaineering region is probably Bernese Oberland where Eiger, Jungfrau and Monch form the sacrosanct trio. Alpine routes abound, many on limestone, and not granite as in Chamonix. The outskirts of the range are pretty accessible, and the Jungfrau railway brings you in an hour from Grindelwald to 'Top of Europe' at 3 500 meters, passing through the famous Eiger tunnel. Don't forget your $$$ though as if you don't want to walk a lot, Switzerland is organized to get every penny out of your wallet. If you want a less touristy and more 'Himalayan' mountain experience, take your skis with you and go exploring the Aletcsh glacier, the biggest in Europe. It is pretty popular with ski tourers from around the globe in spring, but during other seasons you might hardly see a shadow other than your own for many kilometers at a time. There are several huts around the Konkordia crossing but otherwise it is a rather wild and remote territory. The highest summit of the range, Finsteraarhorn, is accessible only after 2 days of glacier travel from whatever side you decide to start the approach.

Next region is the mainly French-speaking Valais where Cervin or Matterhorn (German pronunciation) can be at least seen if not climbed. Monte Rosa, and several other mountains provide for its awesome climbing scene. Just nearby the Alpes of Vaud or Wald, have some more to offer, like the slab climbing at Mirroir d'Argentine or excellent limestone cragging at Sanetsch.

The Eastern part is covered by North and Eastern Switzerland and Ticino on Italian and Austrian borders. Further diversity and superb climbing can be found there in such well-renown areas as Ponte Brolla in Ticino or Magic Wood bouldering in the far-east. Numerous other areas proliferate through these regions for moderate as well as advanced searchers for pleasures on the rock.

Central Switzerland is famous for its numerous lakes and beautiful valleys. Maybe less known summits, such as Titlis, still attract hordes of tourists and would-be alpinists. For the die-hards there is Wendenstock, maybe one of the most beautiful limestone sport climbing areas in the country, but also one with the toughest grades and largest distances between bolts. If you don't feel at home with French 6b, the 2h hike-in might not be worth it. Here you will also find excellent-quality granite around Furka pass with routes from one pitch going up to 400-meter granite slab fests.

Another interesting region is in the West, formed by the strip going from Geneva to Jura. You can find lots of bouldering around Basel, or go to newly developed areas such as Gastlosen in the Fribourg pre-alps. And if the weather turns bad on you, go visit Gruyère, a fortress town à la Carcassonne in France, where the famous cheese has originated.

SEASON AND CLIMATE

As Switzerland is mainly covered by mountains, the best mountaineering and climbing season involving higher altitudes is in July-August. In the meantime ski-touring season covers the spring months and might help you get to some South-facing walls with good warm-ups. Ice-climbing goes through January until March (although global warming might soon delete ice from our vocabulary) and some routes i.e. Eiger North Face are probably best tried during the coldest times as well. South faces can usually be climbed late into autumn and early in spring - although that depends on the yearly snow inputs.

For conditions you might check the weather sites - in German here and here and in French here, just type your area code and use a dictionary.

RATINGS AND GUIDEBOOKS

Ratings in guidebooks (best ones unfortunately in German or French) usually use the French letter grades for pitch difficulties and a meter length for multipitch climbs. For mountaineering, French PD-ED system is commonly used with roman grades for exposure/risk of a given climb.

A good start-off guidebook in English for mountaineers-rockclimbers is Bernese Oberland from Les Swindin - it actually covers some rock climbing areas outside of the Bernese Oberland range, such as Gastlosen, Mirroir d'Argentine, Sanetsch or Leysin.

More comprehensive guidebooks - in German/French/Italian are offered by Filidor.ch. They initially started by two guidebooks, one Schweiz Extreme covering climbs from 6b onwards and one Schweiz Plaisir, with climbs mainly under 6b (US 5.10). Jurg von Kanel, the author, regularly comes up with updated versions, for now two East/West versions for Schweiz Extreme and five regions for Schweiz Plaisir. These cover most of the well-known areas for rock climbing, although some important areas have even more comprehensive guidebooks, i.e. the Gastlosen.ch from Edigast for the Gastlosen area.

WHAT'S ON THE WEB

Wikitravel is a good resource for global travel information (English).
Basis Lager site can hopefully give you more specific conditions and climbing info, still German is required.
More mountaineering and hut info is available on SummitPost (English) and Camp2Camp (French) websites.
Train schedules are found here and maps at map.search.ch for road maps + more detailed aerial maps here for topographical maps.
Swiss Alipine Club huts are listed here (German).
Swiss Avalanche institure gives you some idea about snow stability and avalanche risk.
RockAndIce website has some cool photography and more various route info from rc.com user fabe (English).

Thanks to pro_alien, tisar and others who have helped me with putting this all together. Also, please keep in mind that this is a work in progress (provided the abundance of all types of climbing, it will probably remain so for a while) and feel free to pm me with any suggestions or errors you may notice - yours, uasunflower.