"Best of Grimsel in a Day" is what he himself calls his project. Five classic routes in the Grimsel area, a total of 60 pitches, in 16 hours, mainly in rope soloing style. The 24-year-old climber from the Bernese Oberland outdid himself.

Actually, it was supposed to be a team ascent. Together with his long-time mountain friend Nik Kohler, Yannick Glatthard had already been tinkering around with the idea a few years ago of putting together a climbing marathon in his home area on the Grimsel Pass, to put together a climbing marathon. In doing so, it was not difficult for them to determine which routes absolutely had to be part of it. "Motörhead" is probably the best known granite climb on the Grimsel Pass and the most frequently climbed route in the "Eldorado" climbing area. The route was first climbed in 1983 by the Remy brothers. Furthermore, the routes "Sagitarius" and "Fair Handsline" belong to it. Two routes that now count an enormous number of ascents due to their "plaisir status". "We deliberately chose the greatest classics. It was not about the Difficulty, rather the importance of the routes. And about the time. We wanted to do it in 24 hours. In addition, we really liked the idea that by choosing the routes we could also create a certain closeness."

Further on they chose the route "Siebenschläfer" from 1977 by Hans Howald and finally the route "Badia", another Remy route at the Mittagsfluh.

Yannick Glatthard and Nik Kohler never determined a time to tackle the project. At the beginning of October this year, conditions seemed good and Yannick felt fit and motivated. Unfortunately Nik was prevented. Therefore Yannick dared after mutual agreement, a solo run through the marathon. Diego Schläppi accompanied him with camera and drone and made sure that Yannick could eat between the routes and if necessary, exchange material.

Assuming that it would be slow daylight during the ascent according to the original schedule, Yannick's nervousness increased a bit when he realized that it probably wouldn't be slow daylight until he rappelled down until the abseil. After all, he had only climbed the route once in his life and that was when he was about 11 years old. "My memory was very faint, and I had to keep going back to the topo to get the the topo to estimate the difficulties". In order to be fast, he decided to use the length of his rope and stop where he ran out of rope. rope ran out. Despite darkness and unfamiliar terrain, Yannick got out at 0700 hours. When he rappelled, it was still night. His headlamp flickered. When he was climbing, it had bothered him only but riding his bike down the valley on the pass road, wearing only a down jacket and no helmet, and with poor light, he had a bad feeling in his stomach. In the Handegg arrived, the starting point for the third route, the "Fair Hands Line", he allowed himself the first break and ate. "The sun was slowly rising and I ate pizza and pasta. Somehow the world already felt a bit wrong". At 0810 he set off for the "Fair Hands Line".

"It was clear to me that, quite apart from the time factor, the project could fail in this route. The last time I tried to free climb the route, I didn't manage to find a solution at all the key points to find a solution." Uncertainty was correspondingly high and tension was rising. But first, the lower part of the route, called "Engeliweg" and the first, technically very demanding, unpleasant 6b slab of the Siebenschläfer. Yannick decided to bypass this part and up to the upswing his own line, in easy terrain and without a rope, as quickly as possible behind him. "After climbing the upswing, I knew that it would now be decided in the next pitches. But I was also aware that in the meantime I had caught up on about two hours of spazung. I decided to try the key section with the running-jump technique, which I succeeded in doing. Exactly in the Diego had his drone in position and was able to capture the moves. What a lucky moment!".

Equipped with a new rope, Yannick started from the exit parking lot of the Mittagsfluh in the direction of the entrance of the "Abadia", where he entered at 1330 hours. Theoretically, he still had eleven and a half hours to complete the project. That took a lot of pressure off. But - the difficulty of this last route for Yannick was that he didn't know it at all. He had never climbed the route before. So, at the end, he went to a wall that was unknown to him. Yannick was aware that the route would not be easy solo, but had in the back of his mind, However, he had in mind that despite the incident during the abseil from the route "Siebenschläfer", he was very well in time and was already inwardly flirting with a new time limit. "But I soon realized that I was already pretty flat, tired in the head and the sun burned into the wall. My feet went up and hurt accordingly." Because the climbing was unfamiliar to Yannick, he climbed he climbed everything secured and with a backup loop. This constantly snagged and cost Yannick even more energy time and also nerves. Nevertheless, he managed the entire route onsight. My Biceps burned and I was glad when I reached the last, much easier pitches. I really enjoyed them and very consciously. Normally you fight on a project until the until the end. Only when you're at the belay you've made it, and that moment is very short. On this project, I was able to let the success wash over me over the two pitches and finally, at the top, I was able to grasp it better. The view down the valley overwhelmed me. It was a golden autumn day.

When he looked at the clock, it was 1655 hours. He stopped the time. It had taken him 16 hours. A whole 8 hours less than originally planned, 4 hours faster than his inner goal.

"It's the most awesome thing I've ever done," is how Yannick Glatthard sums up his marathon.

Text: Barbara Büschlen