Hard ascents in 27 Crags - Featuring Nils Favre
Recently we saw Nils Favre ticking some hard boulder problems in the Sion area, in his home country Switzerland. We wanted to reach out to Nils for a short interview about his hard climbs and hear more about bouldering in general in Switzerland.
In two days you climbed Tronic Summer (8B), Nefertiti (8B) and Pied de biche (8B+), congrats! Would you like to give few comments about these routes?
First of all I’m really happy about these three lines and it’s not only about performance but also progress. All these routes are in the to-do list for all “8b climbers” who come to Switzerland.
The conditions were really bad during the first three sessions when trying Pied de biche. I fell on the very last move on my second session by night because of the high temperatures. Forecast promised rain for the sending day, but temperatures went down and luckily the rain arrived only later. It was cold, windy and dry. I did the crux move once and then on the first try of the day I was on top of the boulder!
I was so happy and felt like partying in the evening. My plan was to drink only few beers but I went to bed really late. I woke up Saturday with a headache and low energy but Theo Chappex was really motivated to go climbing in Sanetch. We ended up with a good team of 5 climbers.
The overhang part of “Tronic Summer” looked really wet from the parking and consequently decided to try “Nefertiti” - a boulder I had tried for one session 4-5 years ago. The route is opened by Fred Nicole in 2014 and I probably did the 4th ascent. Surprisingly I did the crux section after 10min and after a good rest climbed it on my first go.
Then we moved to “Tronic Summer” which is opened by Theo Chappex with only one repeat by Samuel Ometz. I already tried this one and I was really close to send it last season so I knew that one good try should be enough. First I fell after the crux but the second attempt was a good one.
Nils Favre working on the technical moves of Tronic Summer (8B).
Since my climbing went so well I decided to party on Saturday and rest on Sunday because partying + climbing is a dangerous combination ;)
Agree on that! Many climbers know Magic Wood, but how would you describe the bouldering in general in Switzerland and which are your favourite areas?
Switzerland is just unbounded! For sure classic areas like Magic Wood and Chironico are really great. There is a lot of cool lines, a lot of classics, and you don’t even need to figure out any beta because there is videos of basically every boulder. So many climbers go there and it makes other places really peaceful and quiet :)
Climbing in Switzerland can be a bit complex. Many places don’t have guidebooks and it’s not concentrated like Rocklands for example. Sometimes you need to drive and walk for only one or two boulders but it makes each line a bit more unique and precious.
I still need to discover a lot of places around the globe but at the moment my favourite place could be Brione in Switzerland. The quality of the rock, location, shape of holds and boulders make this place unique in my opinion.
One of the biggest advantages in Switzerland is that you can boulder through the whole year by going to high altitude in summer and lower altitude in winter. In addition, we have a vast amount of different kinds of rock, even in the same area. For example, Sanetch area is mainly Limestone but there are few lines like “Prouesse” which are good quality Sandstone!
Sounds great! Any hidden gems to recommend? ;)
There are many… but hidden means hidden ;) If you like highball I can recommend a 7B boulder called “La Demoiselle”. A beautiful hidden crack in Wallis, still not repeated. Or try to go in area like Gothard Pass. Even though there ain’t many lines, they are of high quality!
Thanks a lot for the interview and for the bouldering tips! Any final greetings to 27 Crags community?
Keep on going with this great website! It has already helped me to find and document boulders and I’m always happy to share my lines with you. See you at the rocks!
Nils Favre, 02/12/1991
Nils’ favourite climbing style is outdoor bouldering, and while he’s not at the crags he works as a carpenter and currently studies in the University of Neuchâtel.
Achievements:
- Hardest ascents: 8C boulder and 9A sport + around 300 boulders with the grade 8A of higher.
- 2nd place in Swiss Championship 2017 / bouldering & 3rd place in Swiss Championship 2016, bouldering
- 24th place in European Championship, Munich 2017
- 36th place in World Cup, Munich 2017
Check Nils Favre’s tick list here and follow him on Instagram and Facebook if you want to see more hard sends from him!
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