Ian, fantastic video!! My dad and I have done Constance a number of times, in winter, during summer, we even did the West Arete. My dad sent me this video and told me to watch carefully around the 15-16 min mark. When I was 13, back in the summer of '96, I climbed it for the first time with my dad and uncle. We got to the finger traverse and I went into full freakout mode!! To help calm me down, my dad put in a piton right before the bend to the Finger Traverse. We harnessed up, my uncle went first, then I followed, with my father belying me. I could be wrong by that old rusty piton from around the 15-16 min mark might just be the one we placed all those years back!! One if the best adventures I have ever had!!
That's awesome, that piton was easy to miss and nice to have on that spot. Its still solid. There was a pair of climbers a father and young daughter ahead of us who soloed that finger traverse. And another guy on his own that got to that spot and turned back. We were happy to have the ropes and gear.
Its low fifth class. Nothing "hard" about it technically, just very exposed. Some experienced people do solo it, but the last move or two can be thought provoking. With a rope its easy. You can also bypass that finger traverse by going around the block on the other side. Its a scramble at that point. But I haven't tried to come back that way. It does involve lowering down a 10ft chimney and some route finding that looks like it all cliffs out, but it doesn't.
Ian, fantastic video!! My dad and I have done Constance a number of times, in winter, during summer, we even did the West Arete. My dad sent me this video and told me to watch carefully around the 15-16 min mark. When I was 13, back in the summer of '96, I climbed it for the first time with my dad and uncle. We got to the finger traverse and I went into full freakout mode!! To help calm me down, my dad put in a piton right before the bend to the Finger Traverse. We harnessed up, my uncle went first, then I followed, with my father belying me. I could be wrong by that old rusty piton from around the 15-16 min mark might just be the one we placed all those years back!! One if the best adventures I have ever had!!
That's awesome, that piton was easy to miss and nice to have on that spot. Its still solid. There was a pair of climbers a father and young daughter ahead of us who soloed that finger traverse. And another guy on his own that got to that spot and turned back. We were happy to have the ropes and gear.
Thank you for convincing me not to climb this mountain. The finger traverse looks insane!
Its low fifth class. Nothing "hard" about it technically, just very exposed. Some experienced people do solo it, but the last move or two can be thought provoking. With a rope its easy.
You can also bypass that finger traverse by going around the block on the other side. Its a scramble at that point. But I haven't tried to come back that way. It does involve lowering down a 10ft chimney and some route finding that looks like it all cliffs out, but it doesn't.
love the vids, keep them up. Big inspiration
That scrambling around 5:00-6:00 looks intense!
Awesome video, what time of year was this filmed? I'm hoping to check this off this year but want to avoid as much snow as possible
That was first week of August last year.