Blue Lagoon Base

2005. This is the base of the Excalibur Wall in the Wendenstocke area of Central Switzerland, where Chip Chace and I were gearing up to do a famous and challenging climb called Blue Lagoon. You have to be really careful unpacking everything in this spot which is about 1500 feet above the valley floor. It had been raining for the last week and on this first sunny day, about five parties (like this one in the photo), all converged at this spot, but luckily, none of them were there to do Blue Lagoon. However a little later a twosome appeared and followed behind us on our route – it turned out to be Thomas Ulrich who did the first ascent of Blue Lagoon in 1986. We chatted with him on the big ledge at the top of the second pitch and learned that this was his first repeat of the climb and he was there to replace some aging bolts.