Arête Spéciale

One rib out of the wall

North of Moutier the valley narrows into a gorge, and one of its walls is not really a wall at all: it is broken into ribs, slim limestone ridges pulling up out of the forest. You pick one and climb it. The Arête Spéciale is the best known of them — the “Petite Arête”, climbed since the 1940s and still the route people come to the gorge for.

It takes about seven pitches on a ridge that is genuinely narrow. The limestone is good and solid, and the climbing alternates between small-holds, friction-heavy passages and steeper sections that give you back jugs and cracks. For grade 5c the protection stays comfortably plaisir; the exposure does not let up, though — it drops away left and right, and far below lie the Birs, the road and the railway.

The logistics are almost indecently good: the approach starts at the station, runs secured along the Birs to the foot of the route, and you walk off rather than abseil — a single rope is enough. From the top of the ridge you are back at the train in a good half hour. No hut, no car, no approach marathon.

Tip: spring and autumn. In high summer the gorge is muggy and hot, but the route goes early in the year, when the Alps are still shut. Keep the helmet on — the ribs are overgrown, and on fine days there are plenty of other parties.

On my list but not yet climbed myself — a personal report will follow.

Hero image: Arkelin, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.