Schildkrötengrat
Sunny granite climbing at grade 4b above the Sidelen hut — short approach, long summer day on rock.
Granite above the Sidelen hut
The Schildkrötengrat is one of those routes you come to this corner of the Urner Alps for: Aar granite the way it should be — rough, positive, with clean cracks and slabs where the friction holds even when it looks steeper than it climbs. Grade 4b here means a handful of moves that make you think, and a lot of terrain where you simply climb.
The base is the Sidelen hut. The approach is short enough that a day from the valley works — but a night up there makes more of it, because you are on the rock early and still have the afternoon for a second ridge. The towers of the Sidelen group stand all around, and you climb the whole day in view of the Galenstock and the Furka pass.
Tip: a summer tour, plainly. The rock catches the sun, dries fast after a thunderstorm and stays reliably snow-free well into late summer. The Furka pass road is open by then, which cuts the journey considerably — in spring the way in is from Realp up the valley instead.
On my list but not yet climbed myself — a personal report will follow.