Up to the Hohture

Our schedule was somewhat constrained by the fact that the last bus back towards Brig left at 3pm, so this was a short day.

After a nice stretch through the woods along the still-empty slopes of the Rothwald ski area to Wase we turned off the slopes and looped around the woods to Wintrigmatte. From there it's a zig-zag up a few hundred meters to the North end of the ridge. A short bit along the ridge and we made it to the peak. After a short break there enjoying the marvelous views with a group of Italians, it was back the way we came. We did a quick lunch sitting in the snow in Wase and then went back through the woods to the Rothwald Post bus stop where we had a very nice cool beverage sitting in the sun and impressed an older Swiss ski-touring couple with our preparedness (the fact that a couple of snowshoers would have LVS equipment with them was quite a surprise).

A sunny day on the Spitzhorli

Beautiful weather + plenty of snow + a fantastic view = another good trip for people afraid of being alone in the mountains. :-)

We set off from the Simplon Kulm bus stop and walked a ways along the road before finding reasonable access to the snow. From there, aside from one mildly unpleasant south-face traverse it was smooth sailing along the well-trod path to the Usseri Nanzlicke and then up the ridge to the Spitzhorli. We had lunch in the sun a bit shy of the peak with great views to the South. After the large group of French touring skiiers time cleared out, we went up to the top and took in the view to the North. Well, Andrea took it in and took pictures; Greg stayed for about a minute before the wind drove him back. The trip back was more or less the same, but with a short direttisma stretch to skip the unpleasant traverse.


A very nice day in the sun and snow.

Note for later: this was Andrea's first trip with her new shoes.

Rellerigrat -> Sparemoos

This was a self-organized trip on a day with almost perfect weather.

After taking the gondola from Schönried to Rellerigrat (1831m), we set off along the marked winter hiking trail to the Hugeligrat (1898m). From there down a bit, behind the Planihubel, past the Chaltläger (1769m) and then up to the Schneitgrat (1960m) behind a couple other groups of snowshoers. This might have been strenuous if we hadn't had a pre-packed trail to follow. From there along the grat, again grateful for the prepared trail since it would otherwise have been tricky to find the way, and down to Bire (1789m).

We decide to skip the ascent to the Birehubel since the weather is starting to look a bit threatening, so we walk around the front of it to the saddle (1867m) with the Wannehörli. There we change our minds after watching a group of snowshoers leave the Birehubel, so we do the last bit of ascent to 1937m and then follow the ridge to Luegle (1840m). At this point the clouds are covering the Hundsrügge, so we skip that and take the path through the woods towards Sparemoos (1632m). Along the way the weather clears up again and we have a very nice lunch with a view.

Once close to Sparemoos we end up back on prepared hiking paths, which are easy to walk on, but not the most direct path to the parking lot. There we rent a couple of sleds, take the fun way down until we're out of snow, and then take the bus the rest of the way to Zweisimmen.

Snowshoeing around Les Rodemonts

This was a trip with the SAC Basel.

After a very early start and a longish train trip to Rougemont (992m), we did a real Andrea special and went more or less straight up to Rodomont Devant (1779m). After a short break with fantastic views, we continued on to Rodomont Derriere (1807m), then up over the hill (1847m) and down (via a traverse of a reasonably steep slope) to Col de la Forcla (1683m). Further along the road pasta Raye du Baillif, La Planche, and Le Pont, and then down into Rougemont.

Conditions were excellent, though the path was fresh almost all the way, so the (rotating) person in the front had to do an awful lot of work.