Traversing the Giswilerstock

First day of a trip to take advantage of lovely fall weather. Today's route comes from combining a couple of tours from one of our "more interesting hikes" books.

We get off the train in Lungern, under a layer of hochnebel. Super nice: there's a van waiting for the train to take people to the gondola station... saves us 1.5 km through town... bonus! The gondola quickly takes us up and we emerge from the fog into fantastic sun under cloudless skies. Oh yeah!

emerging from the fog into the sun

From the gondola we follow mostly road towards Fluonalp, where we'll be spending the night. From the top of the first rise we get a great view of the Giswilerstock massif, which we'll be traversing. Oh yeah... this is going to be fun.

this shows the route of the day

We continue past Fluonalp (just as a group of motorcyclists arrive... going to be a busy day there) and then follow the trail up, up, across the face of the massif until we emerge at the Giswilerstock itself. Great views from here, which we enjoy while having a snack before continuing on. Now the path (no longer official, but easy to follow) takes us along the ridge, at times on the ridge, at times below it because of the Legföhren, nicely past a couple of really good bivvy spots, enjoying great views and easy walking (this is T3)  the whole way, until we get to the cross at p1940. We are, amazingly, still alone with no other people in sight. From here the path gets more adventurous (T5): the ridge gets narrow, and scrambly, including a bit of down-climbing and a fair amount of exposure. Good stuff!

on the ridge towards the Schafnase

At the base of the Schafnase we round the corner and follow the last of the NW ridge to the peak (we're going to have to do that whole ridge some day... we've got a description of it and it sounds great) with a bit of light scrambling and some steep grass (with good steps... this peak is one people visit). Up top we are, once again, with no one else in sight. Crazy! After a bit of rest, some eating, and plenty of gawking we continue along the ridge: scrambling down to the Furgge at 1908m. Next step is the climb up to the vorgipfel of the Rossflue. We make this more scrambly than it needs to be (why not... the rock is good and the going is fun) and are up in no time. The descent to the saddle before the Rossflue itself is a bit more adventurous, particularly when Greg accidentally deviates from the easiest route. Another nice short ascent with a bit of scrambling and we're atop the Rossflue. Here we do another break to enjoy the views and have another snack. From here we can see people, but they are all far away on the path between the Brienzer Rothorn and where we are. Fun to see them off in the distance and have this peak with its awesome views to ourselves. A partial catalog of places we've been that we can see: Rigi, Rigi Hochflue, Säntis, the Mythen, Stanserhorn, Buochserhorn, Arvigrat, Nunalpstock, Arnigrat, Wandelen, Gross Spannort, Kleiner Tierberg, Dossen, Ränfenhorn, Bluemlisalphorn, Tschingelhorn, Niesen, Stockhorn, loads more. We discuss briefly which route to take down; the three routes that don't involve going back are all T6-, so we're going to be having some fun. We check out the beginning of the south face, decide that doesn't look particularly nice, and opt for the south-east ridge. The descent down the ridge is quite nice: not too steep and generally good rock (except when we move too far out onto the face). We make good time down to the small pine tree that the description uses as a landmark (there's a marker on the rock adjacent to it) and then leave the ridge to traverse back across the face. Some traversing of the steep (and somewhat loose) face, a descent through a short (and somewhat loose) couloir, and then a bit more traversing and we're at the Chringe and back on marked paths. We follow the path back towards Schönbuel a bit before turning off and descending cross country back to the Fluonalp and the crowd there. 

descent from the Rossflue

We celebrate a really, really nice tour with cool drinks and a cheese plate in the last of the sun before checking in, having a quick nap, enjoying a good meal (really, really good Älplermagronen!), and then heading off to bed. What a day!

Track:
Stats: ~12km, ~1080m up, ~1060m down.