Walenstock trilogy

The forecast called for a lovely day, so off we went to the mountains. :-)
The train from Luzern to Engelberg was full, the bus from Wolfenschiessen to Oberrickenbach was standing-room only, and there was a wait to get the gondola up to Bannalp (the smaller gondola to the lake wasn't running yet), ah well. Last time we were in the area we walked up from here, but that's not the plan for today. 

From the gondola station we follow the trail and contour around above the lake, enjoying the view up towards the Walenstock peaks where we're headed and making our way through the people (there are plenty of people out and about today). At p1788 we leave the masses behind and follow the use trail gently up. When the Wiss Tritt comes into view we turn up the scree field and climb steeply up to the shoulder. There are no other hikers up here, but we do see a group of chamoix above us, fortunately moving away and not kicking rocks down on us. The Wiss Tritt looks like one of those things you could never get through without a rope, but following the markings up through a mix of steep grass (we've brought the ice axes with us, and they are certainly useful) and scrambling get us over it without significant problems. At the top of the step we take a quick food break to enjoy the views back and then set out across the Sätteliteufi, following the logical line and a few cairns. This is an absolutely fantastic landscape of limestone surrounded by high walls. Wild and beautiful.

At the "Cabane Philippe Morel" (a bivac shelter apparently intended for use by speleologists), we turn off to the right (that's the 90 degree turn in the track) and head up the logical route to the Tschudi. On the way up we see a few people on top of the Grosser Walenstock and more on top of the Rigidalstock (this is the top of a klettersteig). Up up we go until hitting the ridge between the Tschudi and the Grosser Walenstock. A quick detour to the peak of the Tschudi itself and then back along the ridge and up the last few meters to the Grosser Walenstock. On the way up a group is leaving and by the time we get to the peak there's only one other person up here (a paraglider who has hiked up and is enjoying a break before starting his flight down).

After another food break and plenty of enjoying of the views - we can see loads of hikes/climbs that we've done from here (including an unusual angle of the Gross Spannort) - we head along the SW ridge (nice exposed scrambling on this) to the fork, and then down, down towards the Kleiner Walenstock. Down to the saddle at p2334, then up to the peak itself, more view appreciation, and then back to the saddle and the way down.

The route takes us down through the screen into a bowl, then left to the obvious cut and then down, down, at times on uncomfortably loose footing (yay for the ice axes!), at times off to the right in the steps and grass, down, down, until we hit the grass slope at the bottom and cross to the hiking path. Looking back up, this is definitely one of those "doesn't look like there's any way through that" descents. :-)

Now we follow the path down to the small gondola at Brunniswald, with a food break in the sun along the way to enjoy the last of the peace and quiet. The gondola takes us down to Grafenort (we came out here after the Nünalphorn tour years ago and the Arvigrat tour more recently) and the first of the standing-room only trains that will take us back home.

Another really, really nice tour through some wild landscapes.

Track:
Stats: ~13.5km, 1230m up, 1640m down

Climbing near the Weissmieshuette

This weekend we headed down to the Saastal for a couple days of climbing around the Weissmieshütte.

After the long (and full!) train and bus ride to Saas Grund, we grabbed the gondola up to Kreuzboden and then hiked the rest of the way up to the hut. This whole process actually ends up taking a lot less time that it seemed like it should: we were at the hut by around 10. Once there we check in, have hot beverages on the terrace while enjoying the views, drop off some stuff we don't need during the day and hear from the Roberto (the Huttenwart) that it's definitely not too late to do one of the multi-pitch routes up to the Jegihorn. Yay! We'd been thinking we needed to do something short and/or cragging today. Some quick looking at topos to pick a route, and then we set off towards the base of the Jegihorn.

The well-marked route leads us along and up, up, up. At some point we turn off and traverse to the foot of the route Panorama (easy to find because of the broad crack it follows). On with the gear and then we start the climbing. This is nice climbing on great rock (what a contrast to the Ortstock tour!) with excellent views and good protection. Pure fun in the sun! The 10 pitches, mostly 4b or 4c but with a couple of 5as tossed in, take us about 3.5 hours (including a food break in the middle). Once up top we take up the rope, change shoes and walk the last bit along the ridge to the peak. We take another break to enjoy the views and then set off down the blue-white marked descent route back to the hut. At the hut we enjoy a cool beverage in the sun and then head in to do some planning for the next day and dinner. After a nice meal we talk about plans for the next day with Roberto, who shows us an updated topo for the route we're planning and talks us through the route. Well prepared for the next day, we head off to bed.

Sunday starts with breakfast at 6 and we're underway shortly before 7. We start off, in the dark (fun seeing the headlamps from the people doing Hochtouren in the distance), back up the valley and along the moraine to the talus field at the end. We make our way through this, heading up the whole way, occasionally happening upon traces of other people doing this, until we make it to the foot of the ridge coming down from the Gendarme.
We're surprised to see another group already in the route; they're already a couple of pitches ahead, so it's not like it's going to be crowded, but it had seemed likely that we'd have the mountain to ourselves. Ah well. On with the gear and we start the climbing. The route is super varied: starting on a slabby ridge, then getting more vertical and 3D. It's also very sparingly protected, so we end up supplementing the few bolts and pitons that are there with friends as we go (the belays are all bolted though). The climbing isn't particularly hard (mostly 4s) but it is at times quite exposed (including a particularly "entertaining" traverse), .

...and the lack of bolts means that we need to pay attention to route finding... it's great that we have a picture of the newer topo and Roberto's beta about the route! All in all very fun climbing throughout on good rock (though the sun spends most of the time behind clouds, so it's a bit chilly for a lot of the climb)... and we're up top before we know it. Climbing time: 3 hours with breaks. At the top there's room for the two of us to sit (straddling the ridge) but not for much else, so we have a very short break before abseiling down the other side. We'd thought about continuing along the ridge towards the Fletschhorn for a bit, but decide that looks a bit more technical than we currently want to do, so we opt for the newly re-bolted abseil route instead. The abseiling goes well (and reasonably quickly) and we continue the rest of the way down on foot after packing the gear away and having another quick food break. Down down we go, following the obvious trail, until we get back to the bottom of the ridge where we started climbing. From here it's a more efficient trip through the talus back to the moraine and then back to the hut. After a break with cool beverages, pie, and strudel (!), we head down to the gondola and the bus back home to Basel.

This was two very good days of multi-pitch climbing on great rock. A great weekend!