Tuesday, July 07, 2015

A day around the Gaulihuette

We get an early start (Suzanne leaves breakfast out for us) so that we have time to finish our tour before the afternoon thunderstorms: we plan to do the Chammligrat to the Hängendegletscherhorn. 

Instead of taking the route from the book, we follow a tip from Suzanne and head back along the path we came in on the day before. Just after turning the corner we turn to the right off the trail and head up to the end of the Chammligrat. From here we have a great view of the rest of the route along the ridge to the peak and then the first part of the route back down.

Greg isn't particularly happy with what he sees of the route: there is at least one longish descent along the way and there's no way to tell from where we stand how hairy that descent will be. There's no doubt some contribution from "confidence fatigue" after the previous day's trip. At p2720(?) we stop, survey the situation, discuss Greg's misgivings, and decide to turn back. First we do a nice rest where we are: the weather is great and the views *are* fantastic. We have cell reception from up here, so we are able to check the weather forecast, which is grim, grim, grim: rain through the night and for much of the following morning. It's clear that we won't be doing the planned tour (over the Hubelhorn and then through the saddle to the Lauteraarhütte), so we rethink our plans and decide to just directly to to the Bächlitalhütte via the Oberebächlilicke. We call both huts to change the reservations and then head down.

After getting back down to the hut (passing another group on their way along the Chammligrat) we grab our climbing stuff and head up to the small lakes above the hut. Finding the climbing routes takes some doing but we do, after a lunch break, manage to do so. There is still a fair amount of snow around, so not every route is reachable, but we get a few good routes in: ???



We spend the rest of the day being lazy, have another good meal, discuss the next day's plans given the crappy weather forecast (Suzanne strongly suggests that doing the pass wouldn't be a good idea given the conditions), and then head off to bed.

No comments: