Monte Leone traverse via the WSW ridge

This is planned to be a long day, so we get an early start with breakfast at 4 and are underway before 5. We start up under a cloudless sky with a very bright quarter moon and head up, up from the pass along the route we scouted the day before. The going is good and the trail is easy to follow, particularly after we put fresh batteries in g's headlamp. 

early start

Up, up we go, noticing a group of four behind us, past the edge of one of the ridges of the Hübschhorn, and up some more until we hit a big talus field. This we traverse reasonably efficiently (good balance practice early in the day), and then find a reasonably easy route up the step beyond it, where we see the first of the green points that will lead us to the glacier. The group of four is about even with us now, but they pick a different route through the talus and never end up super close (thankfully! the solitude is nice!). The green points lead us up through some really nice glacier-polished terrain and, though we eventually lose them, we make it easily to the edge of the glacier. We have a short break (it's windy and is cold once you stop moving!) put on the crampons, break out the ice axes, and rope in, and head up the glacier. The group of four pass us at this point since they're doing the ascent without being roped in (doing a glacier without carrying an ice axe and without roping in is... um... yeah. We're certainly hoping that they are planning to do the normal route to the Monte Leone). Up, up, up we go, at first on good snow and then, once we hit the bottom of the ridge to the Breithorn traversing on ice that's not too steep and nicely grippy (yay! the nature of this stretch was the cause of a lot of concern... g was worried that we'd end up turning back here).

on the Homattu glacier, conditions good

At the saddle we pass the group of four (taking a rest) and continue to the edge of the snow before putting away the crampons, shortening the rope a bit (8-10 m), and the continuing on our way behind a guy traveling alone who overtook us on the way up the glacier (he was flying). We ascend a bit through the talus and hit the West-South-West ridge of the Monte Leone just past p3393. During the ascent we have and interesting angle on the ridge that makes p3424 look quite dramatic... going to be interesting to see how we get up/down that!

first view of the Monte Leone and the west ridge (left)

The ridge is just great. It's a mixture of normal walking, a some light climbing (3a-3c?), some narrow "balance-beam" bits, everything you could want. The rock is mostly quite good (though we definitely check all grips and steps before using them), there are normally decent "Zacken" to put the rope over when we aren't right on the ridge, and the views are really good. It's also quite exposed for most of the way. We simul-climb the length of the ridge with about 10m of rope between us. Andrea starts leading and we switch about halfway through. The whole thing takes us about 1:45 to do. Almost two hours of big, big fun. :-)

along the WSW ridge

Some clouds form, and move off, and form again as we're moving along the ridge. When we get to the peak we aren't in a cloud (yay!) but don't have the awesome views we'd otherwise have. Nice view down to Alpe Veglia though. The only other person on the peak is that guy who powered by us on the glacier, he's come up the normal route, and he leaves a couple minutes after we get there. There's no sign of the other four (who have also chosen the normal route). We have a quick food break (it's a long day and we can't do long breaks, plus the clouds are disrupting the good views) and then start down the normal route. This is considerably less nice (though easier) than the route we just took: lots more loose rock and general unpleasantness. The route finding is also more difficult than it seems like it should be, but maybe we're both just a bit tired. On the way down we cross the group of four, still on their way up. The place to descend to the glacier is reasonably obvious. On the descent we cross another group of three: an Italian guide with two customers who seem to be struggling. It's not early in they day, so that can't be much fun.

view from the peak down to Alpe Veglia

Back down at the Alpjer glacier we put on the crampons, lengthen the rope and add a few knots,  and then head out behind the other guy to cross the glacier. This is mostly a traverse at constant height, but we're not doing it slowly (dark clouds are moving in behind the peak) and the sun is out again, so it's plenty warm. We we come off the glacier we quickly take off the crampons for the stretch of rock (not really necessary, but certainly more comfortable), gather up the rope, and head on. Back at the snow again we put the crampons go back on and then head down. The first traverse/descent part goes easily (yay for sun-softened ice) and once we get back on the snow everything is super easy. You can't quite glissade with crampons on, but we maintain a good fluid pace down; fun stuff. Back at the rock we pack away all the gear and then head down, down, down. The route down is a bit different (in particular we aren't nearly as efficient in the big talus field below the step), but we make it back to the Simplon Hospiz with time to rinse off a bit, change, and pack everything away before getting on the bus and starting the long, hot trip home.

across the Alpjer glacier

down down down towards Simplon Hospiz

This was a long, but fantastic tour.

An aside: this tour is from Dani Silbernagel's Hochtouren Topoführer Urner, Glarner, Tessiner Alpen. This is the first one of his E2 tours that we've completed on our own.

Track:

Stats: ~18km, ~1600m up and down. We were underway for 11:20, including breaks.