A Rautispitz Traverse

There are a couple of really interesting routes up to the Rautispitz that have been on our list for a couple of years. Today's plan was to do the NE ridge, which is a T6 with some climbing. The hotel at Obersee was full (on a Friday! outrageous!), so we ended up staying down in the valley (definitely worth going back to the Lintharena), giving ourselves the "opportunity" to do an additional 500 vertical meters. The weather forecast called for things to be dry all day and then rain starting in the early evening, so everything looked good. Unfortunately a stripe of rain went through during the night, raising a question as to whether or not our planned route is doable. Since we can always take the normal route up if the more adventurous one looks bad, we opt to head out anyway.

Rautispitz with NE ridge the night before

We're underway by 8 and make good time through Näfels and then up, up, up on the nice path through the woods that leads us to the Obersee. We've stayed here before and it is a really nice setting. It's not hot, but it is super humid, the packs are heavy (climbing gear and ice axes), and we're making good time, so by the time we make it up to the hotel G is totally soaked through and even A is showing signs of sweating. There are a bunch of cars here in the parking lot and people getting ready for a day of hiking or fishing. It's pretty obvious at this point that the ground is way too wet for us to be doing the steep grass slopes and scrambling that's required (the rock is probably dry, so the climbing would be fine) on the NE ridge, which is currently under a cloud, but we don't have to make the actual decision for a while, so we continue on.

up up up under clouds

We continue on the path, up, up, up and take our first break where the (steep!) road turns off at p1169. Someone passes us here, but otherwise we haven't seen anyone underway. During the break we make the (obvious) decision not to do the planned route and to just take the normal route up to the Rautispitz instead. We can decide whether or not to do the planned traverse of the Wiggis once we're up top and see what conditions are like. Onward and upwards we go. Neither of us notices the crossing at p1279 that would have been our route if we'd be heading towards the ridge (worth remembering for the future: that one is easy to miss). At p1358 we turn off to take the normal hiking path to the Rautispitz via the Geisschappel. Up, up we go, crossing two people on their way down, up to a reasonable spot to take an energy-bar break and enjoy the views. There are plenty of low clouds around, but we've still got good views. After the rest we continue up, through a quite steep bit onto the first step and then around the corner of the Geisschappel. Here we have a nice view across the bowl we're about to traverse and the next parts of the route up. There's a surprising amount of snow still in all of this, so we're not at all unhappy to have the big boots on and to have ice axes with us.

through snow and clouds

Across the bowl and some snow patches and then up, up, sometimes on snow, sometimes muddy grass, starting to hit the first of the low clouds ourselves now, up, up, up until we get to the ridge above Gumen. Here we stop and take a food break and enjoy the dramatic/mysterious views - the combination of the snow and the clouds makes this whole thing feel more dramatic than normal hiking paths normally do. After the break we continue up the last couple hundred vertical meters to the Rautispitz itself. As we're arriving the guy who passed us below is leaving (we haven't seen him again 'til this point, so it's likely he came up the other hiking path) and there's one other person on the peak. There are no views to speak of due to the clouds, but we still take a quick chocolate break before continuing on.

views from the top of the Rautispitz

The plan for the rest of the trip is to head up to the Wiggis, taking either the blue-white marked standard route or the more scrambly route right up the ridge, and then to continue the traverse down from there. We head down from the Rautispitz to the saddle where the other hiking path comes up, then continue along the ridge. There's still way too much snow (cool, high-alpine looking snow!) in the East face to follow the blue-white trail, so we take the scrambly way (which we probably would have anyway). This is secured with a cable, which is quite comforting in a couple of places, and helps to make the route clear throughout. We're up at the cross sooner than expected and continue from there to the actual peak. We're completely in cloud at this point so there's no question of enjoying the views.

steep gras on the last part to the Wiggis

The path continues along the ridge for a bit and then descends pretty steeply towards the saddle at p2140. This is all way muddier and slipperier than you'd like, so it's pretty slow going. From here we go around the corner and through a dramatic bit under the overhanging walls of the ridge before heading steeply down again. The path here is too muddy/slippery to be fun, so we follow an older track down through the snow field (very nice to have the ice axes with us!) until that ends and then just carefully descend on (or near) the path until things are less steep. At Auerenalp we take another food break and enjoy the intermittent views. We opt not to head down to the Klöntalersee from here, but continue down towards Netstal. The first bit of this is pretty good, but the long descent through the woods - along the trail that the cows just came up - does get a bit monotonous. Just below the big bunker complex at around p740 we get diverted onto a different trail (the other one is closed due to damage from an avalanche), which is a bit longer but has the advantage of at least being a different type of walking. Finally down at Auli we follow the road into Netstal and the train station. Fortunately we get to the kiosk 5 minutes before they close and are able to get important provisions for the trip back home. :-)

down down down

This was entertaining and a good training tour, but we really missed out on having views to enjoy. We'll definitely have to go back when conditions are better and do the NE ridge as originally planned! Oh, and then go back again and do the Schnüerli route up to the Rautispitz... that one also looks wild.

Track
Stats: ~21km, 1950m up, 1930m down