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