Climbing the Chli Windgällen

A trip with the Basel SAC. Saturday's not a long day, so we start the long trip fairly late. We end up having to wait in line for a while to take the teeny gondola up to Kilcherberg (this is where we came down after the Burg bivac).

teeny gondola up to Kilcherberg

From the top of the gondola we follow a nice path, mostly through the woods, gently climbing with the occasional super view of the Bristen (whose top is, unfortunately, in clouds). At Golzeren we stop for a swim in the lake (ahhhhhh, soooooo nice!) before heading up, up, up to the Windgällenhütte. The clouds are low, so we unfortunately don't have the nice views up to the Chli Windgällen or much of any views once we get to the hut. Once there we check in and then hang out a bit before dinner. Good food, a bit of planning for the next day, and then off to bed.

Swim in Golzeren Lake

Sunday we start at 7 under a clear blue sky with great views. First along the blue-white marked trail up, up, past the llamas, up to the Unteres Furggeli. From here we have a great view of the Chli Windgällen, which seems curiously far away, and our route over to it. 

view of the Chli Windgällen from Unteres Furggeli

Further along the blue-white path to where it starts to get a bit steeper. Here we deposit some stuff we won't need and then start up, up towards the peak. At first we're on a clear use trail and then when things get a bit rockier there are clear cairns to follow. Up, up, with a bit of scrambling to the ridge, then around into the South face, then up, up again until we hit the top. Here a brief bit along the ridge to the Vorgipfel, where we drop our packs and then the 20m to the actual peak. Great views, though the high mountains to the S and SW are mostly covered by clouds. After a break to enjoy the views we head back down the way we came. Another break when we get to the bottom, and then we start the descent along the blue-white marked trail. Down, down, down at times steeply, finally through the woods and we come out back in Golzeren. Quick, quick to the lake for another very refreshing swim and then to the gondola down and the long trip back.

Scrambling to the top

In order to avoid a bunch of train-changing, Andrea and I say goodbye to the group in Erstfeld, have some marginal pizza, and then catch a later train where we can sit all the way back to Basel. The book at the hut had lots of ideas for multipitch alpine routes that looked interesting... definitely worth thinking about going back.

This was a nice tour with great views in a cool area. 

Track:

Stats: 

1. Saturday 10.2km, 1100m up, 220m down. 
2. Sunday 11.8km 11.8km, 1150m up, 1750m down.

Finsteraarhorn tour

day 1: Grimpselpass (2164m) to Berghaus Oberaar (2337m): first views of the Finsteraarhorn

day 2: Berghaus Oberaar (2337m) - Finsteraarhornhütte (3050m): long glacier trek

day 3: Finsteraarhornhütte (3050m) - Finsteraarhorn (4274m) - Finsteraarhornhütte (3050m): summit day

day 4: Finsteraarhornhütte (3050m) - Konkordiaplatz - Fiescheralp (2214m): long glacier trek

Track:

Climbing the Piz Buin

This weekend, Andrea went with the SAC to climb the Piz Buin.
(greg had already left for CA.)

After travelling for a long long time, we started walking in Guarda, in a big group of 13, up the pretty Val Tuoi and reached shortly after a nice lunch break the Chamonna Tuoi.

While some decided to stay at the hut and rest, others went up to the lake underneath the Fuorcla Vermunt for a swim or just a walk. Dark clouds came up and we hurried back down to hut, skipping and dancing along the way. After a somewhat disappointing dinner and some practicing of knots and rope-handling, bed-time came soon.

After breakfast at 5am, we were underway shortly after 5h30, first along the path up around the Cronsel to Plan Rai, then further around the corner over a few snow fields to the notch south-east of the Fuorcla dal Cunfin. We were met by fog and low clouds, roped up and went the short bit over the Ochsentaler Gletscher to the Buinlücke in between Piz Buin Grond and Piz Buin Pitschen. Off with the ropes again and up over rocks to the small saddle on the ridge. Before and after our (big) group lots and lots of other groups came up from a hut on the Austrian side of the mountain, long long ant-trails on the glacier...it's going to be busy up there....

 ....after some waiting but then only a bit of scrambling, the terrain on the ridge was easy enough for walking again, up up up to the peak. A break on the peak, enjoying the views and being both amused and shocked by the masses and masses of people already there and coming up behind us.

Then back down the ridge, roped up over the glacier, un-roped sliding down some snow-fields, around the corner, taking the direct route down some steep gras flank from the Cronsel to the river, we were back at the hut before 2pm. After some cake and a cool drink, we packed up and made our way back down the valley to catch the first bus for a long and hot and crowded ride home.

Climbing the Clariden

As greg was travelling, Andrea went for her birthday with the SAC to climb the Clariden. Even though the original plan of a traverse via the south ridge did not happen, we had a great stay at the Planurahut and a great traverse up the normal route and descent via west ridge and Iswändli down to Klausenpass.

Climbing the Chly Diamantstock

Andrea went with the SAC Basel to climb the Chly Diamantstock. (greg was travelling in the US, we had done this climb before and liked it a lot).

Snowshoeing in the Rätikon

The plan for the weekend was to do a snowshoe tour with the SAC up to the Tilisuna Hütte (not staffed at this time of year, so we would carry our food up with us), climb the Sulzfluh, and then find an interesting route down on the Austrian side on Sunday. The weather and avalanche situation changed that: the avalanche danger is already orange and with more snow expected on Saturday night, it's not going to get any better. We have a joking conversation on the train about having to spend a couple of days in the hut, but it's pretty clear that we're going to have to change plans.

The bus drops us in Rüti and we start walking up into the valley. It's foggy/cloudy, so we don't see a whole lot as we go, but we can maybe convince ourselves that it's getting lighter. At Äbi we put on the snowshoes and then continue along, heading off the well trampled path now, up the last bit to the Alpenrösli hotel (this is where we stayed during an SAC avalanche course some years ago). By this point it's clear that, even though the sun is currently shining, we're just going to be doing a daytrip, so we ditch the food and overnight gear at the hotel, have some hot drinks, and then set off up the valley with lighter packs.

It's great to be out in the sun and the mountains are just lovely, so this is very fun walking. We follow the valley until we can see where it starts to get steep at the end, stand around for a while enjoying the views and looking at the route we originally planned, and then turn back to the hotel. We get to see several small avalanches coming off the face of the Wiss Platte and Schijenflue, which is fun. By the time we're back the clouds have closed up again (bye bye sun). We have a quick snack (really, really good spice cake!) and then head back down the way we came.

It's too bad that the weather/avalanche situation cut this one short; it's a beautiful area and we'll have to go back. Still, it was great to be out and moving and to get at least a bit of time in the sun.


Rätikon

Climbing the Witenwassernstock

This weekend we did an SAC tour to head up the Witenwasserenstock (it's a pure coincidence that this is just a couple of peaks away from the Chuebodenhorn, which we visited a few weeks ago). The tour description is from the newest Silbernagel book. On Saturday we get a fairly late start; it's a long train ride, but we don't plan to do anything but go to the hut and the weather forecast is kind of dodgy anyway. From Realp we follow the road for a while (too long), then start to head up the Witenwasserental (again, too much time on the road). Eventually we turn off the road and follow a nice path up, up the rest of the way to the hut. 

heading up toward the Rotondo hut

As we go, the weather slowly deteriorates. 10 minutes or so from the hut it starts to rain for real (damn! so close!), fortunately without lightning. Once at the hut we hang stuff up to dry, get situated for the evening, and then hang out for a while until dinner. The hut is crowded, but it's not particularly chaotic. Uneventful except for the important cultural experience of having two Swiss teach us how to play Jass. :-)
After dinner (which is really good!) the weather has cleared up. so we head outside to enjoy the views and do a bit of scoping out/planning the route for the next day.

planning the route across the glacier

On Sunday morning we have breakfast at 5:00 and are underway shortly before 6:00. The hut isn't really a mountaineering hut, so we're the only ones getting an early start. The weather is great: clear skies and the full moon still visible until it sets behind the Lekihörner. We start by following the blue-white trial towards the Cavanna pass and then turn off to cross the talus towards the glacier. At the edge of the ice we put on crampons and walk on. When it gets a bit steeper we rope in before continuing up the steepening slope until we exit easily onto the talus. Crampons off, switch to two rope teams, and then head up a bit more before hitting the blue white trail that takes us easily to the east peak of the Witenwasserenstock. This is, by the way, a really nicely made trail along the ridge. The weather is perfect and the views from the peak (which is a watershed between the Po, the Rhone, and the Rhine) are great. We don't hang out very long, because this is where it starts to get interesting. We follow the lovely block ridge down a bit until we get to a wall. This has a couple of bolts in it and is easy to climb (3c according to the book) up to a stand - we do this part "traditionally".

climbing up the first wall

A bit more along the ridge, then up another scrambling bit - we simulclimb this - then more lovely block until we get to the final climb to the peak. The last ascent is also "real" climbing (no bolts here, but good places to hang slings). Since there's really no room at the top, each of the two rope teams does this individually while the other hangs out at the bottom and enjoys the views and nice weather. After both groups have been to the top and we've taken enough pictures, we reverse ourselves and head back the way we came. Great timing that the group that left an hour after us arrives at the foot of the peak just as we're leaving. Reversing a route is normally not our favorite thing, but in this case having more time to enjoy the ridge is definitely not a bad thing. :-) We also get in some abseiling practice, which is also positive.

the last climb to the peak

After getting back to the point where we left the snow, we put the crampons back on and then head down the slope (great snow conditions), across the ice, and back to the hut. After a refreshing beverage and gathering our gear, we make our way down to Realp. There's some chance that we can catch the train at shortly past 16:00 if we hurry, but we don't manage to hurry fast enough, and we have some time to kill. This works out very nicely as it gives us the chance to stop just before we get into town and have a very refreshing dip (water! cold! yikes!) before we get on the train. The trip back is, once again, long, but pretty painless.

down the ridge

This was a nice, not particularly difficult, combined tour and the ridge and views really were great.


Track (includes the route up from Realp):

Climbing the Grande Lui

This weekend we did our first SAC tour, and first hochtour, of the year: the Grande Lui.
After four hours of travel (five trains and a bus! no wonder we've never been down here before!), we start walking in La Fouly. The nine of us head through the campground and along a nice path through the woods. Eventually we run out trees and start head up, up, up the lovely valley. The weather is beautiful but it's quite warm, so we really enjoy the more relaxed pace enforced by traveling with a group. Up, up, up we go, ....

.....over a few snow fields and then up a long series of switchbacks before crossing the big snowfield to the scrambly ascent (with a chain) up to the Cab. de l'A Neuve. We hang out and enjoy the sun and great views for the rest of the day. After a so-so meal (it's the first weekend that they are open, but still...) we do a bit of route planning for the next day. Greg and R do a quick "reco-tour" across the snow field to check out conditions and establish a path for the morning (some "fun" for greg as we reverse this and there's a bit of steep descent on snow... always a favorite). We hang out a bit longer and then head off to bed.

The morning starts early: up at 4 and we're underway by 5:20 (the Huettenwartin overslept, so it's a bit slow). Conditions are fantastic: full moon, clear sky, not too cold. We put on the crampons up top and then descend through the "couloir" to the snowfield (great way to start the day...). Once on the snow we cross over to the moraine, head up that, and then continue up, up until we hit the bit that's still glacier. Here we rope up into two teams and then continue heading up, up, up. The going is easy despite heavily sun cupped snow (though there's a bit too much traversing steep slopes for greg's taste) and we make it up onto the broad glacier at about 3300m in good time.

From here we ascend a bit more to the steep snow field that heads up to the Col de la Grande Lui. Now there's a slowdown as we carefully make our way up this (the snow is great, so it's not too bad) and then transition onto the rock. Off with the crampons and then up, up, carefully through the loose rock to the peak.

From here it's clear that doing the traverse isn't feasible: there are too many unknowns and it's a bit too late, so we decide to head back the way we came up. We enjoy a nice break and rest along with the really nice views (though unfortunately not the Mont Blanc!) before starting back down. We choose a different route down, following the other group that had come up at the roughly the same time as us, spend more time on the loose rock (reminiscent of the Piz Kesch) and transition back onto the snow below the steepest part. From here it's back the way we came up to the hut. The snow is lovely, so once we get down below the glacier and take off the crampons we can do some nice glissading down.

Back at the hut we enjoy a break in the sun (and some cake!) before packing away all the gear and starting the long walk back to La Fouly. We do get to enjoy some more good glissading at the top, but it's hot, so by the time we've made it back to town we're all very ready for a cool drink while waiting for the bus. The public transportation is exactly as crowded as one would expect on a sunny Sunday afternoon, so things are full. Still, aside from the bus from La Fouly (which is stupid full), we manage to get seats the rest of the way.

This was a fun tour in a part of Switzerland we hadn't been to before and it was cool to be out with the group. But we could easily have done the tour on our own and it was probably not worth the long travel times. Next time we head down there, it should be for more than one night. :-)

The track:
Stats:

SAC tour: Tete Blanche & Aiguille de la Tsa

This was a trip with our local SAC section. The weather forecast for the whole weekend was dodgy, but we went anyway because you never know. :-)

Saturday we got a very early start from Basel and did a tram-train-train-train-bus-bus trip to Ferpecle (the last bit of that bus ride is pretty amusing, the road is pretty darn narrow). Then it's on with our packs and off we go under mostly sunny skies. The path climbs slowly along the valley before turning steeply up, up, up and along the valley wall with the Dent Blanche towering above (it's making clouds, so the top isn't always visible) and nice views opening in front of us. At the plateau at Bricola we do the first break and enjoy the views (including a patch of edelweiss... very cool!). Since we're with a group, the pace is more moderate that what we would end up doing alone, so the going is less strenuous than a couple of weeks ago.  Onwards and upwards! The path leads us up to the moraine, across a snow field and then onto a nice (though too short) block ridge. Along the way a sharp finger of a mountain starts to peek out to our right, as this becomes increasingly visible we realise that it's the Aiguille de la Tsa, Monday's target. This is going to be fun! After the ridge we cross the (snow free) glacier that takes us up to the Cab. de la Dent Blanche. We get settled in and enjoy the views (ooooh does the Aiguille de la Tsa look fun!) and hospitality for the rest of the afternoon. The hut is full, but it's well organized and it's a good evening. The forecast rain/snow arrive at around dinner time. It's nice to be inside. :-)

Sunday's a short day so we don't start until around 7. We'd start even later, but the hut's custodian recommends an early start since there's not a lot of snow left on the glacier and we want what's left to be as firm as possible while crossing crevasses. We rope up down on the glacier and then head off towards the Tete Blanche. We start under sun, but there are plenty of clouds around, including top of the Tete Blanche. The glacier walking is easy, we are up high but the pace is, again, moderate. As usual, it takes some time to get used to walking on a rope, but given the number of crevasses it's nice to be in a larger group. As we head along and up, the view to the left starts to open up and we get tempting bits of the Matterhorn peeking through the clouds. Behind us the Dent Blanche is completely visible, and is doing some very, very cool cloud making: a continuous stream of clouds coming off the south ridge and heading off to the east.

To the right the Aiguille de la Tsa is visible most of the time, deepening the anticipation for tomorrow. As we get closer to the Tete Blanche we enter the cloud that's parked over its peak and do the last 100m or so of ascent under the clouds. There's a fun moment with another group heading towards us appearing ghost-like out of the clouds. Up top we're in the cloud, so we don't have a view while we're having a quick lunch break (aside from another group appearing like ghosts out of the cloud). For the descent we just follow the obvious trail left by the groups that have come towards us, down, down, down from the peak, through the broad bowl near the Col des Bouquetins, and then up the other side and around the Dents de Bertol. We're pretty close the Cabane de Bertol when we come around the corner and it becomes visible perched on the ridge above the glacier... impressive siting. :-) We're at the hut around noon and spend the rest of the day enjoying the ever changing views as the clouds move around. We get a bit of rain, but it's nothing too bad... great hopes for the next day. The forecast really isn't good, but even if we can't do the climb we should at least be able to have an interesting hike crossing the ridge near the Pointe de Talion and heading down to Arolla via the Cab. de la Tsa. Dinner is decent and then we're in bed early (as usual) for an early start.

We do breakfast at 5 on Monday. The weather is decidedly dodgy, the clouds and thus visibility are rather low. We're mostly dressed and ready to go when C, the tour leader, decides to postpone the departure (and the decision on what to do) and to head back to bed hoping that things will clear up. So we all head back to bed for a couple of hours before assessing the situation and the weather again: Unfortunately, it has rather gotten worse than better with now a couple cm of snow covering everything. Thus it is decided that it just doesn't make sense to do anything other than head directly down to Arolla via the standard path to the hut which we set out to do.

The first part of the trip down from the hut is not without adventure. The ladders down from the ridge to the snow field are long and cold and wet. The snow field itself is reasonably steep and is actually covering an ice field, a fact greg discovers by hitting the ice and sliding a good 10-15m before managing to stop the slide (now that's a good way to raise the pulse while heading downhill!). Once down in the rocks we follow the marked path through the cloud and occasional rain down, down, down. There's not much to see until we're under the clouds, after which we have a nice view across and down the valley. Once on the valley floor we follow the path and then the road into Arolla where we grab a coffee/hot chocolate and then the noon bus for the long, long trip back to Basel.


The track:
Stats:
Day 1: 9.3km, 1670m up, 19m down.
Day 2: ~10.5km, 520m up, 660m down.
Day 3: ~9.6km, 1340m down, 67m up.

Climbing the Lobhörner

This was a tour we did with the Basel SAC.

Since day 1 is just the short trip to the hut, we get a late start and aren't on the train until 11. After the train-train-bus-gondola trip to Sulwald it's a bit more walking up to the Lobhornhütte (along the way we get our first glimpse of the Lobhörner themselves... going to be fun!) and the friendly greeting from Irene. The views are fantastic (though the high mountains are playing hide and seek behind clouds) and we enjoy them for a bit until the re-supply helicopter arrives and we help out with the unloading. Greg then heads off to the lake with the rest of the group for a refreshing swim while Andrea does some more enjoying of the views and wandering around. After an unusually good meal we do a bit of tour planning and then head off to bed for our early start. Aside: the hut is full even on a Friday night; it's a small hut, easy to get to, and the views are great... the place is popular.

We're the first ones up at 5:30 (though some of the hikers come down while we're having breakfast) and have a leisurely breakfast outside on the terrace with the incredible view. It's so very, very cool that Irene set the breakfast up outside.

We're underway at around 6:30. We follow the normal hiking trail back to the alp at Suls and then up and up to the ridge and up and along to the foot of the Lobhörner. Now it's on with the gear and then the climbing starts. There are 5 of us, so the first rope has 3 people and Andrea and Greg are the second team. The route, the standard E-W traverse of the peaks, is a mix of scrambling and relatively easy climbing (one 4c pitch, otherwise everything is easier than that) and the protection is pretty good. There are some nice steep bits and a couple of fun traverses. We even get an abseil in the middle (from the Zipfelmütze). The transitions between walking, scrambling, and climbing do make some of the climbing bits seem harder than they otherwise might. There are sometimes clouds around, but it's mostly clear and the views are excellent. Being the second group and being behind a rope with three makes things take longer than they would if we were alone, but it's not too bad, and figuring out how to fit everybody in at the stands is sometimes entertaining. At the peak, which we hit sooner than it seems like we need to, we enjoy a break and some food and then abseil down to the saddle, where we pack away the gear.

We opt for the shorter trail to the hut, the one that goes back the way we came instead of further along the ridge. It's pretty warm and we're all sweaty so we stop off at the lake and enjoy a brief swim before heading back to the hut to enjoy some cake and a short break. We opt to take the later bus, so we get a bit more time with the views after the others run off. Then it's back to the gondola, then the bus to Lauterbrunnen, the gondola up to Grütschalp, and the train to Mürren (wow the tourists!) and our hotel, which we get to just as the rain is starting. After a decent meal (not as good as the hut!) we head off to sleep. On Sunday it's rainy as hell, so we just head back home.

 This was a great climbing trip, and something well worth doing again.

Here's the track of the tour:
Stats: