Speer (of course by fair means), too late for mountaineering and too early for ski touring

Last weekend I did try skitouring for the first time, but the conditions were not the best...especially there was no real "base layer" of snow. After another relatively warm week with respect to standards and a rather warm weekend coming I was not really in the mood to go skitouring again. Main reason was that I was not so keen to risk skiing on rocks or grass!

But it has been snowing so it's also not possible to go any higher than 2000m without having to fight against lot of really soft and wet snow...

Hence we decide for a "normal" hike up to Speer. In order to try and keep it challenging we walk all the way up (and down) from Weesen (which is 1600m of altitude difference), and on top of it starting from Unterkäseren we follow the west ridge instead of the normal route. Not that it was technically difficult, but at least it sometimes gave the feeling of a really easy alpine tour. Mainly the ridge consists of steep grass ledges, which if wet can be really dangerous, and a few "rocky" sections. The rocks is however rather strange...it's basically a big pile of round rocks hold together by some sort of "natural concrete". Most of the rocks were quite loose so scrambling was only an option when we really had to...you never know if you can trust these things or not!

At the edge between grey and sad fog and wonderful sunshine

Those people under the fog are going to have to wait quite some time to see the sun!

There are of course no real technical difficulties, except for some little "jumps" which however can be avoided by walking on the north side (left hand side facing the summit). Also the ridge was pretty much free of snow, except for some shady regions and the very top.

In almost exactly 4 hours including breaks and photos we get to the top, which is all for us! Not moving around is not properly hot, but there is almost no wind and a light jacket is enough to sit down and enjoy some really good views. Säntis looks really impressive from this side, as the highest summits of Glarus. Considerably warm for being the 6th of December...there is indeed quite some snow all around but it's wet and without any proper binding to the ground, so I'm really convinced that skitouring would have been no good idea.

The mountains around look like waves

On the ridge

Sänits from up here looks quite big

For the way down we decide to keep the axes in the hands...not that steep but since we carried them all the way up...The beginning of the way down has quite some snow, but surprisingly still rather hard. Perfect consistency to slide down really quickly without hurting the knees! Unfortunately this does not last very long and we soon have to face rather deep and terribly soft snow. Yelling becomes almost compulsory after you sink several times in a row down to the hips :-) and it feels like we have already seen enough snow for the whole winter!

Luckily the deep snow is soon over and the last several hundred meters are way more comfortable.

Back into autumn...winter will have to wait

It felt like going back to the old days of hiking, but it was good! Quite difficult to find something more challenging without having to swim in the snow for hours. And after all what really matters is to have some fun and to spend some time in good company, and that's exactly what happened. Plus some quite good training, which is always welcome!

Steinadler route on south face of Wiwannihorn...last climb of the year

November keeps up with its record high temperature reputation...still warm and dry. So even if my skis are itching to see some snow again we decide to try the possibly very last climb for this season. Bergseehütte last week was fantastic...how to find anything better? I've been looking for a while at the Wiwannihorn and at the different climbing possibilities up there. From a report of a few days before it looks like there is no snow, so we decide to give it a try!

The way up to the hut is rather long, starting in Ausserberg...almost 1500m. Plus our rucksacks are rather heavy with all the climbing gear and the two double ropes. So why not making it a little bit more challenging? There is a via ferrata going up to the hut so we decide to try that one. It says it's K4-K5 so probably not the easiest. Before the beginning of the via ferrata there is quite a lot to walk along the valley and then up on its steep sides. It's very well marked with blue and white signs and finding it is not a problem at all.

On the via ferrata

As I said...some parts were quite cool!

It was a very long time since my last via ferrata and I have to say that after all the climbing and mountaineering of those years this felt really easy. There are a couple of sections where a bit more "strength" is required or where is slightly more exposed, but nothing to worry about. There is also not much variety to it, as it is basically consisting of walking up steps bolted into the rock...all the time! Some time you get to do a nice traverse but apart from that is always the same. Anyway, surely a lot more fun than simply walking up on the footpath! With the relatively heavy rucksack it felt rather like doing squats or lounges in the gym, which is always good training!

Sunset views from the hut when we arrive are simply fantastic...a pity we did not come up here a couple of weeks before when the autumn colors on the three were a lot more vivid. Good to know for next year!

That is the view at the end of the via ferrata...

Sunset

The Dom from this perspective looks majestic

In the morning of Sunday we start relatively late as it does not make sense to start early and freeze our asses off on the very cold rocks. At approximately 9:00 we start the first pitch of the Steinadler route. Rock is rather cold and the sun is still covered by the thick morning clouds. Wind is howling, but at least we'll be soon protected by the south face. Hey, wasn't the weather supposed to be nice and warm?? In any case we cannot really complain, climbing such a route in the middle of November is in itself something you don't often get to do!

First three pitches are really easy, then comes the "grass traverse" and then the real fun starts. Finding the route is always very easy, and all the belays are bolted with a chain connecting the two bolts...just like the English like it ;). The crux pitch of 5c, which is the 6th pitch, is quite cool. First you climb up an easy slab, then a rather exposed traverse and then yet another very cool slab where some balance would be very beneficial! I have some issues on the traverse, but it's only my fault as I'm trying to traverse slightly above the bolts...instead of staying below them!

At the end of the crux pitch

Another rope team following us

On the last part of the ridge...proper mountaineering style!

After the crux pitch there is only another 5a and then the rest of the route can be easily climbed in mountain boots. The "proper" route finishes at the same point where the route Verbogene Tänze finishes, which is were the rock ridge becomes flat. At this point is possible to leave the route and easily walk to the summit...but the rock ridge that keeps on going looks absolutel far too cool! It's graded at 3c more or less and it seems like really cool mountaineering exercise with big boots. So we decide to take the chance of doing this very last bit of rock climbing before the snow comes...and never a decision was better. It takes just an hour to climb the whole ridge and get to the top, and I must say the climbing is really fantastic! Never too difficult, but in some points also not trivial, and climbing with the mountain boots is an absolute pleasure. I could probably climb this sort of stuff for hours and hours without feeling tired, bored...or even hungry and thirsty!

A shame that at the top the clouds are covering most of the views, but once again in the mid of November we should not even be up here...without snow!

View from the top...not the best because of the clouds

View towards Brig, with the ridge we just did on the left

In approximately one hour we are back at the hut and then taking a lift from the very kind hut warden back in Ausserberg before it gets dark. I guess now the climbing/mountaineering season is properly finished...so time to get the skis ready to go and hoping for a good winter!     

Descending...

...and still descending...

When you get such nice views on the descent is always a pleasure

Yet another wonderful sunset

 

Two wonderful autumn days climbing around the Bergseehütte

Almost everything of this year in terms of weather (at least in Switzerland) has been declared as a record since the measurement started. And in fact this weekend sticks to the "tradition" of 2015. It has never been this warm in this period of the year...up to 18°C down in the valleys. Good...let's take the chance to spend a weekend clubbing and drinking beer until late in the night and then wasting the full Saturday and Sunday recovering...not even if someone paid me 1000 CHF per day!

I've been willing to go up to the bergseehütte for a long time, and this seems to be the perfect chance for this. The hut is closed but the winter room is open which means not too many people will be climbing...and on the south sides there is no snow! 

Saturday morning we drive up to Göschneralp and then up to the hut. Leave all the things we don't need there and go straight for the first climb. As a nice multi pitch we pick up the Hochscijen south ridge, not that long and rather easy, but pretty spectacular! Finding the route is not really a problem and apart from the beginning of the first abseil point (which is facing north and not south) it's all completely free of snow. Rocks are really warm and it's almost t-shirt climbing weather. Absolutely incredible!

Approaching the hut...so many options for next summer down there!

Wonderful climbing

Even if easy most of the times it's really fun!

And even find some time for nice pictures

The most "difficult" pitch of 4c

Our target for tomorrow!

On the first abseil

The evening in the hut is quite lively as many people are sleeping in the winter room! The one sitting next to us at the table are actually a really nice couple of "aged" climbers. Very nice to hear people that could be as "old" as my parents speaking about routes, grades, rock conditions, friends and nuts, and getting in all sort of troubles!

Wake up at 6:00 to enjoy a quite relaxed breakfast and then start walking direction Bergseeschijen. A longer route compared to yesterday, and also a bit more difficult. The approach takes already a bit longer than what we expected, and that makes us already sweaty! Yes, despite being the 8th of November at 7:00am at 2500m...we are still sweating! 

The first two or three pitches of the routes are not that easy, in the sense that finding the correct route and the proper stands is not really obvious. Being all slabby with very small cracks is also not really possible to put any other kind of protections, or at least we did not have the right size of nuts (...I mean the one you use for protection, not the nuts you might think!). But afterwards it gets more evident and also a lot more fun at the same time. 

The pitches up to the large ledge where also the route Aladin stops are nice, but the ones afterwards are way better in my opinion. You get to climb really on the ridge and there are almost no protection. It's all on the third grade more or less and placing protection is not that difficult. But a route does not have to be difficult to actually be fun! And those pitches we actually enjoy really a lot. Then we come to the last three rope lengths before the summit, which are even better. The first one is quite short but the beginning is steep and exposed, with really good holds. The second one should be the most difficult according to the topo and starts on an incredibly cool slab, then traversing into a crack and contouring along the east side of the ridge (slightly below the ridge) to then climb up to another plateau. Here is the stand to the last and possibly coolest pitch. A bit easier than the previous one but really proper granite climbing on a very long and not so steep crack. In all those three pitches there are not that many bolts, but with friends of size 1 and 2 (BD) and nuts 4 to 9 (Wild Country) it's relatively easy to protect the key sections.

For the descent we go towards north following the ridge until the first saddle, before the ridge starts to go up again. Here there is an abseil point (only one ring bolt) at the beginning of a couloir which gets down to the bottom of the west face. There should be 3x25m abseils, but we only found two. The second one is just at the edge of the little plateau at the end of the first abseils, don0t take the old abseil point...as my friend said he would not even attach his bike there! But be careful when pulling the rope from the first one...in our case it got tangled in some rock flakes...not that nice to take it back!

The third point should be somewhere on the left side of the couloir (facing the bottom) but we did not see it. Nevertheless it was still possible to walk and down climb to the bottom. Not that nice at the beginning but it's a very short section. 

Yet another wonderful climbing day, we could not really ask for anything more than this! I'm really missing skittering now, but another weekend like this would not be that bad at all!

Sunset...

...and sunrise

The Dammastock group is always visible, and never stops getting my attention

And with the sun it starts being quite warm!

For an approach it was quite tiring!

On the third length

Absolute happiness!

No no...it only looks difficult!

Typical climbing on the last part of the ridge...what can you ask for more??

Alpine week 2015 part 4 - Alphubel via Rotgrat, a more than excellent closure to a superb week

Our legs are still quite tired from the very long descent from Zinalrothorn, but given the spectacular weather forecast we can't just sit around and do nothing. However we do not want to fight again with laborious descents wit abseils and stuff like that, so we choose something where the way up is tricky and fun enough, but the way down is very easy. The Alphible via the Rotgrat seems the perfect one, with a relatively technical climb to the top and a very easy (except for the famous Eisnase) way back to the hut. Plus the hut can be reached in a bit more than one hour from the car park.

With a quite relaxed schedule we start driving up to Taeschalp around midday on Saturday and then get up to the hut in a little bit more than one hour. I don't really feel satisfied and I can't think of staying here until the evening, so we decide to go for a walk to make sure we see at least the first part of the way up. We almost get the the saddle of Wissgrat but honestly it's far too hot to walk up at the moment...so we decide for cold beer back at the hut and some always useful crevasse rescue practice.

In the morning we are the very first people to leave the hut, taking approximately 20 minutes between wake up call and walking off. I'm not sure I've actually even chewed my breakfast, but we want to be the first ones on the ridge to avoid waiting too much. For a good hour we only walk, same path as the previous day, and this is again good for warming up. From P3139 on the saddle of Wissgrat some scrambling sections start and it's easy to progress without a rope. At some point however we get the feeling that being roped up would be at least mentally helpful and so we stop to rope up. It was not really necessary, but we are going to have to do it soon, so why not! The last section of this scramble up on the Wissgrat is a bit icy and slightly covered in snow, but without much difficulites we manage to get to the point where Wissgrat and Rotgrat meet. We have been on the go for more than 2 hours already...so a small break is compulsory!

Sunrise on Monterosa

and on all the other 4000m summits of Wallis

That's the rock climbing part of the ridge

From this point we are officially on the Rotgrat, but at the beginning is really easy. It's basically a snow ridge with a few small rock jumps that can easily be climbed without problems. Rocks are a little bit loose in places, but nothing to be worried about. But at the end of this snow ridge the more technical and fun part starts. According to the guide book is a few pitches of up to IV- climbing, so should be quite exciting! At the beginning the route climbs a few meters up, then traverses left and back to the right, to meet a really nice stand. From here finding the route is not too difficult, it's enough to follow the easiest route. I must admit that we were at this point following another two people, but honestly the way the route goes is rather intuitive following the "path of least resistance". At the beginning we started climbing in pitches but we ended up sharing the first two stands with another rope team, making things not that easy. Then since the climbing was a little bit tricky only in some places, we started to climb on short rope, and locally belay behind a spike or something where really necessary. Obviously this allowed us to be quite quick and to catch up with the two guys that had overtook us before.

Still pretending to be fit...

Rock climbing is finished, now it's all about fitness

Another wonderful day...the one in the middle is the Rimpfischhorn...very cool looking north ridge

One very short break shortl before the summit ridge
 

On the summit ridge

Both me and my friend are now really feeling the consequences of almost 9 days of constant mountaineering, but on this kind of technical climb one does not normally feel very tired because the mind is always busy thinking about what to do. Eventually we reach the en of the rock ridge and the point where the snow starts. Depending on conditions we could keep on following the rock ridge until it's very end but the recent snow of a few days ago has made covered it all. So we decide to stay in the little gully where there are already tracks from previous ascents and blast our way up to the top. Once on the summit ridge we know that all difficulties are gone and we can really enjoy the pleasure of reaching the third summit above 4000m of this week! It's so warm and the wind so still that it would easily be possible to just sit down up here without a jacket and enjoy the sun on a deck-chair. But because we did not want to carry such a chair all the way up and because we want to be back down as soon as possible we only spend around 15 minutes on the top. Afterwards we almost literally start to run down the normal route.

Everyone on the top

From the top the fantastic ridge line continues to Taeschhorn, Dom, Lenzspitze and all the others

Rule number one

The Eisnase, pretty good conditions

Artistic looking crevasses

Only other small difficulty is the Eisnase, which however is in rather good conditions and it's not really a problem to be walked down. All the rest of the glacier until the end of it is really a walk in the park. In approximately 3 hours and after yet another cold beer at the hut, we are back at the car, happy to have accomplished another good objective but a little bit sad at the same time that such an adventurous week is now over. Never mind...there will be many more to come next year!