Aiguille de la Tsa normal route and traverse to Dent de Tsalion and Pointe de Tsalion

The weekend has finally arrived where I'm supposed to lead an official SAC tour as a tour guide. Strangely enough there are only two people that applied for it so we leave as a group of 4. That's a rather small one, but being my first experience as a tour guide is probably for the best. After a long preparation and planning...and even a small trip to the same place just to make sure the conditions were good...we finally leave towards Arolla.

The approach to the hut was already done by me and Glauco one week ago so there is no surprise there, except maybe that we are even faster than last time...and we were not even running up. I guess is because this time the snow is a lot better and there already tracks in it.

On the way up

Probably the coolest place to build a hut!

Ladders...

...more ladders...

Compared to last weekend there are also more people at the hut, but still not full...which makes things always more comfortable. Especially in those small huts, it's a bit of a pain when it's booked out. Anyway this time the expectations are really high because we know the weather is going to be good the day after...
...and in fact so it is! In the morning we wake up at 5:00 and there is not a single bit of cloud in the sky. The wind is also not strong and even not that cold. We don't really have to rush to get out so we take things quite easily and shortly after 6:00 we start climbing down the stairs to get on the glacier. The route contours underneath the Pointe de Bertol to then go up pretty much in a vertical line to the saddle between the Pointe and P3373. In reality the route goes a bit further along before going up, but there is still quite some hard snow and hence going straight up seems the best option.

Sun rising behind the Dent Blanche

First steps just outside the hut...stunning

Nice snow fields to climb up

Up on the glacier and in the sun

Once up on the glaciers the views are simply stunning. The sun is sitting on the top of the Dent Blanche and magnificent views of the Matterhorn, Dent d'Herens, Monte Rosa...are all around. Knowing that this glacier is heavily crevassed in places we extend the distance between us in the rope, connect the two ropes and keep going. The tracks contour again around the Pointe de Bertol on the north east side, pointing at the Col de la Tsa. Before the Col we need to cross the bergschrund, which is not that small...but luckily there is still enough snow that is not really a problem to find a good bridge to cross on. 

That spike at the end of the ridge on the left is our goal

Crossing the bergschrund

On the plateau under the summit

What a collection of mountains!

Afterwards on a pretty much straight line we slowly get up to to the plateau underneath the Aiguille de la Tsa, still avoiding a couple of crevasses. There is already a team of three people aiming for the top, and this simplifies even further the route finding for us. The route starts on some rather large ledges pretty much in a vertical line below the summit. From here the route goes up also in an almost vertical line, first slightly to the right and then back to left. There are a few bolts and two stands which help in route finding. From the second stand the route crosses on a slab to the left. The slab is cut along by a nice little ledge which offers rather comfortable places to put the feet. Following the slab to the end we get on the south ridge and......mamma mia! The "steep but not that steep" slab gives place to a totally vertical view down on the west side. I can almost see the car from here!

At the bottom of the route

After the traverse

on the ridge and in the first chimney...the route goes now slightly to the left

Glauco on the rather exposed exit of the chimney

Things get immediately a lot more interesting! Now the route follows the ridge in a sort of small chimney. After a few meters there is a rock in the middle of it and the route goes to the left of it. Which means that for a couple of meters you have to to stand with your full body completely exposed to the verticality of the west face. However there is a bolt just in the middle and a nice (even though small) ledge for the feet. Shortly above this exposed bit of climbing there is another stand. Here the choice is between going to the right, cross underneath the summit and then get up from the back...or go to the left and climb yet another chimney. Even though I know that the chimney on the left is supposed to be a 4c pitch I somehow believe I can do it...and go for it. At first the route simply traverse to the left after the stand, but then the chimney appears. There are no bolts...only two cracks that go up an almost vertical slab. I put a friend (camalot number 2) in the left crack and start going up. There is a block jammed in the right crack. I knew about that from a description and force myself to trust it...pull up on to it until I can reach a slightly comfortable stand for the right foot. Then again in contrast with the left foot on the left crack, another pull up and I'm almost out of it. Yet another contrast position and there I'm...out of the crux, on lead and on trad...and I could not be any happier! Everyone else follows but no one feels like leading this pitch, and to be honest I cannot blame them. Is not difficult...it just needs some confidence because it's rather exposed and a mistake can have bad consequences...

The crux

Rappelling

Next summits...

So after a bit more than 3 hours we all stand on the top of this magnificent granit spike. Here the wind starts to pick up a little bit and despite not being cold, it's quite fresh. But the satisfaction of having reached this summit, leading the whole tour, is great. It was not difficult, but not a walk in the park either. Plus the weather could not be any better so I really can't ask for anything more than this. After two rappels, the second one of 50 meters we get back down to the bottom of the route where we get some deserved snacks. Now the "easy" part of the trip should start and we first walk up on the glacier towards the Dent de Tsalion. This is a rather easy walk, scramble until the last bit before the summit, and easy yet really nice steep ledge to the top of the second summit of the day. The guide book from this point onwards gives one hour to cross to the Pointe de Tsalion...but to us it's going to take a bit longer than that. 

Finding the route on the ridge is not difficult, since the only choice is to go down slightly on the right or on the left. But a few sections of the ridge are still covered by snow...and this makes things a little bit more complicated to deal with. The snow on the east side is really soft and wet...and is basically not holding anything. But fortunately the snow on the west side is still quite hard and it's relatively easy to traverse using the west side of the ridge. Walking on the top is not really a good idea because the snow is sometimes very soft and other times hard...difficult to predict. At the last part of the ridge covered in snow before reaching the lowest point...it's a bit more tricky. It seems the only chance is to get down on the east side where the snow is very soft...and we are not sure if it holds. So I decide to go forward while being belayed from the top and to try and see if it's possible to get around this obstacle. In fact it was possible to use the snow which for some magic physics trick is still hard enough to down climb on it. While going down I even notice that there is a little stone man...which means I'm on the correct route...oh yeah!

Short but nice ledge leading to the top od Dent de Tsalion

On the ridge

Crossing those snow ridges gives some sort of "north face" feeling

Despite sometimes not comfortable climbing...the views are always amazing

And the worst is now done...the Aiguille still can be seen

And from here the ridge becomes shortly flat and then slowly goes up again, but it's basically possible to walk without any problem. Only thing is to me careful about the big cornices on the east side...so we walk as much as possible on the rocks and on the west side of the ridge...until we finally reach also the top of the Pointe de Tsalion. Now we really expect that this tour has no more technical surprises for us...since it should basically be a walk down. Now I finally understood while the more experienced tour guides always said that the tour is only finished once you are at home in the shower...the walk down is not that easy in the end. Following sporadic white and red square signs we zig zag down a rather steep snow field and sometimes really loose rocks. There is even an additional abseil point, which we decide to use. It would be possible to go down on the snow, but it's now getting too soft and we don't want to trust it. Abseiling will take longer but it will be a safer thing to do. 

Last steps before the Pointe de Tsalion summit

One last rappel...

After the abseil we get down on the snow field, pointing at the lower part of the SSW ridge of the Dent de Perroc. Once in the middle between P3013 and P3113 the "path" points straight down on rather loose rocks and rubble until it becomes...after a good 30 minutes of yelling on the very loose stuff...a more decent path leading finally to the hut.

Relaxing at the hut...even deck chairs!

A tour that in total lasted 11 hours...so longer than we expected. The conditions on the Dent and Pointe de Tsalion were not really perfect and that slowed us down a little bit. Nevertheless this has been an amazing day, well worth the long drive down to here. And it feels like a mid summer alpine tour...which means that if the season is starting with such a nice tour it can only get better! 

Gross Spannort (3198m) normal route...a very wet yet wonderful begin of summer mountaineering

Despite the fact that ski touring would still be possible, I think is time to put the skis away ...and also I need some training for summer mountaineering before I lead my first tour as an official SAC tour guide at the end of June. The plan is to attempt the Gross Spannort, which would be the back up plan in case of bad weather.

But I have to admit I miss my skis already....

We start at 10:00 from Erstfeld to walk all the way up (clearly on foot) to the Kröntenhütte. A very kind guy approaches us on his little van just at beginning of the way up, still on the road. He says he is also going to the Kröntenhütte and asks us if we want a lift to Bodenberg at the car park, to spare the first 600m of ascent. My first reaction is "Whaaattta!! There is no way I will get a lift up"...but this time I'm going up with a girl and my kindness tells me to first check with her what she would like to do. Typical woman reaction..."you have to decide"...so I stick to my religion of never taking mechanical means of transport on the way up, thank the guy for the offer and keep walking. Luckily, she says this was a good decision! Lovely!

The way up is not exactly short as it is approximately 1500m. Moreover in the rucksack I have all the equipment to cook plus food for dinner and breakfast as I don't know if there will be the hut warden...and I have also the rope and additional gear for my friend...pretty heavy and bulky rucksack. But it is probably one of the best example of "time goes very fast when you have fun". We talk and talk and talk for the entire time on the way up...about everything! We almost realize we are at the hut because we hit the door, not feeling tired at all for the rather long walk (around 4 hours or more).

Walking up to the hut

Nice views in the evening

Once up at the hut and after having had a nice coffee we start some basic training in rope handling and crevasse rescue, which could be important for the day after. It's not a super crevassed glacier but at least one should know what do if...as the English would say...the shit hits the fan! I find it quite interesting that me, a guy from the south of Puglia is explaining a Swiss girl born close to the mountains how to do crevasse rescue...I should probably be explaining how to fish and catch crabs! After a training session we walk up the path of tomorrow for little bit more than 30 minutes...just to make sure we don't get lost early in the morning.

Dinner in the hut is really good, probably because there are only 4 other people there other than the two of us. Normally this means the hut warden is a lot less stressed and therefore cooks better, and more importantly there is more food for us! We keep on talking a lot during dinner and even after...until we realize it's 22:30 and we should get to bed because we plan on waking up at 4:15 the next day...

To my surprise breakfast is even better than dinner and there is a huge hand made Butterzopf available! I have to come back to this hut in the future. Anyway at 5:00 we start walking up without the need of head torches because there is already enough light. The walk up until the beginning of the Graw Stock follows the path which is really easy to find. Afterwards we decide not to follow the path anymore but instead the snow field which contours around the Graw Stock and several meters underneath the actual path. There is still enough snow plus it's in very good conditions so why not...

Very quickly we reach the beginning of the glacier where roping up becomes necessary...not really because of crevasses but more because I was a bit bored of carrying the rope up all by myself :). Also the snow on the glacier is in really good conditions and walking towards to Spannortjoch is really not an issue at all. I could have taken a safer and longer route going a bit around but looking at the conditions of the glacier I think that going straight up to the pass is not a problem at all. A few very small crevasses are encountered on the way up, but really nothing to be worried about.

Good morning Uri

First view of the Spannort

Alone on the glacier...still with good views...

That's the goal of today...still quite far on a flat glacier...and without skis...

Once at the Spannortjoch we don't manage to see the beginning of the correct route so once up the very first snow field we go to the left. Here there is a very interesting couloir which could be climbed up...but getting back down might be a problem. So we decide that this cannot be the correct route and decide instead to get back on the snow field and up to the right. Immediately we see a couple of abseil stands...and it becomes clear we have found the right way. After the second stand there is a small rock climbing passage to be overcome before getting to an easy section where is possible to walk. From the end of this section to the right of a couloir there is another abseil stand, which we will then use later on. The route to the top goes slightly to the left up some easy ledges...yes easy but still care is needed because everything falls apart on this mountain...

After this other climbing passage the route gets back more or less on the ridge, which is now really wide and almost like a walk in the park...but always on very loose rubble. From here zig-zagging up a rock band can be reached to the right of another couloir and this can be climbed very easily on the left hand side. There is an abseil point almost at the end and another one shortly above. It's not really needed to stop at the first one, since the climbing in between is very easy. Now there is yet another section of walking up before the last, and most difficult (still easy) rock band to be climbed. Above this one yet another abseil point and then walk up on the snow until the summit!

Summit shot...if only...there would have been also a nice view...

Honestly we started the whole thing only with the intention of finding the beginning of the route. Then we kept on saying "ok let's go up only another few meters...", and then again and again and again for these "few meters" until we reached the summit. All this made us loose quite some time, but since the rain came a lot earlier than forecasted we would have got wet in any case. Also we spent quite a lot of time looking for an abseil point which I thought should have been there where I was looking, which is at the bottom of the second last climbing passage. But probably I just misread the description in German because after almost one hour of looking around I could not find absolutely anything...Anyway, nice feeling being the only two people on the mountain for today. Most likely there is nobody around for several kilometers as well. And the reason is probably that the weather is really not looking very good...in the morning it was OK but now is very cloudy and the feeling is that it will start raining soon.

We manage to get down most of the way when, before the last two abseils, it actually starts to snow. From the abseil point that I mentioned at the beginning, to the right of the couloir, it would be possible to get back down on the glacier with a 50m abseil. But we only had 25m so we had to stop at a stand in the middle...which was not really comfortable. The ledge was rather small and it looked like the rock where the bolts were drilled in was not that stable...but it hold quite nicely for the two of us. From this point onwards is possible to get back down on the glacier without problems.

The last abseil, from a not so comfortable stand

Now that we are almost out of dangers we have to walk all the way down to the valley, at least to Bodenberg. Including a break at the hut to drink something warm and eat something as well it takes a very long time to walk down. And it rains for the entire way...making the rucksack much heavier than yesterday. All the rocks are very slippery which makes a little bit frustrating walking down...and despite the fact that we get back to Bodenberg at 20:00 in the evening we still feel really happy of having enjoyed this nice first alpine tour, with a little taste of "adventure" to it! Despite mother nature seemed to be against us (snow, rain, slippery rocks...) we kept smiling back at it, keeping it funny. What would have been the point of complaining anyway?? This kind of follows the rule number 3...if shit happens, look cool anyway! But that was not really shit...it can go a lot worse than that!

Next time though...I would like to have a view from the top, not only clouds!