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!

Alpine week 2015 part 3.2 - Zinalrothorn normal route

After an already long day on the Obergabelhorn we still "have to" climb yet another big moutain, and a truly spectacular one indeed, the Zinalrothorn. At the beginning our plan was to climb the super Rothorngrat, but because the Arbengrat was quite covered in snow we decide not to tackle it and to attempt the normal route instead. Additionally, we are not 4 anymore but only three, so the progression on a technical ridge would be considerably slowlier in three. And honestly, we are also a little bit tired from the day before so...

Yet another early wake up call in the morning and off we go in the dark towards the glacier. This first part of the way up I already did lat year with my brother, but it seems smoehow all completele different. At the beginning of the glacier we rope up and start walking up trying to follow the less steep route. I'm not the best when it comes to this as I pick up the steepest and most direct route all the times, just pushing my legs without caring too much...eventuallt however we get on a ver well trodden track which we decide to follow. The glacier has to be followed up tp a point where a marked couloir comes down from the P3786. In my opinion this is a rather tricky passage because it's all very loose and there are lots of people in it at the same time. After this short section there is one long traverse direction W and then some zig zagging up on rocks and snow (depending on the amount of snow). In the end we reach the more gentle slope between P3786 and P3761. 

Climbing up in the sunrise, this easy section was good for warming up

The route follows the snow ridge and then the glully up to the famous saddle, called the Gabel

View back on the snow ridge

And now things get a little bit more "serious"

After a short break we continue on the ridge from which the views with the rising sun are really spectacular, especially the nice little "cloudy hat" of the Weisshorn. The normal route looks quite crowded from here, but we'll manage to overtake most of the people. At the beginning we stay a little bit below the ridge and then, instead of following the rock climbing part on the left of the couloir we stay in the couloir. It's probably not the safest option but that allows us to progress a little bit faster than the otherr groups and to overtake most of them. Towards the end of the couloir we are forced to get back on the rock until we reach the saddle where the normal route and the Rothorn grat meet. 

Up to here the temperatures have been relatively warm, and even without wind. But from here onwards we get to climb for a while in the shade on the west side of the mountain and it's not that warm anymore. The route first goes up following the relatively broad ridge and then traverses to the left (facing the summit). On the traverse there are a few bolts and at the end even a stand. From the end of the traverse a rather steep slope of ice, snow and rocks has to be climbed to get back on the proper ridge. A few "eisenstange" have been planted for helping belaying. 

After this steep bit we are back on the ridge, and also back in the sun from time to time. From here the route follows the ridge, with some traverse on the shady (west) side but without any major difficulty anymore. In 30 minutes more than the Biner guidebook suggests we get to the top of the second 4000m in two consecutive days. Beying roped up as a group of 3, and given the fact we are not exactly fresh we reckon it's a reall good time!

Weisshorn with a really cool hat

The three of us on the top!

Big mountains all over the place

Once again the views from the top are really good and the ideas one could get of stuff to be climbed has practically no limit. It would have been really cool to extend this traverse up to Weisshorn...but that will be something for another time. Compared to yesterday it's not too pleasant to stay on the top because of wind and not exaclty warm temperatures. But on the other hand we have to get moving...today our target is not just to get back to a hut but back to Zermatt!! The view of Zermatt from up here is not that inviting...it's going to be a rather long walk back down.

The descent goes a little bit slowlier than the ascent. This partly because we decide to abseil some of the sections and partly because there are other people that are still climbing up on the normal route. Those are mainly the people that have climbed the Rotgrat, and that therefore took a bit longer than us to make it to the top. Looking at other groups, and especially at mountain guides, I understand something useful...which might be obvious, but still useful. If you want to be fast on the way down you have to downclimb everything. Abseiling is only for those things which would be really tricky or very difficult to downclimb. But everything under grade IV one must be able to downclimb without too many problems. This way the descent goes a lot faster...but the risk of falling is of course also a lot higher. As always, a matter of compromise. 

Last abseil to the Gabel

Abseiling with the down jacket still on...not exactly very warm!

Anyway, once back to the beginning of the couloir we can relax a little bit and keep descending until we reach the glacier. At this point we had already taken our crampons off, and for some funny reason still decide not to put them on on the glacier. We think there will be enough snow on the glacier...but we were wrong! A relatively small section of blank ice requires a lot of time to be walked down...so we thought we could save some time by not putting the crampons back on, but in reality we ended up losing even more time because of walking down on blank ice without crampons and having to cut steps from time to time. On top of it, we were even exposed for quite a while to rocks falling from the above face. So it was a really bad decision not to put the crampons back on, but hey...this is something I learned for next time.

Back into summer and looking forward to the next cold beer!

Back at the hut we get first a cold beer to replenish the liquid, and the mind. Then we repack everything and start the more than 1500m descent toward Zermatt. It goes a lot faster than I think, but maybe this is because we break down the descent with two more beers at the restaurants that we find on the way!

Alpine week 2015 part 3.1 - Arbengrat and Obergabelhorn traverse to Rothorn hut

Part 1 and 2 of the alpine week of this year where only a warm up in comparison to part 3. Not that it was technically extremely challenging, but it required quite some endurance and the ability to cope with sometimes not the very best conditions.  Anyway, even though there is a little bit of fresh snow around the weather looks absolutely fanstastic and so it will be up to the end of the week.

The plan for the next three days is to get up to the Arbernbiwak, which seems a mission on itself, climb the Obergabelhorn via the Arbengrat and descend to the Rothron hut to finally climb the Zinalrothorn. Ueli Steck did the two things in a single day...but he's the swiss machine!

Up to now it's a walk in the park

And from here onwards the park gets a little bit steeper!

The approach to the Arbernbiwak starts in Zermatt, direction Zmutt and further down in the valley. It's a really nice walk that crosses some really cute and tiny villages in the sorroundings of Zermatt. Also for almost the entire way we have wonderful views of the freshly snown north face of Matterhorn. The Schmidt route is very clearly visible...one day...

At the Arberbach however things start to get a little bit more "serious" the path starts going up always steeper and steeper on the moraines, and at the same time the sun gets higher and higher in the sky. At some points the path becomes so steep it's almost uncomfortable to walk up, but luckily it does not last long. After the moraine there are a couple of section of "via ferrata" that are in the end not that easy, but add a little bit of fun to the otherwise very tiring approach. Nevertheless the south face of Obergabelhorn is always in very good view from the path, and it looks magnificent!

The north face of the Matterhorn is always in perfect view

Good that there are those chains...otherwise it would have been quite a lot trickier

Almost there...

That's a view!

Spaghetti tour!!

Sunset

After a good 5 hours (or less, I really don't remember now) we finally get to the Arbenbiwak. Temporarily we are alone but soon it will be totally full, to the point that some people will even sleep outside. This is probably the best bivy hut I've ever been to. It's well built and the views from up here are simply stunning!

Wake up call the next day is early as usual for this kind of routes and in a rather short time we are ready to go. There is no warm up allowed here, a few steps away from the hut the paths climbs really steeply on loose rocks and gravel. But at least we gain altitude quite fast. After a bit more than one hundred meters up there is a little section on the glacier where well trodden tracks bing directly to the beginning of the route. This is probably the most dangerous part of the route. It's a really long couloir which technically is not difficult, but where the risk of falling rocks is quite high. At the beginning we have to climb a few ledges sometimes following sparse stone mans. We do the mistake of traversing too much to the left (facing the south face) and then have to get back on the route via some rather slippery slabs. But eventually we manage to get on the normal route and follow this huge couloir. It's all pretty much free of snow and it seems the conditions are rather good, but as soon as we finally get on the ridge we get a rather bad surprise. 

That's not going to be much fun with fresh snow

Oh yeah

Almost like on a north face

Traversing to take the easy side of the last big gendarme

The entire ridge is covered in 10-20cm of rather fresh snow. It still did not have the time to transform and settle. This makes the progression on the rocks a bit slowlier than it should have been, simply because one cannot really trust most of the steps and the holds have to be cleaned from the snow. Other groups where considerably faster than us, but it all depends on how much risk you are willing to take. Some section of the route cross on the south face and here we can relax a bit because there is no snow. Route finding is rather easy, mainly because there are tracks to be followed already. We do not always stick to the very ridge because of the snow. The big gendarme for example is climbed from the left side (facing the summit) because its steepest side on the ridge looks rather tricky in this conditions. We climb partly on running belay and partly in small pitches depending on how tricky the things look to us. The whole thing is never really tricky, but it's just those conditions that require a bit more attention than usual. 

But sometimes we get to climb totally in the sun

Smile!

The other two guys that went more or less at our same pace

Finally we climb the very last steep part of the ridge to get the pre-summit. Up to here we have been most of the times in the shade and it was not exactly warm. But as soon as we get on the very last part of the summit ridge, and on the summit itself, it all becomes a lot warmer and even the wind seems to reduce to a pleasant breeze. And with such a clear sky like the one we have today the summit offers some really wonderful views all around. The one thing that get my attention the most however is the really big drop of the north face. From up here it looks absolutely fantastic and I hereby decide that I'm going to climb this one sooner or later!

Even though we know that the descent is not going to be short (it will actually be rather long) we still take a few minutes to enjoy the summit, shaking hands and hugs and why not getting something to eat. This is the first 4000m summit we all four summit together and it's worth to enjoy it!

And that is the top

Matterhorn and Dent D'Herens

Me on the top...ok, almost there!

Typical Usain Bolt pose

But now is time to go, and we walk the few meter that lead to the beginning of the long rappels of the normal route. This part of the normal route must be really cool to climb in the first place, but I'll maybe have the chanche to enjoy this another time. Abseiling as I once said it's always fun, but not when you have to do it for so many times...Anyway this is probably yhr safest way of getting down the mountain. Downclimbing in some sections would have probably been faster, but we decide to keep on abseling nevertheless. At the end of several rappels the route flattens a lot to a purely snow ridge. Thanks to the recent snowfall and to the people climbing it in the morning the tracks are very good and easy to follow. Good that despite the sun it still holds pretty well. 

Normal route...quite steep indeed

The first of a very long series of abseils

The famous big gendarme between Obergabelhorn and Wellenkuppe

After this flat section of the ridge we have to climb the so called big gendarme. From this side the amount to be climbed is not that much, and after a short traverse secured by massive fixed ropes we have to abseil again. At this point I must say that downclimbing with the aid of fixed ropes would have been so much faster...but we decide to keep on abseiling to stay "safe". 

At the foot of this big gendarme some tiredness starts to kick in, mainly because there is quit a bit to be climbed up before getting to the summit of the Wellenkuppe. And on top of all this the sun is now starting to soften the snow, and even walking in already trodden tracks is not exactly a walk in the park. After another short break on the top of the Wellenkuppe we have to again abseil a few times down its last seciton of steep ridge. Afterwards there is a sequence of scrambling and abseils which are rather easy to follow and find up until one gets on the south sides of the mountains. The last two abseils here are really loose and the risk to getting the rope stuck on the descent is quite high. As for most things in life you do need some luck and we are lucky enough not to get the rope jammed on the abseils. 

The perfect north face

The first abseils down from the Wellenkuppe. I reckon climbing this part up must be really cool

...abseiling...always abseiling...

We finally reach the Trift glacier, hoping that all difficulties are gone by now. This is more or less true but on the lower part of the glacier there are quite a few crevasses and not that much snow anymore to allow for nice bridges to be crossed. We feel nevertheless safe since there is four of us on the same rope but the uttermost attention is still required. At 17 we finally reach the very end of the glacier where we can finally put the ropes and harnesses away, and walk those last few meters to the Rothorn hut. It has been a long day, not easy and surely tiring. But we are all happy of what we have done and are looking forward to a big dinner and to get some sleep before we attempt another big summit tomorrow.

Alpine week 2015 part 2 - Around the Almagellerhütte and the Dri Horlini

On Monday is the only day this week when it's supposed to be raining...but tomorrow should be OK. So we decide to get a free shower on the way up to the Almagellerhütte and then enjoy some climbing on the Dri Horlini. 

At the beginning it seems the weather will hold...but for once the forecast was correct and indeed we get a bit (a lot...) wet on the way up. But the hut is cozy and warm so no problem. In the morning we would expect to see blue sky and possibly lots of sun...but we are only greeted by a very thick fog. You know, that thick that you could possibly cut it with a knife! 

Playing around on big boulders

Then we decide to wait a bit to see if it gets any better, and in the meanwhile to repeat a bit of crevasse rescue and other stuff which can always be useful if the shit hits the fan. After more than two hours there is still no improvement...but we at least want to see some sun. So we start walking towards the Weissmiess south ridge (without any equipment). The sun seems to get closer and closer...but we can't see any...and having reached a point where crampons would be needed we decide to go back!

On the way back the sun starts to make its way through the thick fog and eventually by the time we are back at the hut it has almost fully cleared. It still looks like the rocks are a bit wet but because it's still quite early in the afternoon we decide to have a go at the Dri Horlini! We only take what is really necessary and off we go.

Finding the beginning of the route is not that difficult since it's all pretty well marked. The route itself is not totally obvious at the very beginning, but also not difficult to find. We only have moutaineering boots and honestly nothing more is needed to climb here. With rock shoes it would only be more uncomfortable! After some zig-zagging on the beginnig of the route we get on the main ridge and from here onwards the route is really obvious. Never too difficult but also never super easy. 

Exposure!!

It was steeper than it actually looks :)

Typical views on the ridge...but that shadow of the finger on the left was a mistake

The abseil point

Abseiling is somehow always fun

Last few meters on the way up

Most of the times quite exposed and sometimes a few relatively tricky moves are needed only protected with nuts or friends. When I say relatively tricky I mean it in comparison with the whole route, not in an absolute sense. There is only one point where abseiling is really necessary, and afterwards the last big gendarme has to be climbed. From the top the views are finally good and in the meantime thanks to the sun the temperatures have become a lot more comfortable than in the early morning. To get down we keep following the now really wide ridge in the direction of Weissmiess up to a point where we get down first on the left and then in a bouldery couloir back on the right (always facing the Weissmiess). Jumping from one rock to the other, which by the way is a wonderful balance exercise we get back to the hut.

Walking back to the hut

And we still have to get down to Saas Grund! From being a lazy day it tunrned out to be a rather long day but at least we felt like we took adva

ntage of the good weather as soon as it  became available. The Dri Horlini ridge is really a cool route. Not long and not tiring, but really worth it. It offers some wonderful granite climbing with the right level of difficulty for having proper fun!