| I've done quite a few routes in my time but some stand out more than others.
The following routes are therefore either good, or bad. Fortunately we
seem to remember the good times more than the bad. This page is not
intended as a substitute for the relevant guide book, it merely gives additional
information on routes that I've personally climbed.
Allalinhorn,
Dri Horlini,
Egginer, Jegigrat,
Laginhorn,
Pigne d Arolla,
Aguille de Tour,
Aguille de la Tsa,
Weissmies. |
Allalinhorn
|
| Valley base Saas Grund, via Brittania hut. I've done the ENE (Hohlaubgrat)
ridge on the Allallinhorn twice now. Its graded as AD but in reality is
PD. The only hard bit is the rock step, just a few minutes before the
summit. How hard this is depends on the conditions but even when its bare
rock its no harder than V Diff. There's little in the way of protection on
the rock step other than the three iron stakes, the only gear needed is three
quick draws. A couple of nuts and slings are useful if you want to set up
a belay at the bottom but its hardly necessary, just move together. The
rest of the route is pretty much a snow plod. Route finding is fairly easy
and the ridge itself can be gained from the glacier at several points.
Don't turn left across the glacier too early though or you'll follow the route
to the Strahlhorn. Descent to the Mitelallin is easy. From the
summit reverse you tracks for about 50m, then hang a right and descend the NW
ridge before contouring round to the right.
Looking up ridge to rock step,
Rock
step, Top of rock step, . |
Dri Hornili
|
| Valley base Saas Grund, easily possible in a day trip, alternatively from
Almegella hut. AD IV which is about right. A pleasant rock ridge
traverse on sound rock. Just the route for when you've only got 1 day left
or for acclimatisation. Route finding is easy and the ridge is equipped with
bolts in sections. You will definitely need a small rack as there are long
sections without bolts. Beware the guide book on descent, its
considerably more than 300 m from the summit to the descent path. Don't go
down too early, the first "path" is actually made by rockfall. The real
descent path is wide and easy angled.
Dri
Horlini ridge, near finish, abseil and
slabs. |
Egginer
|
| Valley base Saas Grund, day trip via uplift. SSW ridge AD. The
ridge goes up from the Egginerjoch, about 15 minutes walk from the cable car.
Its difficult to spot from the bottom but its more obvious as a ridge when you
look back down it. Route finding is difficult. There's the odd bit
of paint on the route and the odd bolt to help you but not much. Make sure
you don't go too far left initially. At about half height there's a single
bolt at the end of a ledge, you then run out an entire rope length with no
runners on an upwards traverse across a horrible and loose stone filled culoir.
The best and safest route up this culoir is on the left hand side. You
then pop out onto a subsidiary summit at point 3242. We then headed off
left down the snow slopes rather than carry on to the top as we were too slow.
The route is "reasonable" up to the culoir, the culoir itself is horrible and
frankly bloody dangerous. The only bonus is that if you hang a right at
the bottom of our descent route and go to the half way cable car station, its a
FREE ride back down to Saas Fee.
Egginer SSW ridge on right skyline,
SSW
ridge, looking down SSW ridge.
|
Jegigrat traverse
|
| Valley base Saas Grund, via Weismeis hut. AD III+. A rock ridge
traverse. The quickest way to the start is up the Via Ferata that goes up
to the Jegihorn, taking a right turn at the top. Good rope work is
essential if you want to get any where near the guide book time. There's a
couple of abseils from equipped stations. Other than the ab stations
there's no fixed gear so an "Alpine" rock rack is needed (set of nuts, couple of
hexes, couple of Friends, loads of slings, quick draws). We were slow but
abbed off the right hand side of the ridge starting from the two consecutive
abseil stations. |
Laginhorn
|
| Valley base Saas Grund, via Weismeis hut. WSW ridge, PD. A bit
harder than a PD on the day we did it as the top was icey, its supposed to be
rock. The traverse was totally out of the question on this day. The
route starts up the W ridge (can can go all the way up the WSW ridge but
apparently its a bit loose and horrible), then bears an upwards diagonal left
across the glacier on the W face. The route swings left a bit more, gets
steeper then joins the crest of the ridge.
Route goes up glacier, joins ridge, then up,
start of ridge proper |
Pigne d'Arolla
|
| Valley base Arolla via Vignettes and Dix huts. ESE-W traverse.
Facile. A nice pleasant snow plod with no technical difficulties.
Great views. May need to zig zag through crevasses on the descent to the
Dix hut. looking back down to Vignettes hut,
typical terrain,
Going down to Col de La Serpentine and Dix hut |
Aguille de Tour
|
| Valley base Argentiere via Albert 1er hut. SE Table du Roc ridge.
PD III according to the guide book. We bivvied just past the hut,
there's loads of levelled out bivvie sites here. Route finding
is fairly easy, just read the guide book. Put lids on well before you
start the ascent up to the initial culloir. The move up past the chock
stone isn't too hard, you then enter the culloir which when we did it had no
snow in it. It was loose, chossy and downright dangerous. Keep
to the right but not too far, you certainly don't want to go on the crest,
you're heading for almost straight ahead. Once out of the culoir the
route gets a bit better and is easy to follow. There's a pleasant
scramble just above the culoir. There's some interesting climbing up
some blocks and slabs that pushes the boundaries of a grade III somewhat.
The climb onto the table itself is definitely not a III, it big boots and a
pack it felt like a VS, even with pulling on the in situ tat. Once on
the table the route is far from over. You climb up an exposed slab
(rock shoes might be a good idea here) and then go along a crenelated knife
edge ridge. Once over this the final ascent to the summit is a little
easier and doesn't take long. Descend onto the Trient glacier, little
more than a scramble. Then down the snow slope to the Col de Tour.
BEWARE THE FRENCH MAPS, THEY ARE WRONG. The descent is the Col Sup
de Tour, not the Col de Tour as marked on the maps. Anyway, the
col sup de Tour is the first wide col you come to. Look down it and
you'll see its easy. If you make a mistake like us, you'll spend
another 20 minutes walking to the col de Tour, and realise there's no way
down there. The guide book says the table de Roc is a pleasant route.
No it isn't, well not when we did it wasn't. The pleasant route
description assumes the initial culloir above the chock stone is full of
ice. If it isn't I'd think twice about it. If there's another
party above, I'd definitely bin the route. Unless its iced up this
culoir is horrible, loose and dangerous. The whole route was down
graded from AD to PD. Its not a PD. AD IV maybe AD V. I
cruise VS leads but I sure wouldn't want to lead the bit by the Table in big
boots, think about taking rock shoes for this bit.
Aguile de Tour from Albert 1er Hut,
looking down ridge to Table,
move on to Table.
|
Aguille de la Tsa
|
| Valley base Arolla, via Bertol hut. From the Bertol hut traverse round
to the right and then up through some rocks. Although it doesn't look it
from the hut, the route is easy to find (some chains in place) and its faster
and easier than dropping down and ascending to the Col de la Tsa. The
route then drops down to the col de la Tsa and then ascends again. Even
without tracks to follow it was easy to find. There's some monster
crevasses that will swallow a block of flats that you have to weave around.
We didn't do the short rock climb to the summit as it was clagged in and
freezing cold. It looked more like a scramble though but looks can be
deceiving so without having done it I can't say. The fastest way down is
via the Col de la Tsa, we had to break through a cornice though, the bergshrund
was passed on the right (N). Tsa |
Weissmies
|
| Valley base Saas Grund, via Hohsaas Hut or 1 hour further from Weissmies Hut.
Hohsaas is recommended, you get the uplift all the way to the hut. NW
flank and SW ridge, PD. This is the standard route but talking to the
guides the crevasses are getting bigger and bigger each year and soon it won't
be possible to cross them. We made a mistake and left all our rock gear at
the hut which meant we had to go back via the hut. A much better outing is
obtained if you traverse the Weissmies and descend via the Almagella hut.
The route is pretty much a snow plod but the last section is steep and can be
icy. After crossing the glacier you weave a way up through the seracs,
avoiding the avalanche debris and hoping the snow bridges are intact. The
ice scenery is really impressive. There's some steep sections in places
through the seracs. On the final section, don't stray too far right,
there's some monster cornices. Hope that there is a pisted trail to follow
(should be) as finding a route through the crevasses and seracs on your own
would be "interesting". A good route nevertheless and great views from the
summit. Flat section from Hohsaas,
serac barrier,
Hang a left and follow ridge to summit |
| Back to top
Home page
|
| |