As a first mountaineering trip to the Alps for both me and Andy, our two week’s in late August/early September was an excellent introduction.
When planning our trip we’d thought about hiring the services of a British Mountain Guide, as we wondered if we might get more out of the trip that way. However, we decided not to, as we wanted complete flexibility whilst out there, including time off from the high mountains to just go cragging, walking, or chilling, and we didn’t want to be paying for a guide on those ‘off-days’. Also, we were pretty certain that we could do the whole trip well enough on our own, and could keep ourselves safe on any of the objectives we were looking at attempting.
We flew in to Geneva, and picked up a hire car, then headed for Saas Grund. We’d deliberately kept all plans open, to account for any bad weather, but we had pre-booked a couple of nights at the Hotel Schonblick to give us time to find our feet.
Day One. Allalinhorn. We decided to have a late-ish start on the Metro Alpin to get us up to Mittel Allalin. This high station at the terminus of the underground railway gave us easy access to our first peak of the trip, the Allalinhorn. Straight onto our first 4000m mountain. We knew that going so high immediately would be tough, as we hadn’t had any acclimatisation at altitude at that point, but also knew that a quick hit, up and down, would help this process in the long run. So, we dodged the skiers on the Fee Glacier and enjoyed the easy snow slopes leading through crevasses and up a wooden ladder crossing the bergschrund to reach the col known as the Feejoch at 3826m. From there we were both moving pretty slowly, but the ground was non-technical (Alpine grade F+), so it was straightforward to just put one foot in front of the other and enjoy the views over to the Strahlhorn and the Rimpfischorn as we gained height. The West-North-West Ridge of the Allalinhorn proved to be a lovely snow arete, leading directly to the summit at 4027m. We sat by the summit cross in the sun for a little while, having a late lunch, then picked up a slight alternative path on the descent, heading initially in the direction of the Strahlhorn before veering back towards the Feejoch, and down through the upper part of the Fee Glacier.
During the descent Andy began to feel a bit light-headed and nauseous – no doubt the effects of altitude. This became worse once we were back on the train, and speeding downhill back to the valley. However, his recovery was quick once we were back at the hotel relaxing, drinking litres of water. We’d managed to pull off an ascent of our first 4000m peak on our first day (albeit, a very easy one!), so began planning for the next day.
Day 2. Blindspot and Hohsaas. We wanted to have a bit of time in the valley, ready to take the afternoon chairlift up to the Hohsaas Hut, ready for either the Weissmies or the Lagginhorn the next day. So, we wandered down along the river above Saas Grund, through the campsite, and out on the path that leads up towards the chapel on the route for Saas Fee. Here we spent a great morning enjoying some easy rock climbs at a crag called Blindspot.
So, afternoon came and we headed up the cable car to Hohsaas. This is a great ‘hut’, which is really a restaurant with rooms. Checking in we had a chat with the guardian who told us that Weissmies was not in great condition due to serac collapse (we’d heard this before leaving home from Steve Howe, but had wanted to check it out for ourselves). She recommended the Lagginhorn by the normal route, and suggested a breakfast at 5.00am, which would get us off on the way just before daybreak. We dumped our kit in the kit room, claimed a bed each in our little shared room, then went off for a quick reccy of the route towards the Lagginhorn, ready for the morning.
Day 3. Lagginhorn. Starting from 3130m, and having had a reasonable night’s sleep, we moved quickly over the rock slabs below the Hohlaub Glacier, gaining a fixed cable with bolts across the West-South-West Rib of the South Ridge of Lagginhorn. We put on harnesses and helmets here, but kept the rope in the rucksack, as the going was pretty easy really. With very little snow and ice on the Lagginhorn Glacier we made good time crossing to the little couloir that leads up onto the West-South-West Ridge of the Lagginhorn. Once on the ridge a really nice scramble up the crest at grade PD took us to steep snow and icy slopes just below the summit. Here it was getting busy, with guided parties appearing from all directions. We sat for a short while on the summit at 4010m, then descended back down the West-South-West Ridge to the Lagginhorn Glacier. On the descent Andy began to suffer again, finding it hard to coordinate his feet. We moved slowly, and almost ground to a halt once on the glacier. A bit of gentle coaxing from me, and we lost more height as Andy’s condition improved. We made for the Weissmies Hut where we quenched our raging thirsts before trotting down to the lift station at Kreuzboden. Three days in Switzerland and we’d ticked off two 4000m peaks, a handful of sport rock climbs, and had a night in a high mountain hut. Not a bad start at all.
Day 4. Feechi. A rest-day. We wandered back down to the river just above Saas Grund to check out another sport crag, Feechi. The multi-pitch routes we were interested in are usually accessed via a section of Via Ferrata, but this had been washed away in a flood, so we had to make do with a couple of short, not very great, single pitch routes at the entrance to the gorge. Still, a nice place to explore, and it gave us time for an afternoon visit to Zermatt so Andy could go boot shopping.
Day 5. Alphubel. We got it all a bit wrong on this day. We took the first train back up to Mittel Allalin, and crossed the ski pistes back to the path up to the Feejoch, this time heading for Alphubel. The ridge from the Feejoch towards Alphubel is a rocky scramble known as the Feechopf, and beyond this there are long snow slopes leading into a heavily crevassed area overhung with tottering seracs. The Feechopf was superb, with some great airy scrambling, but once we hit the snow slopes we both seemed to just grind to a halt. With about an hour of steep snow through the seracs to reach the summit of Alphubel we began to realise that we’d not been moving quickly enough, if we wanted to catch the last train down to Saas Fee. It would be a very long walk otherwise. So, reluctantly, we turned tail and headed back over the Feechopf, with no summit in the bag, but still a really good day on the hill.
Days 6-7. Zweisimmen. North-west of Saastal, and east of the Bernese Oberland, is an area of low, rocky hills. We’d seen a ridge traverse in the guidebook called Gastlosen, and fancied giving it a shot. The weather forecast for day 6 was for rain, but day 7 looked like being sunny, so we decided to spend day 6 driving over the Grimsel Pass to get to Zweisimmen ready for Gastlosen the next day. Sadly, day 7 dawned wet, so we decided to cut our losses and head for Chamonix, ready to start the second half of our adventure.
See Part 2 for details of our French part of the trip. Now live!
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Some superb photos and great climbs. Brought back some fond memories of my times at Saas and Zermatt many years ago when I was fit enough to reach 4000m. I’ve done the Allalinhorn, Rimpfischorn (still my finest achievement) Strahlhorn and Weissmies. These images are telling me I need to go back soon. Thanks for sharing