Dri Hörnli (21.08.2014)  

After some heavy rain showers during the previous evening, we all woke up to a surprisingly sunny morning in Saas Grund. Turns out the weather was proving to be better than what we’d expected from the forecast. Anyway, we had a decent, laid-back breakfast and got ready to leave at around 10am. The plan for today was to walk up to the Almageller hut, leave behind stuff we didn’t need and then do an afternoon climb on the Dri Horlini (or Dri Hörnli), which is graded at around 4/4+. It was great to be wearing lighter and more flexible boots today too! I had only tested out a pair of Scarpa Rebel Lite goretex boots on one or two hikes before leaving Tromsø, so I hoped they would be equally as comfortable now.

The walk up to the hut starts from Saas Almagell. We saved ourselves one or two hundred metres in height by driving up to a small car park above the village at Furggstalden. Here starts an ’adventure’ trail which later joins the main path up to the Almageller hut. The trail basically consists of a series of suspension bridges and ladders over some rocky and in parts steep mountainside, so It was an interesting variation. I was however quite focused on getting up to the hut as soon as possible (and thereby not having to carry a full and heavy rucksack for longer than necessary) so didn’t take many pictures while going up. It was a pleasant temperature in any case. Cool and refreshing.

From the treeline, the trail lead us gently up the valley. The views behind us were awesome once we started to gain a little more height. The whole east side of the Mischabel range rises straight up from the Saas valley. Fantastic. The three tops of the Dri Horlini didn’t come into sight until we were around an hour from the Almageller hut, but even then it was difficult to make out the tops from right underneath. I imagine the best view of the route would be from one of the other tops on the south side of the valley.

Anyway, we made rather good time and arrived at the hut within about 2 hours from the car park, so we took a lunch stop on the benches outside the hut after unpacking the rucksacks and leaving behind some stuff we wouldn’t need for the afternoon climb. And it was still sunny weather! That was a relief. I thought we’d be climbing on cold rock in several jackets today, but it seemed the opposite would be more likely. I was half-looking forward to the route and half-fearing it. I’ve never rated myself as a rock climber (walker and scrambler, yes, but climber? nope). But I was most looking forward to climbing on some decent quality alpine rock. Something solid.

There was a short approach to the foot of the route from the hut, maybe a few hundred metres over some rock boulders. It was dead easy to find since there were yellow arrows marked on boulders at regular intervals leading up to the start. Today I was climbing with both Pete and Rocio, since Rocio wanted to get some more experience guiding two people on a rope before her guides’ exams. Ernie was not feeling in particularly great form today after a stomach upset, so he and Terry climbed alone. The first few pitches up to the top of the first ’horn’ were quite easy climbing with some slightly interesting moves.

The majority of the time Rocio lead with chest coils and climbed short pitches before securing us up. Since I was tied onto a bight in the rope in-between Rocio and Pete it meant that I would do a few metres climbing before Pete started. It took some time to become used to climbing together i.e coordination. I needed slack in the rope between us before committing to a trickier move and when Pete needed to take some time on trickier moves I needed to make sure I was quite comfortably balanced! It worked anyway and the rock was amazing anyway. I was really impressed with how well suited my boots were to this kind of terrain. Rocio was using a similar model (not the ’Lite’ version) and seemed to be equally satisfied with the performance of her boots, so I think we can both recommend the Scarpa Rebel boot as a top choice for alpine rock!

The route ahead to the top of the second horn involved a neat little ridge traverse which we protected naturally by using blocks to hook the rope over where possible, otherwise it was more of the same kind of climbing and scrambling as the pitches leading up to the first horn. It worked pretty well with climbing short pitches too since it was easier to communicate with Rocio, and it also meant that there was much more continuity in the climbing and not having to wait so long when I or Pete belayed Rocio. Another fun ridge traverse connected the second and third horn, and at the end of the ridge we had to take a short abseil down a fairly steep and featureless wall. Above this and towards the final top of the route the climbing was straightforward but there was a little more climbing on slabs which were lacking in good handholds (which I don’t particularly like).

Terry and Ernie had been pretty efficient climbing as a pair (and apparently changing to rock shoes at some point along the route) so we didn’t meet them at the top of the third horn. The climbing was so straightforward throughout the route though so I doubt whether we would have been any quicker had we also switched to rock shoes as well! Unfortunately we didn’t get much of a view of the Weissmies or the following day’s objective (the Portjengrat traverse) since some fog and low cloud had spread in from the west and hidden away the higher peaks. But we *did* get to see a cute little ibex on the top!! Anyway, we’d had a good quality climb on warm, superb rock (of an igneous type I think) so we descended back down to the Almageller hut feeling very satisfied. And even more so considering that the weather wasn’t supposed to be particularly terrific today :)

We were back down at the hut just before 5pm, so we had some time to sort out gear for the climb the following day before dinner at 6.30pm. The dining room at the Almageller hut is actually fairly big and very roomy, I’m very impressed with the standard of alpine huts these days! Also worth mentioning is the fully-flushable toilets (separate mens and womens toilets as well). Luxury.

Other pictures