Hörnli hut

Dato:

21.06.2021

Schreckhorn

Dato:

30.07.2020

Turtype:

Alpin klatring

Turlengde:

13:20t

Distanse:

13,5km

© Hannah Vickers Unlike quite a few of the 4000m peaks I’ve climbed in the Alps in the last few years, the Schreckhorn has not actually stood at the top of my priority list for many years. It was really only after having heard about how awesome (and long) the Schreckhorn-Lauteraarhorn traverse was, from one of Tim’s friends who’d guided it last year, that it began to spark a bit of interest in me. I remember it having caught my eye when I did the Eiger traverse which ascends the Mittellegi ridge and descends the South ridge, but from that angle I thought it looked a bit bold for my climbing abilitiy (or lack of). Turns out the easiest route up the southwest ridge is actually “only” an AD+ with fairly easy climbing, not above III+. And having checked out various route descriptions it did sound like really nice, >>>

Nadelgrat

Dato:

23.07.2020

Turtype:

Alpin klatring

Turlengde:

14:05t

Distanse:

18,7km

© Hannah Vickers The northern Nadelgrat is made up of the Nadelhorn, Stecknadelhorn, Hohberghorn and Dirruhorn, the latter three which I had not yet climbed but of those three, only 2 are deemed to be principal 4000m peaks. Anyway, it was a traverse I’d had on my list to do and after numerous consultations with Martin Moran’s 4000m guidebook I had got the impression that the normal way to do it was from north to south, by ascending a couloir on the east side of the Dirrujoch between the Dirruhorn and Hohberghorn first and then continuing along the ridge southwards and descending the normal route on the Nadelhorn back to the Mischabel hut as a round trip. It turned out Tim had other ideas, which meant doing it as a one way traverse and ending up in the picturesque town of Grächen above the Zermatt valley >>>

Breithorn half traverse

Dato:

21.07.2020

Turtype:

Alpin klatring

Turlengde:

4:34t

Distanse:

7,5km

© Hannah Vickers After arriving back in Zermatt from the Zinalrothorn , we checked the weather forecasts again to make sure it would still be good weather for the next objectives we had planned to do. Originally the plan had been to head up to the Ayas hut, then traverse both Castor and Lyskamm the following day, spend the night up at the Margherita hut and then do both Nordend and the Dufourspitze on the thursday which was supposed to have the best weather and would have made a nice 3-day outing. Castor and Dufourspitze I had climbed previously, but not Lyskamm or Nordend, so they were still on the "to-do" list. However, since the forecast for the next 2 days were looking less optimal for a big day on exposed snow ridges, we moved onto my backup plan which was to do the Breithorn half traverse, a quick half day >>>

Zinalrothorn

Dato:

20.07.2020

Turtype:

Alpin klatring

Turlengde:

7:45t

Distanse:

7,1km

© Hannah Vickers The Zinalrothorn is a pretty cool looking peak, though I personally think its a bit dependent on which angle you see it from. Definitely awesome when viewed from the Ober Gabelhorn though :-) Like last year, I had 10 (fun) days of climbing with British mountain guide Tim Neill to look forward to and the Zinalrothorn seemed like a good option to start off with since neither of us were really well acclimatized to 4000m yet. I was a bit worried that I would have de-acclimatised after a few days of easy hiking in the Saas valley and not really going above 3300m, so it was probably good to be starting with a peak which didn’t have a massive summit day although the walk-in to the Rothorn hut was relatively long. Since I’d expected there to be reduced capacity at the alpine huts this summer, I made a booking >>>

Weisshorn

Dato:

25.07.2019

Turtype:

Alpin klatring

Turlengde:

9:54t

Distanse:

8,2km

© Hannah Vickers The Weisshorn has been on my list of peaks I’ve wanted to climb for a while, mainly because it’s big, requires a bit of effort to reach and beautiful. It stands out from its neighbouring peaks and is hard to miss from any angle. And to quote the late Martin Moran in his 4000m peaks guidebook, “The lofty pyramid of the Weisshorn is considered to be the finest of all the Alpine peaks by many connoisseurs who disdain the public glories of the Matterhorn and who ignore the greater quality and variety of climbs on Mont Blanc”. I guess this is not too bad a description of my attitude… Anyway, with a reputation such as this it would be hard to not want to climb it at some point :) Due to the weather forecast for Friday having been changed to somewhat less stable weather, it seemed like the >>>

Lenzspitze - Nadelhorn traverse

Dato:

23.07.2019

Turtype:

Alpin klatring

Turlengde:

8:00t

Distanse:

5,8km

© Hannah Vickers With a pretty good looking weather forecast for the week after we’d come down from the Dent d’Herens there didn’t seem to be any reason to stop ticking off some good quality 4000m peak ridge traverses. So after having taking a rest day in Evolene the next plan on my «wishlist» was to climb the east-northeast ridge of the Lenzspitze and continue the traverse to the Nadelhorn, returning down its easy northeast ridge. Tim had done the northeast face of the Lenzspitze before and the traverse to the Nadelhorn but not the east-northeast ridge so he was psyched for giving it a go (generally he’s psyched for most things regardless of whether he’s done it before or not though)! We left Evolene again relatively early for the drive over to Saas Fee and parked up just outside the town. The >>>

Dent d'Hérens

Dato:

20.07.2019

Turtype:

Alpin klatring

Turlengde:

8:35t

Distanse:

21,0km

© Hannah Vickers After returning to Courmayeur from the Torino hut the plan was to stay somewhere in Italy for the night so we could head straight to the Dent d’Herens the following day. We’d initially planned to book some beds at the Prarayer refuge which is about 1 hour along the walk in to the Aosta refuge, but we instead opted to go all the way back to Evolene since most people were away at huts so the chalet would be empty and quiet!! It turned out to be a good choice, at least for me since I woke up the next day feeling very well rested and ready for the 3-hour drive back into Italy and up to the Lago di Place Moulin where the long walk in began. It was another warm and sunny day, in contrast to the clouds that meteoblue had forecasted, so I was somewhat dreading having to do a long walk up to the >>>

Weissmies

Dato:

16.07.2019

Turtype:

Alpin klatring

Turlengde:

6:00t

© Hannah Vickers Back in the Alps again for my 10th summer visit, and like the previous 3 years with a base again in Evolene. I felt semi-acclimatised after having spent a few days hiking up to 3200m in the Saas valley the week before and since I’d arranged to have 1:1 guiding this year I was keen to tick off a few more of the 4000m peaks. For the first trip I was climbing with guide Graham Frost who I’d done the Dent Blanche with back in 2016 and initially I’d suggested heading over to the Torino hut to start with the Rochefort Arete since both the Aiguille de Rochefort and Dome de Rochefort were relatively low 4000ers and easy to access. However, since the Torino hut was fully booked and it had dumped it down with new snow on the first night we ended up joining guides Tim and Jon who were working for >>>

Almagellerhorn

Dato:

12.07.2019

Turtype:

Fottur

Turlengde:

3:40t

Distanse:

7,0km

© Hannah Vickers Fortsetter med temaet "hornbestigning i Saas-dalen" og bestemte meg for en tur til Almagellerhorn i dag. Gjorde litt research på nett på forhånd og fant ut at det finnes en lett via ferrata ca halvveis opp. Var litt usikker på om jeg skulle trenge noe utstyr men pakket sele og noen slynger og karabiner i tilfelle jeg syntes det så litt krevende ut og ville være sikret til noe. Fint vær igjen i dag og noe småkjølig i dalen da jeg tok bussen til Saas Almagell, men sola varmet godt etterhvert. Gikk opp til heisen "Heidbodme" for å jukse litt og spare ca.500hm i motbakke og fikk begynne turen fra 2400moh. Fulgte en fin og slak sti som går frem og tilbake opp fjellet i typisk Sveitsisk stil, så det var en rolig start på turen. Stien deler seg etter noen hundre hm >>>