[Closed] Mountaineering: anyone traversed the Mischabel range?

[url= http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/is-there-a-jhw-fantasy-thread-forthcoming ]Better late than never....[/url]

Lolzz sureal 😐

See response on that thread.

Er, anyone who's actually interested in mountains and mountaineering got any comments?

You don't see me trashing your posts about diets for no reason...

Done several trips around there.

One of the best was the NE face of the Lenspitze and then the traverse over to the Nadelhorn.

Also done 2 trips around there ski mountaineering based from the Brittania and Tasch Huts.

That's meant to be the best bit isn't it? We looked at the Nadelhorn from the Almagella hut across the valley this September but it looked a little dry and horrible...I later met guys who did it that week who said it was brilliant...

I'm just toying with the idea now but it looks epic...reckon the whole traverse would be a 10-day trip though so probably doing the whole thing would be a very tall order? I guess you'd have to bivvy - there's only the one hut for the whole range right? I'm just basically trying to figure out whether anyone actually does the whole thing in one trip, or whether that's too much...

Not much these days as far as I am aware.

Patrick Berhault fell off, I think the ridge between the Taschhorn and the Dom in 2004 as part of trying to do all 4000m's in one trip.

There is the Mischabeljoch bivouac.

Although the individual routes on these peaks aren't hard, they are very remote and a long enchainment adds sufficiently to that.

He did, didn't he - with his partner wasn't it?

Let's see...*rummages*

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That's the range behind me in late September this year...spoke to people who said you could do the whole thing from right to left...but it does look like a big proposition!

I hear you re remoteness...the person I spoke to who'd been there (can't remember if he actually did the whole thing) said that him and the 2 (I think) other guys on his team were the only people in the entire area that week

Hmmm...interesting

Probably another vague idea that won't come to fruition (but that's conceptually distinct from being a "fantasy"...)

Here's the album of that trip [url] http://www.flickr.com/photos/57219258@N02/sets/72157627975356102/ [/url]

Mugsys_m8, just been reading into the Lenzspitze-Nadelhorn traverse - interesting to see you did the initial ascent by the north face! You can see it immediately to my left in the photo above...still with ice on it in September after an exceptionally dry period...

Do you have any tips on that route? Moran's book describes it as a good first proper snow face climb, so I'm toying with the idea of doing it next summer but we're not *that* experienced (doing a lot of ice/winter climbing this winter and did some AD stuff pretty confidently earlier this year).

When did you do it/how did you find it? How long did it take...?

Mischabel range from Weismeis
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Mischabel range from lagginhorn
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We did just the Nadelhorn standard PD route last year (2010) from the mischabel hutte, the entire Nadelgrat looks fantastic, unfortunately we completely lost our way (and camera) on the lower slopes and so sacked the entire Nadelgrat traverse. The Lenzspitze NE face you're talking about looks amazing close up. The whole Mischabel chain would be amazing, but beyond my nerve (and probably, ability).

Wonderful photos! Thanks! What happened to your camera? Reading into the route I can see that doing the entire chain is probably impossible unless you're "serious"...and the Taschorn-Dom stretch looks a bit testing for this stage of my, er, career...but the stuff you mention above the Mischabel hut looks doable. Whether to go in June or September, that's the question (am I right in thinking that Lenzspitze NE face is best when wet, but all the lovely ridges at the top are best when dry...). No idea how the face holds snow for as long as it does.

How did you like the icefall on the way down from the Weissmies? We were surprised by how serious it was...seracs falling etc

New toys (not Christmas presents) - thanks to my bank manager...

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Quarks and Dartwins 🙂

My mate lost his camera at some point on the hol. The above photos are from my camera.
The Weismeis seracs were quite stable when we were there, I think. navigating the cravases was the best bit IMO

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Those are spectacular! That ladder had gone down by the time we were there. Did you deliberately take that gnarly route or was it the only option 😛 I'm sure it wasn't that mental when we did it.

My main recollection of that icefall is having to frontpoint down a sketchy bit of ice, and just as I did the crucial move there was a massive serac fall about 200m behind me - I couldn't turn around as I was stuck on the ice, but could hear it, which made it sort of more terrifying! All I could see was the other guys on my teams' jaws dropping. I think this was right where the ladder was meant to be actually.

Such a cool place

.but the stuff you mention above the Mischabel hut looks doable. Whether to go in June or September, that's the question (am I right in thinking that Lenzspitze NE face is best when wet, but all the lovely ridges at the top are best when dry...). No idea how the face holds snow for as long as it does.

There's a book called In Monte Visos Horizon (or something like that), where the author does the Lenzspitze NE face route. I get the impression that it will generally be an early season route these days, as with a lot of face routes now. I might be wrong, but I seem to recall him saying that when the rock band appears, then it's a sign that it's out of condition(hard sheet ice)and becomes much harder or not doable.

The Nadelhorn was straightforward (apart from our route finding in the dark), the Nadelgrat traverse is no more difficult I don't think, just a very long day.

The pictures (or we) make it appear more extreme than it actually was, it was the standard walkers route at that time, thru some spectacular scenery. I think the routes/paths tend to change from time to time, depending on who goes up first after snowfall or at the start of the season. We were there in September.

Nice, very nice. That NE face is now my big objective, even if I'm a few years off it...

Cool - either this or ski touring - can't decide! But I think the ski touring trip will have to go...

Here are mine from the Weissmies earlier this year (we didn't have the balls to get cameras out on the icefall...)

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These guys took the really serious way up
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For good measure these are some from a really fun day on the Zinal Rothorn north ridge...I did all of this guided...so have zero bragging rights! Next year we're going to do it ourselves...
hopefully...

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Le Rasoir 🙂
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I get the impression that the Lenzspitze NE face route is a good starter steep face route (I mean 'starter', as in being a good intro face route within the whole alps climbing game, I should add!). I think, it's consistently at a reasonable 50 degrees, with no objective danger, if done in the right condition.
It may be worth looking at doing the fantastic Barre Noire Couloir as an introduction to reasonably long steep faces if you haven't done one before (there are plenty of others). I think BNC was around 45degrees in the lower half, 50 degrees in the upper half, sometimes it has a big bergshrund to negotiate in the dark + one of the Barre Des Ecrin summit ridges to finish (out of pic to right), descent is by the easy North Face snow slope.
Barre Noire Couloir in background here (right of centre). When we did it, it was in good condition and a straightforward ascent.
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That looks very good, thanks for the tip, this wouldn't otherwise have occurred to me! I'll read into that route.

Funny how the photos flatten 45-55 degrees to make it look vertical 🙂

One big ridge and one big face this year and I'm happy!