After the big early taste of autumn there has been a return to late summer conditions in the Alps and lots of teams have been out enjoying some high alpine routes in quite dry conditions again. We did another trip up the South Ridge of the Lagginhorn yesterday which was completely dry and only required crampons for the short glacier ascent to the Lagginjoch.
The South Ridge provides an enjoyable long AD- alpine route and is a good taste of a big classic Swiss Valais style alpine 4000m ascent via an AD, but not as tough as some of it’s more burly neighbours. Teams were also climbing the North Ridge of the Weissmies which looked to have a bit more snow on it but seems to go ok regardless. For both routes the approach to the Lagginjoch is currently probably better done via the low route as the upper Hohsaas approach looks messy with more rockfall hazard as per photo topo below.
There were only 3 teams on the South Ridge but we met many more at the summit who had climbed the normal route up the rocky West ridge, again in dry conditions. One team had climbed the long and pretty remote Hohsaasgrat on the Fletschhorn which they described as long and pretty remote feeling, before traversing to the Lagginhorn.
The West Ridge normal route was popular and entirely rocky at the moment with a fairly unpleasant loose section near the summit. In descent, we avoided the traditional descent to the diminishing glacier on the west face and continued down the logical lower west ridge route which is mainly a pleasant cairned route with some easy scrambling and path country lower down linking to the moraine ridge path leading back to Weissmies Hut. This avoids the exposure to stonefall encountered on the traditional route when under the large open and currently rocky loose slopes on the West Face.
Numerous teams had also traversed the Weissmies, and across the valley, teams had made the Lenspitze – Nadelhorn traverse describing decent conditions and there was a big track on the Alphubel from the Langflue hut above Saas Fee. As part of our hut approach day we enjoyed the long mountain sport route on the South Face of the Jeggihorn, ‘Alpendurst’ which, according to the team we met on the summit was 14 pitches, we had lost count! A really enjoyable long rock outing and a bit easier but longer than it’s ‘Sudkante’ neighbour.
Over in the Italian Monte Rosa Massif, Kev and Simon had enjoyed fine conditions and great weather for ascents of Punta Giordani, Schwarzhorn, Ludwigshoe and Parrotspitze. Today they made an early morning ascent of Pyramid Vincent this morning to top off an excellent few days in the high mountains, where they enjoyed completely deserted summits on all 5 peaks and 2 good nights at the Mantova and Gnifetti Huts.
We had a team climb the South Ridge on on the Weissmies today and another hoping to do Gran Paradiso tomorrow although the forecast is not so good for the morning. However it’s better for both teams heading to Mont Blanc early next week so we will have more conditions updates from those peaks shortly.
The Gouter & Tete Rousse Huts on Mont Blanc have just announced they will be staying open later in the season this year, until October 12th, so stay in touch if you would like to Climb Mont Blanc in this superb early autumn period. See photo below from a previous early autumn ascent.
There are currently still spaces available on our 3 day early autumn Gran Paradiso course 27-29th Sept.
We also have spaces on our UK Mont Blanc training & Matterhorn training weekends in both the Scottish Highlands and Snowdonia as per these dates and details:
- 26-27 Sept, Mont Blanc Training Weekend, Fort William, Scottish Highlands
- 26-27 Sept, Matterhorn Training Weekend, Fort William, Scottish Highlands
- 10-11 October, Mont Blanc Training Weekend, Llanberis, Snowdonia
- 10-11 October, Matterhorn Training Weekend, Llanberis, Snowdonia
