Rätikon Höhenweg – day 3
13th July 2008
This is the big day of the Rätikon Höhenweg, the summit of the Schesaplana itself and the descent to the Schesaplana Hütte are major objectives. The summit is pretty straightforward although it’s high alpine terrain and it’s required to cross some fairly extensive snowfields although it’s only névé which is frozen and melted and re-frozen snow rather than glaciers which would have been problematic for this solo trip.
Originally the forecast hadn’t been promising for the trip and it wasn’t until Monday I decided to risk the weather. Today should have been cloudy and raining so the clear skies and sunshine are a huge bonus and mean I can stick to my planned route to the Schesaplana Hütte.
On the summit it was surprising to see a small mouse darting from rock to rock. This is a bit high for a mouse to be normally and is probably connected to the amount of rubbish people are leaving around. Just because something biodegrades doesn’t mean it’s a good idea to leave it around. Either it attracts scavengers, of which a mouse is relatively benign, which can drive local fauna away or it does biodegrade and enriches the soil encouraging grasses and the like which will choke out the more delicate flora.
Next, it’s onto to the descent. This is extremely serious, a loose, unstable path with some serious exposure and big potential drops. It’s not advised unless you’re pretty experienced or accompanied by a qualified guide or leader. In bad weather it would simply not be possible to cover the route and you’d need to find another itinerary.
There’s a short section at the bottom protected by chains and fixed equipment, in fact this is easiest section and there’s a few sections higher up that would really benefit from some equipment.
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