This was the first day of a ski tour in the Silvretta region which is somewhere I’d never visited before. I was looking for a tour to hook up with and I recalled seeing a mail from John Stafford of the Eagle Ski Club suggesting a trip with the guide Andy Perkins. John confirmed a slot was still available so I met a group of other Eagles in Landeck on Saturday evening, in fact in a fluke of good timing I bumped into John at the station in Landeck-Zams as he arrived from Innsbruck and I stepped off the postbus from Ischgl. In another coincidence we were joined later by John How whom I’d met back in January at the cabane des Becs de Bosson near Zinal.

Sunday was spent skiing a little in the Ischgl area again so the guys who’d flown in from the UK could get their legs a little. A major bonus was that Jimmy Cliff was playing a concert on the slopes above Samnaun (CH), I’ve actually seen Jimmy Cliff in concert before in Switzerland at the Montreux festival in 2007. 






Sunday was going to turn out to be some of the best weather of the week, leaving the ski area for a moderate climb to the col thena ski down to the Heidelberger Hütte. The Heidelberger Hütte was a revelation for me, here in Switzerland the huts are fairly basic but the standard of the Heidelberger Hütte was amazing, not only does it have running water but there are hot showers, great food and comfortable sleeping. The Heidelberger Hütte is actually located in Switzerland and owned/operated by the German Alpine Club (DAV).

GPS Track Files For Google Earth

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21.04.2008 –

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Above, some of the group above the Heidelberger Hütte and above right, Andy Perkins the guide.





The next day really wasn’t too good but we were able to make the route to the Jamtal Hütte (DAV) without any problems. It turns out the Jamtal Hütte is of an even higher standard than the Heidelberger.





Andy heading back to the Jamtal Hütte after a tour up to the Jamtalferner.

From the top it’s extremely icy for a few metres and I’m pretty grateful that I’d edged my skis yesterday, in fact I’d got a perfect edge on them and it gave me the confidence I needed to drop on the North Face of the Bella Tolla. The ice quickly gives way to some loose snow but it’s a lot steeper than I’d expected and I have to make a series of tricky jump turns and kick turns to get into a couloir and off the exposed face itself.

Above left, looking back up the first pitch and above right looking back at the whole face.

Another view (above left) of the route, the lower section is easily angled and the snow is pretty good. Above right, after climbing onto the Schwarzhorn ridge traversing to the summit.

From the top of the Schwarzhorn looking into the Chandolin ski area.

Above left, looking over at the Basset de Lona from the Col des Becs de Bosson and above right, looking back at the Col des Becs de Bosson from Lac Lona.

Above left, it’s a pretty easy climb up from the Lac Lona, barely a couple of hundred metres and an easy angle. Above right, looking at the descent between the Diablon and Sex de Marinda. In fact, the snow looks a lot better than I expected and it seems to be a good descent.

And the descent does prove to be quite good, it’s a spring snow most of the way down and quite enjoyable skiing. The avalanche risk is low today and the only real danger is small sluff avalanches, these are unlikely to bury you but the risk is these have enough force to carry you down the mountain a short way, dropping to the barrage involves some terrain with small cliffs and it would be unfortunate to be carried over one.

From the barrage it’s the usual run down the summer road, it’s had a lot of skiers over it, presumably from the trade route from Zinal, so it’s icy and hard but it’s an easy enough route. Once in Grimentz I hop on the telecablne and meet Jamie and Vari who are fellow members of the Eagle Ski Club (a ski touring and ski mountaineering club) living in Italy over the Simplon pass and we have a ski around the Grimentz area.

As I start climbing it’s fairly clear that the basically north facing slopes I’m climbing are still holding good snow, over the last week it’s been skied but it’s by no means tracked out and there’s a prospect of a good descent although it’s not going to be very steep.

There’s a couple of people on snow shoes but I soon pass them and they go no further than the first ridge before turing back. At that point I’m left alone in the valley which is pretty eerie in some ways but quite pleasant and reassuring to know it’s still possible to escape the crowds so easily.

Some views over to Grimentz (above left) and Zinal (above right). The climb actually starts to get awkward, there’d been a lot of tracks earlier but there’s none up here so I have to break ground towards Forcletta. Towards the top it actually gets quite awkward and I start slipping on some frozen, icy snow. I thought about turning back but with only a couple of hundred metres to the col it seems a shame not to push on so, I stop briefly and fit my ski crampons to get some more grip and carry on. Near the col the wind’s removed the snow and I take the skis off and hike to the ridge, my Gramont Megarides are ski mountaineering boots and have vibram soles so it’s easy to scramble to the top.

Above left, looking into the Turtmann or Tourtemagne valley, not much snow cover on the south slope but actually some nice looking snow in the bottom. Above right, looking at L’Omen Roso, I’d thought about doing this peak and in fact wished I had with hindsight, from there it’s possible to ski down to Ayer or Mottec. Ayer looks the better course although it’s bound to involve some walking through the forest.

It’s quite a nice spot at Forcletta, there’s not much wind and the sun is strong so I sit for a while eating a sandwich and taking a drink before packing away the skins and crampons and skiing down.

And the descent? It’s flat in places as I expect but there’s some good powder pitches and it’s quite good.

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The descent was pretty good though, some excellent pitches through good powder before hitting the ineivitable boiler plate at the bottom and being forced to kick turn through it for a while. All in all a good finish to a good week of skiing and touring, my main reason for going on the trip was that it’s the next valley to us in Zinal and I wanted to explore a little, there’s clearly a load more to do including some routes between the two valleys so I look forward to returning hopefully on skis!

Above left, looking back at Palanche de la Cretta from the other day.

Unfortunately I never got my view in the Val de Moiry as nearing the top Ben lost the heel piece of his Dynafit binding. To my thinking there had been something wrong with these bindings all along, on the first day I saw Ben before starting to ski down lean down and engage the touring mode lock down which effectively locks the binding and is really for uphill mode. I mentioned this to him and he said it seemed to work and the ski was releasing on a fall, but really this isn’t really going be possible on a properly functioning binding so it was indicating a problem with the fitting I think or possibly ice and snow building up in the inserts meaning he wasn’t in the binding properly.

Above, the ingenious fix made by Ben and the guide. A good reminder that it’s worth carrying some sort of repair kit on a tour otherwise it would have been a long, long way down on a broken ski.

Some great views in the Val d’Hérens and looking over the Rhone to the Bernese Oberland beyond.

Most of the way down we had pretty good snow but towards the bottom it turned to crust and we were forced to start kick turning down before hitting a track we could schuss down to the road and the bus stop.

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I recorded the route as file for Google Earth :

The snow was great skiing down the Rechy although we got caught a little low near L’Ar du Tsan and had to pole a few meters but otherwise it worked fairly well. As usual even though it’s cold once we started the ascent it got pretty hot, Neil and Claire reached the summit before David and I as we spread out a little ascending. Generally I’m quite pleased with my Black Diamond Voodoos but they’re pretty awkward to kick turn and I managed to fall over a couple of times stepping on the back of my own ski, it’s the added length and width that makes it awkward and I’d certainly not like anything fatter or longer.

Once we’d got to the top it was great to see that the route plan was good as there was a good amount of untracked powder below us. In fact it lasted a fair way down before getting a bit lumpy in the woods above St Jean.

It turned out we missed a bus by a couple of minutes in St Jean but the bus stop shares the space with a bar so we took a couple of beers while waiting for the next bus. All in all an excellent day and some great skiing.

This is the second day of my tour of the Gemmipass area, I’d stayed the night in Leukerbad and took the lift up again the next morning. Leukerbad has a fairly amazing position under some huge rock walls and there’s a completely mad track from the village up to the Gemmipass.

This was cut out of the rock face during the early 1740′s so serve as a mule track and trade route. It’s staggering to think someone must have stood down in Leukerbad and thought they could see a way to make a track up the cliff !

The path looks so amazing that I regretted slightly not descending the previous day, in general if there’s one available I take the lift down as it saves a bit of stress on the knees though.

After admiring the early morning views over to the Matterhorn and Weishorn area I headed round the Daubensee for the Rote Chumme (above right) another high pass at 2628m.

Heading up the Rote Chumme (above left) at around 2400m the path just seems to vanish, in fact it looks alarmingly like it heads into vertical rock and I had concerns it was going to turn into a via ferrata that I just wasn’t carrying the kit for. Fortunately, the path takes a sudden hairpin right and after a fairly thin traverse threads up to the Rote Chumme where I pause for a drink and look over to the Chindbettijoch. Around here is the border between the Valais and Bern cantons.

It’s pretty wild up this high, the last sheep are down grazing at around 2500m and there’s not much up here, some neve snow and rock is about all. By now people are arriving at Rote Chumme having hiked over from Chindbettijoch.

After dropping down a few hundred metres to the foot of the Tälligletscher and carefully crossing debris and a couple of glacial run-offs I gain the Chindbettijoch and take some more photographs before taking a decision to traverse the Engstligengrat to the Tschingellochtighorn at 2735m, don’t these names just fall off the tongue ?

Above right is a good view back to the ridge I’d traversed the previous day.

Above right is the Altels (3629m) and you can clearly see were the glacier came off in 1895 as I mentioned the previous day. Above left is a view back over Rote Chumme to the Weisshorn and Bishorn near Zinal. This is around 40km away and if you click on the photograph you can see the track from the Tracuit hut to the summit of the Bishorn.

Finally I reach Tschingellochtighorn, there’s no simple way to the very summit and I cross underneath to descend the loose slopes below to Engstligenalp and the lift down to Unter dem Birg. From Unter dem Birg I enjoy an ice cream while waiting for a bus to Adelboden for a connection to Frutigen and the train back to Bern.