I was on a deadline today, I wanted to make Malbun in Liechtenstein by around midday to catch a bus and get a connecting train home, also the forecast had suggested the weather would worsen during the day. So I was first out the hut and was walking by 0730. Even at this time it was surprisingly humid and quite unpleasant, the Schesaplana Hütte is down at 1908m and we’d had dinner outside the previous evening but this morning it all seemed lacking in altitude. Fortunately as I climbed up above 2100m the air freshened up and it became quite pleasant.

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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.


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