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.

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.

click on photograph for larger version

click on photograph for larger version

I wanted to make this route for a little while. It starts off at Schwarzsee a small village with a ski station that I’ve skied and hiked around before. Kaiseregg is the local peak at 2185m and offers some great views over this side of the alpes and Bernese Oberland. Yesterday, August 1st, was a public holiday in Switzerland for Swiss National day. The last time we went round here was a few weeks back when we got as far as the car park at which point it started some torrential rain and we withdrew. This time we had clear skies and sunshine.

We took the ski lift from the lake up to 1480m and had a coffee at the restaurant before making the climb to Salxmatt at 1637m (above), you can drive up to here and a lot of people had. You also get the first full view of Kaiseregg which is the peak on the far right of the picture. It’s then a climb up to the Kaisereggpass where we paused for a drink and to admire the scenery.

I’ve stored the track in my GPS and you can see it in Google Earth :

click on photograph for larger version

It’s pretty busy at Kaisereggpass and this is obviously a popular way to spend National day locally. After a short while we turn and head up to Kaiseregg itself.

click on photograph for larger version

And up at the top it’s crowded almost ! We arrive in time for lunch and find a spot to eat our sandwiches and enjoy the view. It’s a clear day and we can see the Jura in one direction and views over the Alpes including the Eiger, Matterhorn, Weisshorn, Dent Blanche and Mont Blanc.

click on photograph for larger version

After finishing lunch we turn and head back down to Kaisereggpass and here it’s decision time. The choice is to decsend the same way or to make the traverse and descend to Ritxlialp. We take the second option and start to traverse. Immediately the track worsens but we expect this as we’re now on a full blown mountain route and of course we now have the track to ourselves apart from a group we’d seen way ahead of us.

click on photograph for larger version

The track gets pretty interesting now, it’s along a knife edge ridge in places and turns from a walk into a scramble as we climb short sections to the summit (above left). It’s fairly safe in the fine dry conditions but it’s exhilarating stuff!

The ridge traverse was pretty serious in places but really excellent, a classic Alpine traverse with stunning views.

click on photograph for larger version

In fact, we saved the worst until last. As we descend from the summit we pass first a steep grassy slope with a thin and precarious path before hitting the refuge at Golmly under the impressive Chällihorn (above right). From here the going gets pretty tough, we finished our drinks at the refuge and headed down into the gully. This was scrambling down rocky paths for most of the way and very tiring indeed. By the time we got to the bottom the farm selling beer was one of the most welcoming things I’ve seen for a long time.

After a very refreshing beer we made our way down to Schawarzsee along a track I’ve skied a couple of times off-piste in the winter. My memory was of something short and fairly flat but of course on foot it seems longer and steeper and something that I’d do in a few minutes on skis took an hour or so.

This was probably slightly longer than the “let’s take a look at Kaiseregg” walk that I’d lured Julie along to enjoy though!

click on photograph for larger version

This was the first time I’ve been into this area in the summer, I’ve skied there in the winter making descents to the barrage and ski touring in the col de Torrent and alpage de Torrent areas but I’ve entered the Torrent from the Lona area near Grimentz climbing the ridge near the the Diablon. I intended to climb to the col de Torrent and then ascend the Sasseneire at 3250m from there. It’s one of the bigger peaks in the area and the biggest between Grimentz and Zinal.

There’s a GPS track file

WARNING !! The trail from the barrage at Moiry to the Col de Torrent is fairly straightforward and a typical alpine route. However, the ascent and descent of Sasseneire from col de Torrent is extremely serious and is not a fully marked trail, it has sections of extreme exposure with potential falls of several hundreds of metres for long sections. The trail itself is difficult to find and crosses steep and very unstable scree slopes. It shouldn’t be attempted in bad weather or with the risk of bad weather and is really only recommended for experienced alpinists suitably equipped.

click on photograph for larger version

The shot on the left is taken in more or less the same position as one I took back in April as I skied down to the barrage, that’s here. Fortunately it’s the summer now and you can drive up to the barrage and park, in fact while in winter it’s a pretty deserted place in the summer there’s a little cafe and a car park along with a bus stop.

click on photograph for larger version

The skyline is dominated by the Dent Blanche and you’re struck by the number of 4000m peaks in the area.

click on photograph for larger version

The Sasseneire is now visible on the left photo’ and looks pretty simple from here although a bit of a slog to get there. On the right the col de Torrent is also visible.

click on photograph for larger version

Above left is the ridge from the Diablon where I skied down last time I was over here. On skis it’s pretty simple although slightly steep but in summer it’s very steep and there’s no paths there.

Above right is the view into the val d’Herens and up towards Arolla, it’s a simple walk down to Evolene from here and I’d thought about dropping down and finding somewhere to stay for the night then walking back.

click on photograph for larger version

The ridge on the Sasseneire is a little exciting in places, it’s really loose and almost immediately there’s a section at about 30′ or more that’s hard to get any footing on, on the ascent the thought is how awful that will be on the descent but as the summit ridge gets a lot worse the lower section is actually simple on the descent.

click on photograph for larger version

Incredibly, on the left there’s a path through this jumble of rock and rubble, it’s not a lot more obvious when you’re on it and I considered turning back a couple of times. Still, the views back (right) are pretty fantastic.

click on photograph for larger version

On the left is view to the Diablon and near the Lona which is close to Grimentz and again where I’ve skied before.

click on photograph for larger version

There’s a great view to the Lac Lona and Becs de Bosson which I’ve some photo’s of in the winter :

Grimentz – col de Torrent
Grimentz – Cabane des Becs de Bosson 1
Grimentz – Cabane des Becs de Bosson 2

From here it’s a treachorous descent of the ridge and back down the barrage, there’s no doubt that it’s much, much easier in the winter making the descent on skis though.

click on photograph for larger version

I took the gondola from Grindelwald village at 1000m up to First at 2168m. My plan was to walk to Grosse Scheidegg on the north of the Schwarzhorn via Hagelseeli, Häxeseeli and the Blau Gletscherli. Really the Blau Gletscherli is not so much a glacier but more névé, that’s to say it’s snow left from the winter and has melted, refrozen and compacted down. Even so, this is traditionally early season for these slightly higher routes and it’s hard to know how snow and ice you might encounter.

click on photograph for larger version

There’s a Google Earth file / GPS file here :

click on photograph for larger version

Leaving the lift station the route meanders along a well traveled track, at 10am already busy with Japanese tourists walking up to the hotel at Faulhorn, that’s actually a fair walk with a 500m ascent. After a short way that route heads to the Bachsee and my route takes me up and west towards Hagelseeli.

click on photograph for larger version

For a few hours now I don’t see another person and have the mountain to myself. It’s a nice route and I’ve soon got into a rhythm and I’m enjoying the views. There’s an amount of snow around and it’s a little awkward in places, erring on the side of caution I’d taken a lightweight ice-axe and some crampons out with me but didn’t really quite need them.

click on photograph for larger version

Some of the snow is difficult, it’s a thin layer covering rocks and the odd stream so a careless step will take you through the snow and could be quite nasty.

click on photograph for larger version

Descending the Blau Gletschererli was fun, the névé was pretty soft and perfectly straightforward although I was glad to have the ice-axe for security although it stayed strapped to my pack.

click on photograph for larger version

And then of course, it’s the descent. Alpine routes are a formula like this, a lung busting ascent followed by a knee shattering descent. As Grosse Scheidegg is down at 1962m is about an 800m descent from Blau Gletschererli.

click on photograph for larger version

I arrived at Grosse Scheidegg at about 10-to-just-in-time, as I sat in the restaurant to enjoy a beer waiting for the bus the clouds that had been building for the last hour or so let loose some thunder, lightning and heavy rain.

But, a couple of weeks ago we were descending Teysachaux, a local peak, and I happened to glance at the GPS and noticed it was displaying the wrong coordinates, the North position was correct but the East position was wrong placing me 20km further south. I presumed I’d programmed the wrong map datum onto it and didn’t think too much more about it. Later when I checked this at home I found exactly the same error with the same margin and confirmed that it was using the Swiss Grid CH1903. Some more tests showed that the latitude and longitude was perfectly correct and that positions transferred to the PC would be displayed correctly, I presume that the base system is latitude and longitude and that the translation is in error.

I think if I didn’t actually really just use a normal Swisstopo paper map I’d probably have noticed this sooner, in fact I’m not sure if this is new behaviour or it’s been doing this since new. Possibly one of the firmware updates introduced this. Anyway, I managed to contact Garmin by phone as their trouble ticket system wasn’t working and a couple of days later they’ve confirmed the problem and are suggesting they’ll be an update sometime in the next month to address this

I opted for the Garmin eTrex Vista Cx as it was a mid-range mapping unit with a barometric altimeter and electronic compass included. Most GPS can tell you altitude but they’re not renowned for their accuracy so you really need a barometric altimeter if you want some accuracy. I’ve also got the SwissTopo maps for the device for the whole of Switzerland which are in the proprietary Garmin format for use with the MapSource product.

The software has been a nightmare, when I first tried to initialise the maps the Garmin server wasn’t working and I couldn’t unlock them. You need two different keys as well, one to get the maps installed onto your PC and another to unlock them to get them onto the device. Later when I moved computer the registration failed, as I’d already installed on my old desktop and laptop, so I had to call a premium rate line to get it re-enabled, this is common practice in the software industry now, for example Microsoft do it, but Microsoft are pretty slick so while the principle is irritating at least the practice isn’t. The Garmin principle and practice was irritating though.

A Field Trial on a Ski Tour

This is from a short ski-tour I took back in April (Grimentz – col de Torrent) round the local area. The blue line is my planned route and the red is the actual track recorded by the GPS. The numbers along the blue route are the waypoints I’ve entered, I number these in gaps of ten to allow me to insert more points later.

To plan the route I used the Garmin MapSource software, this works pretty well once you’ve actually got all the maps together and unlocked. I worked from the SwissTopo paper map and took coordinates from it. SwissTopo have specialist Ski Tour maps, the blue ones if you see them in the shops. These have much more information than the maps on the GPS. The Ski Tour maps mark established ski routes and reference them to the CAS (Swiss Alpine Club) area guides which contain route descriptions. The maps also mark huts and have a notation to show risk areas for steeper slopes, in short they’re absolutely essential for the ski tourer. There’s an electronic CAS product in association with SwissTopo but I’m not really clear what it is and if it covers ski tours or summer routes.. Besides, it’s fun to sit planning routes with the books and maps !

Tip #1 : When transferring the coordinates from the map we’re only looking for way points, the easiest location for waypoints are where your route crosses a grid line on the map, this way you only need to measure on one axis.

Tip #2 : I store each route in a different MapSource file but I start with the same template each time, this template has a series of waypoints stored in it that I’ve entered, for example huts, ski lifts or landmarks like lakes of cliffs etc., along with some I’ve recorded from other trips. This makes planning a route quite quick.

Now I have a MapSource route I can use the MapSource feature to look at it in Google Earth. The first thing I’m looking for is if the straight lines between my waypoints are a problem, i.e. they don’t take me over a vertical drop rather than through a couloir. This really helps with my route visualisation as well, in practice I tend to know the area I’m heading into reasonably well but Google Earth can help me identify some potential risk areas.

So, why did my actual route vary from my planned one? In summer paths are pretty fixed things but in winter it’s not so much the case, snow cover varies each year, obstacles appear like avalanche debris for example and, all things being equal, you’d tend to follow an established track for ascents at least. That means it’s probably not too worthwhile trying to plot an exact route on the GPS, heading the right direction and avoiding the obvious obstacles is good enough. I’d also intended to go to the cabane at Becs de Bosson for a drink and for some reason I can’t recall now decided not to.

What I did need to do was hit my waypoints numbered 90 and 120, I needed to hit number 90 as it was the only realistic point to cross that ridge and there were some significant local risks just at the end of the climb, from there I contoured out instead of dropping straight into waypoint 100 to avoid some potential risk on a 30′ + slope facing into the sun. Likewise, I wanted to hit waypoint 120 to take a decision on a direct line to the barrage on some steeper slopes opposed to the the low risk line I’d plotted into the GPS. I also plotted a line into the GPS to avoid a couple of small cliffs that would have been a risk in poor visibility. The actual track shows me zigzagging a little to avoid those cliffs which was simple enough in the good visibility that day.

The red line showing my actual route then seems to head straight down the valley, in fact the GPS lost the fix leaving the barrage.

This highlights one of the things that annoys me about the unit, there’s an alarm to tell you you’ve lost the fix which is totally inaudible so you don’t realise what’s happened. That’s not to say it’s actually hard to get a fix, my experience tells me that had I stopped at any point on that section of the descent and pointed the GPS at the sky I’d have quickly got a fix. In this case as the avalanche risk in that section was high I didn’t stop until much later when I noticed I’d lost the fix.

Garmin have announced a “high-sensitivity” version of this unit now which might hold onto the fix better, that’s certainly going to help but I’m not so sure it’s necessary. I’ve not found any problem getting a fix in normal use when I stop and consult the GPS or map. The loss of fix doesn’t hamper navigation just the production of the track data, a louder beep would be just fine.

I’m having mixed results with batteries currently and their life. It’s certainly worth carrying a spare set in my experience and even better to be sure you’ve actually got a map and compass, know how to use them and where you are.

Actually moving with the GPS I’ve not encountered any really bad weather so far to test it, I still prefer to glance at the paper version of the map along the route, this is part ritual or habit but the map has some advantages as it lets me see a wider context for location as it’s not limited to the tiny screen on the eTrex Vista. Between the map, my planning and visualisation of the route and my local knowledge of the nearby peaks and mountains I’ve not really had call to to rely on the GPS at all. I’ve used the barometric altimeter as well but again, I generally have a good idea what height I am at and my climb rates, this needs calibrating from a known height each day but seems pretty accurate, it will be interesting to try this more in some more variable weather though.

What is impressive though is that when the navigation is activated features such as “time to next waypoint” are available, this has proved surprisingly accurate and predicted my arrival at the barrage to within a couple of minutes.

Software

I’ve recently made an Apple MacBook Pro my main computer so I’m disappointed that the MapSource application is only available for Windows. As a result I’ve ended up using VMware Fusion to run this and a couple other things under a version of Windows XP. Apple Boot Camp or Parallels would equally support this. Garmin do seem to have plans to get MapSource running on the mac’ according to this blog entry : Mac Betas, obviously this is vaporware at the moment and there’s no indication how existing users would get upgrades etc.

There’s actually several ways to get your track onto a Mac’, Google Earth or LoadMyTracks for example, however they lack some of the features that MapSource has. In MapSource I can edit the track to remove the odd rogue point where the GPS lost accuracy and placed me in a lake or something, I can also filter the track to remove unnecessary points although this is a bit cosmetic, it’s just that if you go in a straight line you get point after point where two would be good enough.

So, I end up using MapSource under Windows XP. I back up the raw file then make any edits I want before saving it as a GPX (GPS eXchange Format) file which is a pretty common format. From here I can go back to the mac and work from there.

I then produce a KML (Keyhole Markup Language) file, this is the format used by Google Earth and lets me post the file on my blog like this :

which obviously need the reader to have Google Earth installed. Another option is to use the web based Google Maps like this :

And of course you can just produce JPEG files in the application as I’ve done above.

I make the KML file using the tool GPSBabel which runs on a variety of platforms including a GUI version for the mac.

Since I never leave home without my camera the next thing I do is “geotag” the photographs, this involves using the track data to place metadata in the photographs about the location they were taken by matching the times. Obviously this sounds like a chore but there’s software to do it. Originally on Windows I’d used the World-Wide Media eXchange client which is simple and easy to use, it’s part of the Microsoft Research so presumably it might find it’s way into their products at some time. On the mac I’ve got the excellent HoudahGeo application, this is a classic mac application; simple and easy to use and looks great.

This does highlight the need to remove those rogue points from the track though, the gecoding applications have to work out where you picture was taken from the time in it and the time on the track, this may or may not correspond to when the GPS actually recorded a waypoint. From here you can put your photographs into Picasa which can show the locations in Google Earth or submit them to a service like Panoramio who submit them to Google Earth. In fact, Panoramio have just been bought by Google so that service may develop. Of course, these photographs will be accurately tagged, if you look in Google Earth there’s some howlingly bad locations entered!

Links

I’ve come across a couple of sites that act a repositories for GPS routes, so far I’ve not posted any track files nor have I used any but these sites look interesting :

GPS-Tour.info

gps-tracks.com

Summary

The eTrex Vista Cx really has four different functions :

• provides location using latitude/longitude or local coordinate system
• shows position on colour map screen
• tracks and stores location for later download
• acts a barometric altimeter.

If you can start to sacrifice features then there’s some cheaper units available from Garmin and others. For instance simple units that really only produce tracks or ones that don’t have maps.

I’m very happy with this unit myself, the single item that annoys me is the inaudible warning when a fix is lost or low battery. In general I’m a bit suspicious of GPS if it’s used as a substitute for reading a map and using a compass, those are vital, in fact essential, skills in the mountains. It’s light and rugged and easy to use in all sorts of light conditions with the aid of the backligh, Garmin suggest these models are focussed on the mountaineer and that’s a reasonable claim for them to make.

click on photograph for larger version

After ski touring in the Matterhorn area last weekend it seems appropriate that this weekend I took a ski tour in the Jungfrau region near the Eiger. The target of the trip was the Lötschenlücke starting from the Jungfraujoch and taking in the Aletsch and Lang Glaciers before a descent into the Lötschental (above) and onto Blatten for a bus and train trip back to Interlaken. This takes in an area that makes up part of the Jungfrau-Aletsch-Bietschhorn UNESCO World Heritage site and is a heavily glaciated area.

click on photograph for larger version

I have produced another GPS track file showing the route we took from the Jungfraujoch.

click on photograph for larger version

The snow leaving the Jungfraujoch was pretty good and there was a light layer of fresh snow which made it more pleasant.

click on photograph for larger version

After quite an enjoyable ski and shorter flatter section taking around 45mins it was time to put the climbing skins on and make for the Lötschenlücke. By now it was 10am and getting quite hot so although the climb is fairly easy the heat looked certain to make it seem further.

click on photograph for larger version

Taking a welcome drink break after around an hour.

click on photograph for larger version

And two hours after starting the climb reaching the Lötschenlücke with the hut perched above us.

click on photograph for larger version

After making the climb in tee shirts a cool wind was blowing over the pass and we need to put fleeces and jackets on to avoid cooling too much before skiing into the valley.

click on photograph for larger version

I was pretty surprised by the snow for the descent, I’d expected we’d ski a few hundred meters and then be walking but cover was good down to a few minutes from the road at 1789m giving a descent of around 1400m vertical and about 10km.

click on photograph for larger version

In total it’s a route covering about 25km with around 6km of ascent. It’s a classic route and pretty well known in Switzerland being somewhat comparable to the Vallee Blanche although requiring climbing and ascent which that route does not.

There’s a fuller gallery here : http://snowslider.net/gallery/2007_-_ski/2007_04_28_l__tschenl__cke and I have the originals if other party members want to use the contact form and send me a message.

click on photograph for larger version

After arriving at Gant we took a the lift and skied down the piste to the Sunnegga restaurant and enjoyed some very welcome cold drinks. All in all it was an excellent day and a real bonus for the end of the season. And a big thank-you to the guide for leading us and the other people in the group for having some patience with me fiddling with my bindings all the time, I’m not totally familiar with the dynafits yet and it’s taking me a little while to keep attaching them!I’ve a fuller gallery here : http://snowslider.net/gallery/2007_-_ski/2007_04_22_-_zermatt and if the other people in group want the originals, along with a few other shots I didn’t post then use the contact form and I’ll send a link to the full versions.

click on photograph for larger version

Originally I’d planned to go for a tour today but it snowed fairly heavily overnight and visibility was awful this morning so I just went out to enjoy the powder. As is normal in powder the run over to Grimentz was sensational with very few tracks on it and the sun finally broke through as I was arriving in Grimentz.

click on photograph for larger version

It’s a little busy by normal standards but nothing exceptional and as most of the skiers were just Easter holiday tourists they were mostly not taking advantage of the fresh powder. I’d not skied round to the side of the Abondance itinerary before so I gave that a go and got some nice fresh powder (all tracks below are mine). I’ve plotted it using the GPS for a bit of fun as well.

click on photograph for larger version