ALPINE CLASSICS
ow many major summits in the Alps could you even consider climbing right after a winter storm? The Strahlhorn is one of the very few. You can ski tour up to the summit from the
Britannia Hut barely crossing a 30º slope, so it’s one of the very few high mountains feasible when the snow pack is too risky for most other objectives.
The Strahlhorn is technically one of the easiest of the 4,000m peaks, yet its solid 8km approach is enough to deter the masses and the mountain retains a beautifully wild feel. Because of this long approach, it can be a more satisfying expedition on skis. The Strahlhorn is also an ideal peak for training and acclimatisation before tackling a higher objective, or as part of a traverse from Zermatt to Saas Fee. It can be climbed in all seasons, on foot or on snowshoes. However in bad weather it’s easy to get disorientated on the vast plateau of highly-crevassed glaciers, so it is even more essential to have a confident navigator in the team. The traverse I suggest is neither difficult nor committing, but in fine weather and with stable snow it offers a great round trip crossing more interesting terrain than a round trip via the normal route. From the summit, there is a fun and exposed ridge scramble leading to the eastern shoulder and then a steeper (30-35º) ski line heads back north-east to the Fluchtpass. Gentle glacial terrain then regains the approach route.
THE CLIMB:
“We woke at 2am to the sound of syrupy love songs playing out over the speakers in our bedroom in the Brittania Hut. Soon after, the guardian popped his head in to check we were getting up and not lounging in bed. It was the first morning the hut was open for the summer, and the guardian was remarkably jovial considering the hour. After just four hours sleep,
60 | CLIMB. WALK. JOIN.
we were a little less enthusiastic. I popped outside to see what the conditions were like. The air was warmer than I’d hoped but actually still cooling down after the previous hot day. With a cloudless moonlit sky the snow had become firm, and I could see all the slopes to the Strahlhorn and Rimpfischhorn summits, six kilometres distant. I had been up the Strahlhorn several years previously, but in the winter season and with reliable cold temperatures we’d made a slovenly start at sunrise. This time in the morning, a few slices of bread and some weak coffee were the best I could struggle down before the pangs of nausea calmed my enthusiasm. A large group of snowshoers were up and heading out at the same time. We watched them head off – a slow caterpillar of lights winding down onto the glacier below. The snow slope below the refuge was laced with deep runnels of meltwater channels, balls of snow and pinwheels, all now frozen hard. After this rattling start to help digestion we soon got down onto the glacier below. Once on the glacier, the snow was smooth and fast and we slowed just to pass the snowshoers and wish them well on their day. When we glided to a halt, we put our skins on at the far side of the
R Valentine Fabre on the South East Ridge of the Strahlhorn
Hohlaub glacier. Thankfully, the 400m of ankle-breaking moraine was still entirely covered and we also passed straight over the dense crevassing of the Allalin glacier that had been so time consuming descending from
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