Ober Gabelhorn North Face

After a bumpy start, summer was now in full swing here in Switzerland and with every new window of warm weather, the window for north face climbing was simultaneously growing slimmer each day. However, a forecasted cool and clear night on Saturday with temperatures well below freezing meant there was one more opportunity to be had. Not wanting to let this chance go to waste, Bas proposed an attempt to climb the north face of the Ober Gabelhorn – a climb that we initially considered two weeks ago but forewent in favor of climbing on the Triftjigrat up the Breithorn. While the Cabane du Mountet had originally been fully booked, there were now new spaces available, but Bas and I decided to stick with our original plan to bivy and enjoy a night under the open sky.

And so, with sleeping bags and mats packed, we made our way into Zinal. Stepping out of the bus, we were greeted by a beautiful clear sky, while the very agreeable temperatures – warm but not hot – were an indication of this relatively cool weather window to come. The approach began with a pleasant stroll along the Navisence river where we discussed the potential benefits of bringing a bike to flat approach sections like this. Once we got deeper into the valley, it became more and more apparent that the recent flooding in the Wallis had left their marks here as well. The most striking evidence was a bridge cut in half that now lead towards a straight drop into the river. The path consequently had to take a small detour that we followed to reach a newly built impromptu bridge made from wood – which was marked by the single tallest cairn I have ever come across – and allowed us to finally cross the river to get into steeper terrain. From here, we quickly gained elevation and after two hours, which included crossing an impressive little suspension bridge, we could eventually catch the first glimpse of our objective. From a distance, the Ober Gabelhorn looked majestic: a perfect pyramid with its top sliced off in a perfect horizontal cut, like some divine power had deemed the mountain’s geometry too good to be true.

After another hour, Bas and I were approaching the Cabane du Mountet where we treated ourselves to some cake with cream. The hut was busy and the benches outside were peppered with hikers and mountaineers alike lounging in the afternoon sun while the air was bustling with a palpable sense of anticipation for tomorrow’s adventures. The hike had taken us just over 4 hours, and so there was still time for us to enjoy the sunshine as well. From the amiable hut warden we learned that earlier this week a party had gone up the north face, but upon being faced with apparently horrendous snow conditions on the descent via the NNW-Ridge had to call for helicopter rescue. This thoroughly confirmed our plan to descend instead via the Wellenkuppe towards the Rothornhut. We were also told that there were supposed to be some bivy spots close by, and so we decided to make our camp in the vicinity of the hut instead of going down onto the glacier and gambling to find a suitable spot there. Although it felt a bit like cheating, it was nice to get water from the fountain at the hut and even be able to use the toilets there.

*Alpenglow on the Ober Gabelhorn (Bas already asleep missed it)*

*Getting into the steeper sections, still completely in the dark*

After furnishing our bivy spot, we started making dinner, which we enjoyed while studying our route for tomorrow. We could only see the north face from an angle, but there was a first steep slope to reach the plateau below the face that we were able to scout out. It frankly looked a little tricky and there were definitely blank sections of ice that we would have to cross at some point – but often times things look worse from a distance and so we were still fairly optimistic. Later in the evening, while Bas was already in his sleeping bag, we were paid a visit by two men and a woman who told us they were also going to attempt the north face tomorrow and asked if we had the same plans and when we would be starting. After a short chat the three of them went back having told us their aim was to leave at 1am. That sounded a little extreme to us, and so we set our alarms to shortly before 2am. As I was cuddled into my sleeping bag, I could watch the setting sun slowly turn the peak of the Ober Gabelhorn into a radiating orange. The sky was perfectly clear, prime conditions for a good refreeze over the night.

The night was mostly calm, but a little wind started to pick up around the time our alarms went off. We quickly packed our packs while we could see the first signs of movement back at the hut. This soon prooved to be the party of three we met yesterday, who passed by us while we were still organizing our gear. When we eventually set off ourselves, we could see the glow of their headlights in the distance. We followed them for a bit before deciding to stick to the GPX track on my phone, when they apparently had gone down to the glacier a different way. After perhaps 40 minutes we first set foot on the glacier, where we roped up and put on our crampons. After having gone down from the hut, the terrain now quickly became steeper. We made our way up the slopes of the glacier in zigzags, sometimes coming across the tracks of the others, until, at some point, there was no track anymore and their headlamps also failed to reemerge behind the crest of a slope. Some minutes later, I realized that we had actually passed the other party and the reason we couldn’t see the beam of their torches anymore was that they were now behind us.

The snow was frozen and firm so progress was quick, until we reached a band of rocks that we had seen yesterday from our bivy spot. Up close, it fortunately didn’t proove too difficult and we were able to navigate between the rock and snow without feeling the need to place protection. This way, the first question mark of our route was overcome and we could start into the steepest section of this first slope. I was in the lead and every now and then I checked the picture on my phone I took yesterday to make sure I chose the best line, trying to avoid as much of the blank ice as possible. Eventually, though, there was no way around it anymore and I had to step from the good solid firn onto rotten ice. I now started to place some ice screws while the dark of the night slowly gave way to the first glow of dawn. In my head, I was now aiming to go straight up to quickly reach the snow again, but Bas later informed me that I apparently had veered too much on the left and had actually stayed in the icy sections for much longer than was necessary. So much for having a picture on your phone for route finding... Nevertheless, we were able to reach easier terrain just as I ran out of ice screws, and now the angle of the slope gradually eased off until were standing on almost flat terrain again - the glacial plateau.

*Reaching the glacier plateau with dawn approaching*

Here we had a short snack break before continuing towards the Bergschrund below the north face. While navigating between the crevasses and seracs of the plateau, we were greeted by the first rays of sunshine that illuminated the peak of the Ober Gabelhorn and eventually the entire north face. From here, it looked to be in decent condition, but first we had to find a way to overcome the Bergschrund. Bas traversed below it for a while in a lot of soft fresh snow, but without much luck. Eventually, I just decided to go for it on a steep short section that looked like it could be climbed with a few determined moves. But as I started to swing my axes, I set off a spindrift avalanche on myself and suddenly had my mouth full of snow. My axes were slipping through the soft snow and I hardly found any purchase, but I was determined to get up this thing. I made my way up, sliding down one step for every two steps I made, but after a short and intense fight, I was standing atop the Bergschrund. I continued upwards a bit in better snow where I improvised an anchor with my tools to give Bas a little help in getting up himself. He also had to fight and was taking several attempts, but eventually he as well was now placed right inside our main objective

*Bas looking for a way up the Bergschrund with spindrift coming down the face*

Starting off, progress was good for the first 30 meters or so. Up until now, we had been making good time, reaching the plateau in around three hours from our bivy near the hut, which is right in line with the suggested times from the topo. This pace, however, was about to experience some serious slowing down after the Bergrschund had already cost us a considerable amount of time. With the firn becoming increasingly thin, Bas and I were soon standing on the ice with our front points and swinging our tools into the mountain. From here on out, we placed ice screws the entire way up the face. We were still simul-climbing and Bas was leading, but with only seven ice screws, he had to wait roughly every 70 meters for me to catch up and hand over the screws before he could continue. This way, our progress was now slowed down to a perceived crawl, and while the faced hadn’t looked particularly long from below, the summit was now seemingly getting further away with each step we took towards it. Our calf muscles and feet grew more tired the longer we were standing in the face, which slowed us down even further - which in turn meant we had to be in the face for even longer, making our legs all the more more tired. After the third swap over of ice screws, Bas was drained from leading, and so I took over for the last 100 meters towards the summit.

We could now finally feel our progress, and the rocks near the summit actually started appearing closer. I knew I had to, at some point, traverse out to the right to avoid the rocks right below the summit, and I was aiming for a small shoulder below some rocks. Here, I made an anchor to bring Bas up. Ironically, there was now a lot of soft and fresh snow covering the rocks, and instead of traversing through the loose snow, I decided to instead skirt upwards along the rocks which would hopefully give me something solid to hold onto. This penultimate pitch turned out to be a bit more technical than anticipated and while leading it, I had to clear a lot of snow from the rocks, but with slow and deliberate movements I was able to navigate this terrain and eventually reach the safety of an anchor made from old slings, which I reinforced before using it to belay Bas. This pitch had actually been a lot of fun, just technical enough that you had to really pay attention to your climbing, but with enough possibilities to place protection that it never felt particularly sketchy. Bas then took on the final meters towards the summit, on which we stood roughly 9 hours after setting off from our bivy. The north face with all its challenges - from the Bergschrund to the final mixed moves below the summit - had taken us almost 6 hours.

After a short lunch break at the summit, we started tackling the descent, which would prove to be a considerable challenge in its own right. Already quite fatigued after having been on the move for over 9 hours already, we now stood before a series of rappels down the steep east ridge of the Ober Gabelhorn. And looking further towards the jagged Gendarme that stood firmly in the middle of the firn-ridge leading towards the Wellenkuppe – like a guardian whose goodwill we would have to obtain for safe passage – we could sense this day was far from over. Realizing that we still had a long ways to go, we didn’t lose much time and started to make our way down. At this point, we were too focused on getting down to care much about the quality of the clusters of old slings that constituted our rappel anchors.

*The helicopter approaching while Bas is right at the rappel station where the rescue happened*

The rappels went smoothly, that was until we arrived at a rappel station where the party of three who had started into the north face with us had been positioned since we started down from the summit. The three had probably been an hour behind us when we last saw them below us, and they actually hadn’t made their way to the summit. Instead, they had traversed left out of the north face at some point to reach the rappel station, where they were now seemingly stranded. After inquiring about any injuries and being reassured that no one was hurt, it became clear that the cumulative effect of fatigue and the daunting-looking descent had apparently led them to call for a helicopter. That helicopter then arrived precisely when we were still all crammed together at this narrow rappel station, and upon being lowered, the rescuer was visibly confused that he now stood before five people instead of the three he had expected. We quickly explained that there were in fact only three people he had to take with him, but in all this confusion, Bas and I were distracted enough to forget to untie the knot at the end of our ropes when we pulled them. I now had to climb over some 10 meters up some slabby granite to reach the knot and release it. By the time I was down again, the helicopter had taken off, and Bas and I were on our own again, having lost quite some time however.

*One of the many rappels, this one right after the Wellenkuppe - the Rothornhut can be seen as a tiny grey speck in the distance, still a long ways to go*

We quickly finished the series of rappels and walked along the snow ridge towards the Gendarme. There was quite a bit of fresh snow that had softened under the sun and didn’t inspire a lot of confidence to move along the steep drops to either side. The Gendarme all of a sudden appeared like a solid island of safety and climbing it didn’t prove too difficult. There were some thick fixed lines that we used to downclimb the final bits of rock on the other side. Reaching the top of the Wellenkuppe was easy enough, but here it dawned on us how long we still had to go. The glacier still seemed out of reach, and we had to make another series of rappels, followed by a lot of downclimbing and scrambling until we reached an iron bar which marked the last of the rappels. In an ironic twist of fate, it was the very last rappel where our rope got stuck and it took five endless and exhausting minutes until we got it free. Thereby, we finally got ourselves out of the exposed terrain we had been navigating for over 12 hours at this point.

The subsequent walk down the slushy snow went in a breeze, and we were finally standing before the newly built Rothornhut. The outside of the hut was still under construction and it didn’t represent itself as quite as futuristic-looking as some other huts, but it nevertheless embodies what modern mountain infrastructure has come to look like. During our final walk down the glacier, we started to discuss the new problem that had now arisen for us: we were quite certain that there was really no way for us to catch the last connection from Zermatt to Zurich. But we both felt like we needed some refreshments before being able to contemplate our options. The inside of the hut was bright and inviting, with big panoramic windows offering views from the dining area and the wooden walls reflecting the warm glow of the circular LED lights on the ceiling. The guests of the hut were currently in the middle of their dinner and the kitchen therefore quite busy, but after some curious inquisition about where we came from at this late hour, we were offered a bowl of hot soup. The salty broth was exactly what our dehydrated bodies needed to regain some strength. Consequently, our initial ideas about spending the night at the hut we scrapped and we decided to head into Zermatt tonight. The trains still didn’t run on a regular schedule and perhaps there were some buses that would take us to Visp in time to catch the last train to Zurich.

*Finally reaching the newly built Rothornhütte*

It was a vague hope, but it still offered enough motivation that we set off at a brisk pace to make the steep descent into town. But there was really no way our efforts would be rewarded and when we had to take a detour from the flood-damaged hiking path and gain another 150m vertical meters we knew we would not be sleeping in our own beds tonight. The rest of the descent was mostly spent in silence, just focusing on putting one foot in front of the other to slowly chip away at all the elevation we had to lose until we could finally see the orange glow of the streetlights in Zermatt. It was approaching 9 p.m., and in the dusk we finally made our way into town – 19 hours after setting off from our bivouac and after 21km plus almost 3000 vertical meters made in descent. Suffice it to say we were both pretty tired and pretty much fell into the seats of the Matterhorn Gotthard Bahn.

On train, we were able to reach Täsch and then Visp by bus, but when we arrived around 11 p.m., not only was the last train to Zurich long gone, but there was also no store open anymore where we could buy some food. This meant we had to resort to foraging at the vending machines, but we didn’t care. Our plan was to catch the first train to Zurich tomorrow at 5:54 a.m., so it made the most sense to sleep at the train station. We were able to find a glass cubicle where we basically had our own private room, it even appeared to have been recently cleaned, making it feel like a 5-star room to us at this point.

So it was here that we made our second unplanned bivy to end what has been the longest day in the mountains for me so far. This tour required quite some commitment and endurance from us, both physically and mentally. There were moments for both of us when we took over doing the heavy lifting. In the end it was through the combined effort of our determination that were were able to pull this route off and when we rode home the next morning with the first train towards Zurich we were both tired, but also deeply satisfied.

Grand Combin W-E Traverse

Breithorn - Triftjigrat