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Some Zermatt Walks Part 1.

Some Zermatt Walks Part 1.


Postby past my sell by date » Fri Aug 05, 2022 4:28 pm

Date walked: 05/06/2009

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There are some walks around the head of the Mattertal that I had hoped to repeat to rephotograph in the vastly changed conditions of the last couple of decades, but after COVID and with travel so much more difficult, I don't think that is going to happen. So here they are:-

The Stockhorn - August 2009
stockhornmap.jpg
Stockhorn map
If you take the Gornergrat railway to it's terminus, you can continue up the rocky ridge to Hohtali (ski installations) and then on over Rote Nase (top of trifti) to the 3405m Stockhorn (3532m according to wiki et al) - at the time an Isolated rock outcrop amongst the snow. There is a little very easy sccrambling, and I seem to remember it took me 2-3 hours. Donna accompanied me as far as Hohtali and then returned.
Here are the photos.
on-the-Hohtaligrat.jpg
At Hohtali - Dent Blanche, Ober Gabelhorn, Rothorn and Weisshorn
Stock02.jpg
Matterhorn
Monte-Rosa-and-the-Lyskam-from-the-Hohtaligrat.jpg
Monte Rosa and the Lyskamm
Dent-Blanche from hotali.jpg
Zoomed -Dent Blanche
Mischabel-and-Alphubel-from-ridge.jpg
Taschhorn and Alphubel from somewhere on the ridge
Rimpfischhorn-and-Strahlhorn-from-ridge.jpg
Rimpfischhorn and Strahlhorn from the same point

And from the Summit:
Looking-down-the-ridge-from-the-Stockhorn(2).jpg
Looking back down the ridge
Looking-down-the-ridge-from-the-Stockhorn.jpg
A wider view with the Gornergletcher on the L
Monte-Rosa-from-the-Stockhorn.jpg
Monte Rosa
The-Lyskam-from-the-Stockhorn.jpg
The Lyskam
Stock11.jpg
Rimpfischhorn and Strahlhorn

The Gornergletcher June 2009
If you take the lift out of Zermatt to Furri and head off up to the Left you come to the outlet from the Gornergletcher (that once stretched nearly into the vilage :shock:
It flows out a gorge between two rock pillars and In June as the winter snow melts, the stream is a wild torrent
gornergletcher-exit-stream.jpg
Looking up into the gorge - a wild torrent
Looking-NW-from-Gornergletcher-exit-stream.jpg
Looking down from around the same point
GGdam.jpg
There is a hydroelectric dam there now
I climbed up the rocks on the left so that I could see the glacier itself and took a few more pics
looking-up-gornergletcher-to-the-Lyskam.jpg
looking up towards the Lyskam: 2008 was a very hot year and the glacier retreated around 380m - the average is about 95.
GG01.jpg
Dent Blanche, Ober Gabelhorn and Zinal Rothorn
GGG02.jpg
Zoomed view of the Dent Blanche
GG2004.jpg
I found this view from 2004 on the web
GG2015.jpg
And this one from 2015 - but nothing more recent

3 The Findeln glacier 2019
In 2003 after climbing the Strahlhorn Klaus and I walked down the Findeln glacier, climbed easily up the lateral moraine and returned to Fluealp that we'd left about 7 hours earlier
STR-018.jpg
On the glacier
Fluealp.jpg
Fluealp - the Adlerhorn behind
I was back in 2018. How things had changed :shock:
fin2018.jpg
around the same place in summer 2018
In 2019 I returned again with Alec from Vancouver: we took the lift to Blauhurd, descended to Fluealp for Lunch and then continued down to Zermatt by the little vilage of Findeln - stopping for a beer of course.
These are the photos
DSC00883.JPG
Wow :shock:
DSC00885.JPG

DSC00887.JPG

thumbnail.jpg
Some of the locals
DSC00901.JPG
Approaching Findeln

4 The gorge

The Gorner bach descends from Furri to Zermatt by a narrow gorge through which runs a via ferrata with bridges zipwires etc. I've done it a couple of times. Here are the (rather dark) photos.
At the bottom you join an old Victorian wooden structure than tourrists could ascend. You can see part of it (top Left)l in the last photo
Zermatt-gorge--02.jpg

Zermatt-gorge-04.jpg

Zermatt-gorge-06.jpg

Zermatt-gorge-08.jpg

Zermatt-gorge-10.jpg

Zermatt-gorge-12.jpg

Zermatt-gorge-14.jpg

ontinued in part 2 https://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=114162
Last edited by past my sell by date on Mon Dec 19, 2022 5:36 pm, edited 2 times in total.
past my sell by date
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Re: Some Zermatt Walks Part 1.

Postby Pointless Parasite » Sun Aug 07, 2022 4:44 pm

Nice :clap: I really like Stockhorn (actually it's 3532 m). I climbed it all the way from Zermatt last year, although most people just walk from Gornetgrat. Nice, easy scrambling with some incredible views of the big 4000ers nearby.

Is that gorge route open to the public or do you need to pay a guide company to use it (like the one in Saas Fee)? I'm going back there next week and was wondering what to do.
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Re: Some Zermatt Walks Part 1.

Postby past my sell by date » Sun Aug 07, 2022 5:55 pm

Hi PP
I'm afraid you do need a guide - to make sure you use the Zip wires correctly. there was a 21 year old British girl who died on the Saas one because she had gone in an unguided party and didn't do it properly' :(
There may be parties you can join to reduce the cost.
What to do ? I can thoroughly recommend taking the train to St Niklaus,and the lift to Jungen - a magical place and with a new cafe right beside the lift. :D Go round the circuit anticlockwise and continue to Topali - I did it in my late sixties so it's easily possible. Topali is a nice friendly hut - Never crowded when I've been there and with small rooms. From there you can do the dramatic wak to the Sollejoch and back and next day walk all the way to Tasch - descending to Randa results in an anticlimactic finish :( . It's all written up in my "hohenweg" series
You could also walk up the track to the Gorner gletcher exit, scramble up the rocky ridge and see what's left of the glacier
Wiki agrees with your 3532m height for the Stockhorn - I just took the figure from the trail map
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Re: Some Zermatt Walks Part 1.

Postby Pointless Parasite » Sun Aug 14, 2022 1:16 pm

Cheers. After getting food poisoning on Grand Muveran I needed to cut short my plans for the weekend and ended up doing the half traverse of the Breithorn. An incredible route, but the conditions were really shocking. You would not recognize the Breithorn now :( I'll write a walk report when I have the time.
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Re: Some Zermatt Walks Part 1.

Postby past my sell by date » Sun Aug 14, 2022 6:26 pm

Pointless Parasite wrote:Cheers. After getting food poisoning on Grand Muveran I needed to cut short my plans for the weekend and ended up doing the half traverse of the Breithorn. An incredible route, but the conditions were really shocking. You would not recognize the Breithorn now :( I'll write a walk report when I have the time.

I presume you didn't solo the Breithorn :shock: with the ultra soft snow the crevasse danger must have been extreme
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Re: Some Zermatt Walks Part 1.

Postby Pointless Parasite » Sun Aug 14, 2022 6:50 pm

No, I hired a guide for that one 8). Actually it was a bit cooler, so the snow/ice was nice and firm. At long last the temperatures are dropping and we'll be getting some much needed snow on the mountains and rain for the garden :D
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Re: Some Zermatt Walks Part 1.

Postby past my sell by date » Fri Sep 30, 2022 10:50 pm

Just seen Attenboroughs Frozen Planet II episode 3
There is a time lapse series of the Gornergletcher''s ice loss at about 47min into the prorgam
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