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There's a certain kind of route up mountains that just looks impossible, or at least very dangerous, when when seen from a distance, but somehow turns out to be relatively straightforward - often little more than a hike. Classic examples in the Lake District are Jack's Rake on Pavey Ark, and the West Wall Traverse on Scafell.
Recently, I climbed two fantastic peaks in the Alps, both ultras (>1500 m of prominence) and both with highly unlikely looking, but ulimately non-technical routes to the top.
La Tournette (2338 m)La Tournette is a huge mountain East of Lake Annecy, South of Geneva. From a distance it looks like an impenetrable fortress with no obvious route up. Even up close, there are multiple sections that look unclimbable. Yet there's always a way, usually with only minimal scrambling.
- La Tournette from Crêt de la Neige
- La Tournette from Lac d'Annecy. Mont Baron is on the Left
I took the train to Annecy, then the 'water taxi' across the lake to the village of Talloires and stayed the night at a hotel in Agnon. The next morning, I set off at 6 am, mainly because the forcast was for rain in the afternoon. I figured I could potentially climb La Tournette in 4 hours, although this was a tad optimistic.
After climbing up through woodland, I reached the farm at Chalet d'Aulp. This is where the real climbing starts, beginning with a simple zig-zagging climb up beneath limestone crags:
The route then traverses to the Refuge de la Tournette:
After this, a path skirts around huge limestone cliffs:
Approaching the final wall of crags, there appears to be no way up. There is a possible weakness about halfway across, but can this be reached in the first place? The path leads up the left hand corner before traversing over a series of wide ledges with short sections of minor scrambling:
The snow patch seen in the photo above is the same as the one below. This section involves a slightly awkward scramble up wet rocks (old chain and a metal bar) then a traverse over a wide grassy ledge, then a further scramble up rocks to gain the summit ridge.
Now how the hell are you supposed to get up that?
The weak spot is on the East side. There is a short scramble with a chain for protection (which doesn't start until about 2 m up the climb), then one of two ladders.
Above the first ladder, there is a further chain protected climb, then the second ladder leads to the summit:
I was completely alone on the summit. Unusual for such a famous mountain. I had only met one group of three walkers coming down, otherwise I had the mountain all to myself. It had taken me about 4h 15m to reach the top.
On the way back down, I met many small groups on their way up. Several of these had minimal gear and some were what I call 'absolute zeros' - no gear at all, no rucksack, no trekking poles, not even water. How is that even possible on a warm day like this? I think I took about 3 litres with me. On a limestone mountain like this, there are no streams anywhere. And you can't just drink all the water you'll need at the beginning. That's not medically safe!
After about 4 hours of descent, I made it back to Talloires, thinking I could catch the water taxi back to Annecy. But the boats don't run on weekdays. No problem, I just caught the bus instead, but that's the last time I trust Google Maps for transport timetables
Säntis (2502 m)Säntis is near the north edge of the Alps, close to Leichtenstein. Despite not being very high, it has extraordinary prominence thanks to being cut off from the surrounding peaks by deep valleys. It's not only an ultra, but a P2000 and the high point of two Swiss cantons (the only mountain with that distinction), making it peak bagging gold. It's also got an enormous building complex on it's summit, including a weather station, a weather museum, a couple of restaurants, a gift shop and a 123 m high radio antenna. Despite this, there are some very interesting climbing routes on Säntis. I was especially interested in the SE ridge known as the Lisengrat. Like Jack's Rake, it looks terrifying and dangerous, but somehow involves little more than very minor cable protected scrambling. All the routes up Säntis are rated as 'mountain hiking trials' (red and white trail markers), rather than the more difficult or exposed 'alpine hiking trails' with blue and white markers.
I started out from the village of Wildhaus on the South side, through Heidi country:
The summit comes into view:
The incredible skyline of the Churfirsten ridge:
The other side features huge vertical cliffs and is a popular BASE jumping site (and frequent location for BASE jumping and wingsuit-related fatalities)
I followed a faint path for a while before getting lost and going off-piste, climbing easy limestone slabs:
I eventually found a path and followed it to the E ridge of Säntis. Here, a snow slope leads up a minor scramble leading to the North ridge. I was rather glad I'd brought my ice axe. It wasn't steep or dangerous, but I wouldn't want to slide back down and need to reclimb it.
The North Ridge:
The final cable protected climb up steep slabs:
Then everything becomes farcical:
Somehow the neat red door seems even more out of place at the summit of a mountain than the weird troll thing:
Time to get out of here!
After descending over rocky slabs from the summit, the first part of the Lisengrat is reached. This involves a short climb up a rocky outcrop with cables either side, then a descent with just one cable. Technically just a walk, but a fall would be fatal.
After that, the Lisengrat widens out into a broad grassy ridge. There is a choice of routes here, an easy descent to the South, or a continuation of the Lisengrat over a narrow, exposed section. I'd seen plenty of photos of this so I knew what was coming. I was very hesitant at first and almost decided to go the easy way, but at the last moment (thankfully) changed my mind.
Although very difficult to make out from this photo, there is a narrow ledge, around 1 m wide, leading along the N side of the ridge, protected by a steel cable the whole way.
The narrow ledge continues. Still just a non-technical path, but with significant exposure.
We're in a full-on Jack's Rake situation here. A short climb up steps cut into the rock leads over the crest of the ridge through a narrow groove:
Looking back over the Lisengrat:
The photo above was taken from the very top of the thing on the left side of the photo below (the highest point of the ridge is hidden). A steep but non-exposed descent leads down to reach the end of the Lisengrat.
Looking back up towards the Lisengrat from the descent:
The blurry photos above really don't do the Lisengrat justice. These Google panoramas give a much better impression:
https://www.google.com/maps/@47.2441946,9.354402,3a,48.9y,276.57h,84.38t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipP2QHhCfI4S88o9z25mhoilsRVeRz01HcaL8KzS!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipP2QHhCfI4S88o9z25mhoilsRVeRz01HcaL8KzS%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi0-ya314.23837-ro-0-fo100!7i8704!8i4352!5m1!1e4The first part of the Lisengrat:
https://www.google.com/maps/@47.248109,9.3434407,3a,75y,144.91h,96.68t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipO5afKyBLZuu_e2enfxFDf_QydANxUpXHSPL8mG!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipO5afKyBLZuu_e2enfxFDf_QydANxUpXHSPL8mG%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi0-ya312.05725-ro-0-fo100!7i11000!8i5500!5m1!1e4The wide grassy part in the middle:
https://www.google.com/maps/@47.2473235,9.3445289,3a,75y,129.12h,75.48t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sAF1QipOPPsdQzodLF8RN26PvB_BCbNhc5pye0E-zpW7l!2e10!7i11000!8i5500!5m1!1e4