Western Oberland 8 The Wildstrubel

[past my sell by date]

The 3244m Wildstrubel is a mountain with three tops of almost equal height arranged roughly in a semicircle. It lies a few Km. W of the Gemmi pass, and while the Western side is mainly shale and rock, the Eastern is quite heavily glaciated although as everywhere the glaciers are shrinking all the time.

Map of The Wildstrubel - the normally recognised summit is the 3244 peak at the lower L

This side is well seen from the slopes of the slightly lower Steghorn
I originally climbed the Wildstrubel with Klaus and Donna in 2005. we parked at Leuk station, took a bus to Leukabad, the Lift to the Gemmi Pass and then walked (ca. 2 hours) to the Lammeren hut.

On the track shortly after leaving the lift

Walking up the flat river bed towards the hut

Pics taken on the 2013 walk in - the hut is up to the R - almost exactly centre picture
Looking back - the small lake is the Lammerensee

Oxlip - Primula elatior below the hut

The Lammeren hut - looking S across the valley towards the Schwarzhorn

Evening view - looking back to the Balmhorn
However, the weather was misty all the next day. We climbed the left branch of the glacier to the summit, but got no views at all - a total wash out . I tried to climb the peak from the other side in 2012 -See Western Oberland 2 - but again was frustrated by the weather.
However in 2013 David and I made a third attempt. walking in to the Lammeren hut in exactly the same way and planning to traverse the mountain to the Wildstrubel hut. There was quite a lot of snow, but the Warden at the hut assured us it would not be a problem.

Traverse of the Wildstrubel
From the hut you head W and then turn R into the valley below the mountain. We decided to take the RH branch of the glacier with its conspicuous ice cave - as it looked easier

Looking back down the valley and up the Lammeren glacier to the peaks at its head it

Looking on up our route - the ice cave is just out of sight over the lip

Gearing up: the steeper RH glacier branch is R of centre

At the Ice cave

Looking back down from here
We turned the ice cave on its L and headed easily up to the central summit and then across to the main one

Looking South down our approach route

Across to the main summit

looking North

Down to the Glacier de la Plaine Morte
We descended to the glacier on a zig-zag track over a mixture of shale slopes and snowfields. and trudged across it for about 4Km. we didn't rope up or even put on crampons. Being "dead" flat it has no discernable crevasses. At the end we followed a track to the hut.

Back to the Wildstrubel across the Plaine Morte: the path descends almost directly from the high point

Wildstrubel hut
This time I had rung up to book the hut, but when we got there they had no record . although fortunately they did have space .
"I spoke to someone in German" I said
"No-one speaks German here"
" I wonder if I booked the Wildhorn hut by mistake" ( the phone Nos. are similar and on adjacent lines in the guide)
" We'll ring Willy and find out"
Then a few minutes later :-
" Oh yes you did - he's busy cooking your dinner"
So when we went to the Wildhorn hut we didn't book and when we booked we didn't go
I didn't feel any real sense of guilt - what goes around comes around. I just wonder why any "Basil Faultys" want to run mountain huts. The first essential at any kind of "catering" establishment is surely to be pleasant and friendly to whoever comes thru the door.
We planned to descend from here to the Rawil pass and then go on down the Alpages de Rawil to the Lac de Tseuxier

Descent route
In the evening we were treated to quite a dramatic sunset

In the morning we set off down the zigzag path to the col - a lot easier than climbing up it the previous year - and headed L down the valley

From outside the hut, Looking down the valley and across to the Wildhorn

Zoomed view of the Wildhorn and our 2012 descent route from the Schnidehorn

Down in the valley looking back up
The alpine plants in the limestone areas are of course different from those on the mostly acid soils of the Valais, and some of the ones on this descent were particularly splendid

Ranunculus alpestris - Alpine Buttercup

Soldonella alpina - Alpine Snowbell

Gentiana acaulis - Koch's Gentian

Erinus alpinus - Fairy Foxglove

Trolleus europaeus - Globeflower

Onobrychis montana - Mountain Sainfoin
At the bottom end of the valley we joined a big track which took us down to the beautiful Lac de Tseuxier a popular tourist attraction. We walked down to the bottom end of it with a fine waterfall opposite, and from there followed first the road and then a series of pleasant paths down to Ansere and a bus back to Sion in the Rhone Valley.

The waterfall seems to spout directly out of the rock

Looking back up the lake