Ober Gabelhorn . North face

The tour was done on the 5./6. June 2015.

After the descent at the Lenzspitze last week, I decided to make profit of the good conditions to ski steep again. Although I was not sure how good it will be. with the warm weather. But the only way to find out was by going there. I had different objectives in mind. When James agreed to join me, we decided to go to the Ober Gabelhorn. I was hoping that the north exposition conserved the snow the best from the warm temperatures. So, on Friday morning, after sorting out everything at work, we started with James's car towards the Val d'Anniviers. This time, I decided to bring with the light setup (Dynafit TLT race boots, Blizzard ZeroG - 178/85 with ATK race bindings). We also took along the bikes, since the way from Zinal to where the steeper part of the climb to the Cabane du Mountet started was far and flat enough. So we made our way to that point quickly. There we left out bikes, locked them and started to hike against the hut on the summer way.

The way proofed to be longer than expected. The most parts were dry. The higher we climbed, the more snow patches came. It slowed us down bit. After a while, the snow patches became to a continuous snow cover and we could walk with the skins on the skis. After another while, we had the first close up with our goal for the next day.

First look to the north side of the Ober Gabelhorn.

Soon after that, we reached the SAC hut 'Cabane du Mountet'. To our surprise, there was already one person there. Peter was his name. He reported that he came one day before and stayed in the hut for another day. The good thing was, that there was already a fire in the oven. A big advantage compared to last week in the Mischabelhut. Also, the cooking facilities and the wood was much better here compared to last week. While we cooked dinner, we had a chat with Peter. He had the same line in mind as we did. I think he was happy to have some company after a day alone in the hut.   

The next morning, we woke up at 2.30 in the morning, had some breakfast and headed for the climb. At the hut, the snow was only frozen at the top. For the climb, we first had to ski down the moraine to the glacier. We took out the rope there and used it for the first part of the climb, that could be walked with the skis on. Also here, just the upper part of the snow was frozen. Underneath, the snow was quiet wet. But at that time, safety wise we were fine, as long as we didn't go down too late here. So we changed from skis to crampons and mounted the skis on the back. The first part of the climb was a bit inhomogeneous. Sometimes, we were sinking in to the knees, other times, it was carrying. In the end, the higher up we climbed, the more the snow surface was carrying. After a while, we reached the upper half, where the slope was quickly getting flatter, before the last head wall started.

James, shortly before we reached the head wall.

Shortly before we reached the Bergschrund, we placed all the gear we didn't need for the climb. From here on, we used also the two ice axes to climb on. The part of the wall with more eastern exposition was a bit softer, higher up, the exposition turned more to north and the snow became harder, some parts even a little icy.

At this time, the wall was in the sun. Climbing went on quiet good and soon after, we reached the ridge that lead to the summit. This part was not that steep any more and we quickly reached the summit at around 7.45. The view was awesome. All the 'Big Players' were close and in clear view.

King Matterhorn with Hörnli ridge, north face and Zmutt ridge.

After some rest on the top, nearly the biggest challenge was to get into the skis on the summit. But with the help of your buddy it worked. Skiing down the first part was OK. The snow was still frozen quiet much, but one could get some grip and it wasn't too steep.

Looking down from the summit to the top of the ridge.

Just after the last rocks, we entered the north face. Here, since the sun was warming the snow for a longer time, the grip was better then on the ridge, but also it was much steeper. Very steep indeed. But skiing was OK, with every turn, the confidence was rising, as well as the snow got a bit softer. The lowest part before the Bergschrund, with the most eastern exposition even had some nice corn.

James in the lower part of the north face.

After reaching the material we placed at the bottom, we decided to directly continue, since we still remembered the soft snow at the beginning of the climb. But it turned out, that for skiing, the lower part was carrying very good, but was still frozen hard. So we waited a bit for it to soften and for ourselves, to eat something. After some time we continued. Also that part was OK to ski. Just the lowest part, where some old wet snow avalanches were laying, was pretty bad. 

A short while after, we reached again the hut. Our plan was to stay there one more day. We had in mind to go to the Zinalrothorn the day after. But in the end, it didn't work out. But before, we had an easy day at the hut with where the program could be summarized by eat, sleep, repeat.

Looking back to the Ober Gabelhorn from the second breakfast.