Trifthorn (13.07.2020)


Start point Cabane du Grand Mountet (2,880m)
Characteristic Alpine trip
Duration 5h 17min
Distance 7.6km
Vertical meters 1,006m
GPS

Summer holidays 2020 was supposed to have been spent first in Peru and then in the Alps, but since corona decided to put an end to the Peru plans, I was determined that it wouldn’t stop the yearly trip to the Alps. With the infection rates in Switzerland having dropped to pretty low levels by the end of June I decided I would travel down anyway even before the Norwegian government decided to allow travel to mainland Europe without having to quarantine on return. After having had to rebook flights several times it was a relief to actually make it into Geneva, though the journey itself was very nice. Empty airports and 25% full flights, arriving on average 15 minutes early at each airport I had to change at is not something to complain about! Initially I had planned to spend a week in the Saas valley and do some hiking and scrambling on some of the easier 4000ers like the Lagginhorn and Weissmies but in the end I got the opportunity to join Aga who was going to be climbing with guide Graham Frost for a week and a half, which seemed like a more social way to spend a couple of days than trying to amuse myself in the Saas valley. Originally the plan had been to head into the Bernese Oberland, but since the weather forecast wasn’t looking so great for that part of the Alps, we ended up changing plans and heading for the Zinal valley and the Grand Mountet hut instead. Aga is originally from Poland but currently lives and works in Basel, so we picked her up at a gas station not far from Sierre before continuing the drive up to Zinal. It was a lovely sunny day and the hike up to the Grand Mountets hut was set to be a hot one by the time we got to Zinal. It must have been around 11am by the time we’d parked up, packed our heavy rucksacks and were ready to start walking.

From the end of the road in Zinal we followed a track in the valley bottom, heading southwards. It rose pretty gently as we followed the course of the river La Navisence, and eventually we arrived at a bridge and crossed over to the other side where the trail steepened up. Here it was nice and shady for a while as we walked up to the treeline, with nice views to the east and northeast slopes of the Pigne de la Le and Grand Cornier. The Pigne de la Le was incidently the second alpine peak I ever climbed, back in 2002, so it was quite cool to see it from its rockier side as opposed to the more glaciated slopes above the Moiry hut. After gaining some 800m in elevation we arrived at a nice open spot on the hillside to stop and eat a bit of lunch before continuing southwards around various ridges and across streams coming down from Besso. Eventually the path contoured around the southwest side of the Blanc de Moming and producing some magnificent views across the Glacier de Zinal towards the Ober Gabelhorn, Pointe de Zinal and Dent Blanche to name but a few. This hut walk was most definitely one of the more scenic ones I can remember, and I’d highly recommend a trip up to the Grand Mountet hut just for the views!

We arrived mid afternoon at the hut after about 4 or 4.5 hours of walking so there was plenty of time to have drink and check out the dormitory before dinner… Many of the Swiss huts had reduced capacity this season to keep the number of guests down and make it possible for groups of people to keep distance from others, so the dormitory we slept in looked to be only about half full to my delight :-) At dinner each group had a separate table too, though I later discovered that different huts seemed to have different corona measures….some more relaxed than others. Over dinner we had a chat about where we would go for our first acclimatization peak; Aga seemed to be keen on snowy routes rather than rocky ridges, so the choice fell on the Trifthorn, an elegant-looking glaciated peak sandwiched between the Zinalrothorn and the Ober Gabelhorn and not much higher than 3700m, so it seemed like a good choice. The beauty of the Grand Mountet hut is the sheer choice of peaks and routes available, some closer than others. Right behind the hut are the Besso and Blanc de Moming, then the north ridge of the Zinalrothorn, Trifthorn NW flank, Ober Gabelhorn north face, Pointe de Zinal, north facing routes on the Dent Blanche… you could basically spend several days at the hut to maximize climbing time!

Walking south up the valley from Zinal with Besso straight up ahead
Walking south up the valley from Zinal with Besso straight up ahead
Dent Blanche and Grand Cornier dominant the background on the walk up to the Mountet hut
Dent Blanche and Grand Cornier dominant the background on the walk up to the Mountet hut
Last break before the hut, Ober Gabelhorn behind
Last break before the hut, Ober Gabelhorn behind
Graham and Aga with the Dent Blanche and Grand Corner behind
Graham and Aga with the Dent Blanche and Grand Corner behind

We ended up taking a 4am breakfast the following morning, I didn’t really sleep at all though – not because of snoring or other noise in the room but I suspect I was just unacclimatised. I usually find that the first night at altitude is always a sleepless one, but have in the past blamed people snoring for that! So I was a little unenergetic when we started to walk up the moraine ridge behind the hut, but at least it was good to know that daylight wasn’t a long way off and it was a clear sky with moonlight all the way to the start of the Glacier du Mountet where we put on crampons, helmets and harnesses. The glacier surface was frozen hard but not icy hard and it made for pretty swift progress, despite the fact that both Aga and I were both unacclimatised. I regretted though having not packed my heavier and stiffer boots for the long snow plod, it was a long way on hard snow to walk in flexible boots and crampons! It was a pretty straightforward, though uninspiring plod in an easterly/southeasterly direction, weaving our way around crevasses and then eventually keeping a bit more to the south side of the glacier as we approached the Col du Mountet. Just before the col the slopes steepened up to (at a guess) probably around 40-45 degrees and some parts we front pointed since the hard snow made it awkward to side step up.
At the col it was nice to appreciate being in sunlight after having trudged for several hours in the shade! From here we got some terrific views over the east side and across the Zermatt valley. The northeast ridge of the Trifthorn, which we followed up to the summit was a mix of steep snow interspersed with rock, so easy scrambling and less than 100m elevation from the col to the summit. Great views of the Ober Gabelhorn north face behind us too! We spent some time admiring the views up here before reversing our route of ascent and making our way back down to the hut, where we arrived at about 10am and in good time for a mid-morning coffee!

Dawn at the edge of the Glacier du Mountet with the Trifthorn (left) Ober Gabelhorn (right) on the skyline
Dawn at the edge of the Glacier du Mountet with the Trifthorn (left) Ober Gabelhorn (right) on the skyline
View toward the Pointe de Zinal and Dent Blanche
View toward the Pointe de Zinal and Dent Blanche
Walking up the glacier
Walking up the glacier
First rays of sun on the Ober Gabelhorn north face
First rays of sun on the Ober Gabelhorn north face
At the Col de Mountet
At the Col de Mountet
Aga approaching the summit rocks
Aga approaching the summit rocks
Graham on the summit of the Trifthorn
Graham on the summit of the Trifthorn
Me pointing out something to Aga
Me pointing out something to Aga
With the Zinalrothorn behind
With the Zinalrothorn behind
Selfie with the magnificent Ober Gabelhorn
Selfie with the magnificent Ober Gabelhorn
Descent down the same way
Descent down the same way
Cool views walking down the glacier
Cool views walking down the glacier
Back at the mini lake beside the glacier edge
Back at the mini lake beside the glacier edge
Start date 13.07.2020 04:35
(UTC+01:00 DST)
End date 13.07.2020 09:53
(UTC+01:00 DST)
Total Time 5h 17min
Moving Time 4h 46min
Stopped Time 0h 31min
Overall Average 1.4km/h
Moving Average 1.6km/h
Distance 7.6km
Vertical meters 1,005m

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