Blog Posts in Category: Alpinism

Piz Buin and Dreiländerspitze

Alastair BegleyAlpinism, Austria Short Link

Previously alpine mountaineering was firmly limited to the main holiday of the year, but having moved to Munich it is now possible to do it over a weekend, this was a concept that I spent a large amount of the weekend being amazed by! We stayed at the Wiesbadener Hütte for two nights, with an aim of climbing Piz Buin on the first day, and Dreiländerspitze on the second day if the weather was perfect. After weeks of wondering if the snow was ever going to go away, and then it being far too hot, we were lucky to have a perfect weekend with relatively cool temperatures and excellent weather. It was a brilliant weekend with great company, excellent mountains, sometimes challenging card games in a wonderful mountain hut environment with a friendly guardian. Walk In After finishing work slightly early, but evidently not early enough, we drove down to the Bielerhöhe in the Silvretta Alpen. This was an excellent place to start a walk in as the car park was at 2040m, which significantly reduced the ascent. Unfortunately there was a considerable amount of traffic on the drive down,. Read the full article…

Wildspitze Traverse

Alastair BegleyAlpinism, Austria Short Link

The Wildspitze was the main objective from our trip to the Sölden in Austria. I had intended to climb some other peaks first to acclimatise, however the weather had other ideas! We set off from a village high above Sölden called Vent. The day started with two chairlifts which gained us a considerable amount of height. We had elected to walk to the hut via another peak, the Wildes Mannle, this was a fairly short outing as lift station to hut only took us two hours. However it did get us a bit more mileage in our legs, and gave us a good view of the glacier that we would be crossing the next morning. After a lovely evening at the hut with fantastic evening light, good company and good beer we had an early night in the luxury of a 2 bed room. The next morning we woke up to dense fog which meant that we thought we were going to have to change our route to the normal route instead of the Rofenkarferner route. Thankfully after breakfast the cloud broke, so we were able to stick with our. Read the full article…

Zinalrothorn Traverse (North Ridge)

Alastair BegleyAlpinism, Switzerland Short Link

Having discovered that the hut for the Dent Blanche was full we developed a new plan, to traverse the Zinalrothorn from Zinal to Zermatt via the north ridge. To get to Zinal we had to get a number of buses, and due to the timetables we ended up in Zinal very early in the morning. This enabled us to have a leisurely stroll up to the hut before spending the afternoon relaxing. The start of the walk was in the mist which we both appreciated as it kept us cool during the majority of the ascent. Eventually the sun started burning off the morning mist and we were greeted with a stunning view of the Grand Cornier, the Dent Blanche and the Ober Gabelhorn. Due to the ever changing views the walk in was one of the most enjoyable I have experienced to date, this combined with relaxing all afternoon at the hut made for a very enjoyable day. All too early the next morning ours alarms woke us up and we both struggled to eat anything for breakfast as our bodies definitely wanted to still be asleep at 2:45.. Read the full article…

Pigne d’Arolla

Alastair BegleyAlpinism, Switzerland Short Link

After arriving in Arolla we decided to make the most of a weather window by heading straight up to the Cabane des Vignettes with the aim of climbing the Pigne d’Arolla on the next day. The weather on the walk up was stunning but it was very hot, and with the combination of the excessive heat and altitude I really struggled on the ascent. Thanks to some encouragement from our friends we continued, and thankfully as we got onto the glacier it clouded over which provided some respite from the heat. After an excellent evening in the hut, followed by the best hut breakfast I have experienced (bacon, scrambled egg and pancakes) we started the climb up the Pigne d’Arolla the next morning. The route is meant to be an easy snow plod, but due to the very hot summer there was a short section which was steep, bare glacial ice. As we were four on a rope we pitched the ice on the way up and down to ensure that we were safe. After the icy section the rest of the route was straightforward snow where we were able to. Read the full article…