Three alpine ladies on tour…
Lenzspitze, 4294 meters, Northeastface 490 meters long, constant steepness between 50-55 degrees, high alpine tour, challenging, beautiful, long, hard…
What an intense weekend…
Actually our friend Flo wanted to accompany us on our mission but due to the fact that things nearly always come differently than planned, Lea was the third girl in the team… I actually didn’t know her personally until the day we met @ Lizs’ place but knew that she is a very experienced mountaingirl & great skier… I totally have deep respect to both girls – awesome to know them & share great moments on the mountain together… Thank you girls, it was a pleasure and I’m sure that some guys are jealous on what we’ve done ;-)…
Saturday 6 a.m. Left Lizs’ place @ Dalaas to drive through beautiful Switzerland… Around 6 hours later we finally got to our starting point – Saas Fee in the valais region… It was a looooong drive…
As Saas Fee, 1820 m is a car-free zone, we had to park our car at the parking house, pack all our stuff and walk to the Hannigbahn… Thanks to Liz we could take our skis into the cable-car (usually not allowed) and save 400 altitude meters… The hiking up is never a problem but I hate to walk down and everybody of us was happy to save some meters, especially with the heavy weight on the back… Imagine to carry your skis, boots, all the climbing gear, skins, crampons etc for hours on your back… Not amusing. Hard work.
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After hours of hiking & climbing on rock & snow, we finally reached the Mischabelhütte up on 3340 meters… No way to hike this path down again with all our stuff – we want to ski down and will find a way…
What a warm welcome from the hut owners Tom & Maria when we got there! The coolest hut crew ever up there!
Lea and me were awfully tired, nearly fell asleep on the table but it would have been unpolite to go to bed when you have such nice, carrying people around… By the way, thanks Martin for the great food!
10 p.m. Finally to bed but hardly any sleep… Don’t know why. Couldn’t be the height – what else? To lazy to get up again and clear my bladder. That’s the reason? Or my dry mouth? Need something to drink, right now but I haven’t got anything. Trying to sleep in but can’t. It’s a hard life in the mountains…
3 a.m. Wake up call – finally when I could have slept, I have to get up again… But nobody is forcing me to. Should I stay or should I go. Of course I will accompany the girls and try to reach the summit with them.
4.15 a.m. Ready to go, headlamps on, climb above the hut, Hohbalmglacier, skis and crampons on, on the rope, what a beautiful surrounding and view, sun is rising soon and we are finally getting awake… At least I am the others are already.
Quiet and peaceful… Two other rope-teams in front of us. Two French guys – a Snowboarder and skier and two tyrolean guys. The Frenchys’ are fast, the two tyrolean guys turn around just a few meters above the “Bergschrund”. Don’t know why…
We made a good decision of staying further right of the face, easier access over the “Bergschrund” and kept going… Step by step working our way up.
At around 4050 meters Lea decided to turn around… What a pity! But understandable! Not worth for her climbing up to the top and skiing down in mediocre turns. Especially at that point and at that time it didn’t look inviting to ski down there.
Now I had to carry the bloody rope… Liz wanted it to go up what I totally accepted and she would have carried it but I was closer to Lea, so I took it – no prob. Just that I didn’t have space for it in my backpack and had to carry it over my shoulder… A bit anoying. Again. Life is hard in the mountains 😉
Kept on climbing up that steep face… Tracks were already in there. But sank in the snow quite often. Warm temperature, soft snow but it got harder and harder.
The Frencies waited and waited up on top for the right skiing conditions, one turn from them meant a lot of sluff/snow onto our heads. Looked good when they went down, so my motivation was higher again to reach the summit and ski down.
It was not far anymore but the snow conditions got harder and harder… Tougher and more concentration needed when also Liz followed her Intuition and decided to turn around, climb down the face and ski from the point where Lea also put on her skis.
Now I was alone, all by myself… No, I didn’t want to climb down. I wanted to ski down. As none of the girls was in need of help or anything, I decided to keep on going. Step by step. Of course I was tired. After more than five hours of hiking and climbing what would you be? But putting the skis on here, right now, no chance. Better to keep going. And yes I made it. Up to the top of the Lenzspitze! A few meters below I had to make a skidepot, now climbing up over the rocks. Steep. Attention. Be careful Mel. But I wanted to see what’s behind. That was my motivation. So I kept climbing. No big cross or anything above. Just a very small ridge and a unbelievably beautiful view. Over to Dom and the other high peaks. Happy.
Climbed the few meters back down to the skis. Got ready and still wanted to wait a couple more minutes to give Liz the chance of putting on her skis. Didn’t want to bring all the sluff down on her. Lea was still waiting in the sun, waiting for us girls to come…
My legs were tired. Fully concentrated though. Again, no mistake allowed. Take it easy and slow. First turn, rest. Second turn, rest. Hard but not fully icy up here, challenging skiing but okay.
Then it went on, somehow fluid but taking it easy. Tired. Worn out. Finally I’m down there. Liz is waiting above the Bergschrund and we ski down together… Down to Lea, down to the Mischabelhut again…
11 a.m. How good it felt to drink something and sit in the sun and relax for a couple of minutes. Thank you sooooo much Maria, Tom & Martin!!!! Really the coolest hut crew ever!!!
Time is running, we need to get down… No, don’t want to climb down, we’ll ski down. Snow is getting softer and softer but we manage to ski down until 2600 meters. Although a lot of wet avalanches follow us, it’s no problem at all… Time to put on normal shoes again and carry our stuff down the mountain…
Back at the car, loooong drive back again, full of memories, intense weekend. Thank you Liz & Lea for the great company and for sharing this adventure!
And also thanks to the coolest hut Crew ever: Maria, Tom & Martin!
Now it’s really summertime and time for a change. Biking is on 😉
Enjoy life and take care!
MELs' Blog 