Obergablehorn

September 2018

After a succesfull trip to mont Blanc in a long weekend in June I wanted to repeat that quick there and back trick for one of the rocky peaks around Zermatt. An old collage friend and I planned to wait for some good weather and then leave the Netherlands for Zermatt Thursday night in order to be back on Suday evening. I set my mind on the Zinalrothorn, but due to a wrong the morning we started climbing I switched plans and we made an completely unprepared attempt for the Obergabelhorn instead.

When the chance arose we hid the road and arrived in Zermatt on Friday around 2pm. My friend, who had never gone climbing before rented some boots after which we went on our way to the hut. We made some haste as it was already getting a little late. It was cloudy and foggy, but the forecast for tomorrow was promising. We got to the hut around 7pm. It had started to snow and was happy to get some warm soup and dinner. The next morning we would wake at 4am and start climbing.

It was still dark and we stumbeled our way through the stones to get to the glacier. We were right behind another group. Once on the glacier I realized we had taken a wrong turn. Zinalrothorn was on our right and it did not look like this route intended to go there. This route was clearly aiming for Obergabelhorn. It would have been 10 minutes to retrace our steps and take the other route, but as we were in the vicinity of another group heading to Obergabelhorn, why not climbing that one instead? The other group consisted of some older folk, I was sure we could do it if they could.

We changed plans and just headed south towards the Obergablehorn. We tried to stay close to the other group, but they were moving extremely slow and it was hard not to get too far ahead.

The first part over the glacier was easy and went quick. At sunrise we climbed a steeper snow section to get to the base of the Weisskuppe. From here the rocky part of the climb would begin. We looked around to try and find the best way up. First I headed straight up, but that did not seem to be leading anywhere. After a while I found that the route kept altitude and went to a fixed rope a little further on. The other group had made it to the shoulder by now, but decided to call it a day and turn back. Their pretext was that it would be too windy.

As the other group turned back, it was now only us on a mountain I had never really heard of before. I had not planned for that, but decided to give it my best shot nonetheless. We followed a faint route over the rocky slope till we came to the last steep rockface under the Weisskuppe. The rock went up almost 90 degrees, this was a tough spot. I saw some prusik ropes and carabiners in the rock and went straight up. It was way to steep for me and half way I realized that I would not make it. Luckily I could reach the carabiner that some other group must have fixed there so that I could abseil safely back down. I gave it another shot without my backpack, this time with the rope already fixed half way, but it was simply too steep. I was on the verge of giving up when I once again noticed that the route kept altitude and went further south along the rock. The fixed carabiner had just been a distraction…

After about a minute or two we came to another rockface with some carabiners haning into it. It was still near 90 degrees, but looked a whole lot gentler. I gave it a shot and climbed very carefully up. Once on top I fixed the rope and Tobias climber after me.

We were now on a beautiful ridge with views toward Matterhorn, the Dufourspitze and the Zinalrothorn. The route over the ridge was rather easy, but a little exposed. Tobias really started to get it on his nerves by now.

After about 20 minutes of climbing along the ridge we stood at the foot of what I later found out was the Genderarmee. This steep and extremally exposed section of the ridge broke Tobiases moral and almost mine. Tobias did not want to go any furher, this was getting to far out of his comfort zone. He stayed on the foot of the Genderarmee holding the rope, while I kept climbing up. When I was just under the top, the entire 50 meters of rope was used and I could not proceed. I went a little furhter without the rope, but found it too dangerous and quickly returned. I climbed down again to Tobias and started to retrace our steps.

Tobias was extremely careful on the way down. Now he could actually see the depths… We progressed slow, but the weather was good and there was no reason to rush. I made sure that we climbed the EXACT same way back and after about 1,5 hours we were back on the snow.

An easy hike over the glacier brought us back to the hut where we had a quick lunch. We walked to a hut further down so that we could start our drive back home early the next day. The weather did not blink once and we could enjoy the weather and views for the entire evening.