UKC

Hi, I'm in need of a little help.

I'm currently in Ailefroide, looking to head over, on a tip off, to Saas Fee in Switzerland. 'Numerous, great quality alpine routes with chair lifts available ... ' is what I've been told by a couple of other climbers here in the valley. My knees were achey after an attempt on the Barre.

Could anyone tell me about where the uplifts go from, or where the best place to start the walk-in to the alpine routes are? Someone mentioned the threesixty cafe as a start point, is this true? Any info on the area, and the alpine routes would be awesome.


Thanks in advance, I'll check back later.

In reply to Mr Harry:

There are useful lifts from both Saas-Grund village centre and on the South side of Saas-Fee. These are pretty easy to find.

Allallin Horn, Laggin Horn, Weismess, Jeggihorn and Mittaghorn are the peaks in the area for which the uplifts will save a great deal of (walking) effort.

In reply to Mr Harry:
If you are completely unfamiliar with the area, you need to know that Saas Fee itself is a village in a hanging valley off the main Saas valley. If you are driving there, you are not allowed into the village itself, but must park (and pay) at the entrance. Other villages, most obviously Saas Grund are in the main valley and can be driven around, though parking is often a problem in Swiss valleys. To get too Saas Fee from Saas Grund, there are good shuttle busses, these also go up and down most of the parts of the Saas valley that are of interest.

If you are staying somewhere in the Saas valley, either in a campsite or bunkhouse, you will get a thing called a Saaspass, which allows free travel on the buses and on MOST of the cablecars. But there is something you have to be careful of with this, if you go to do an Alpine route, check that your pass extends to the day you descend as well as the day you go up. Often it doesn't, and the Swiss WILL check.

There is IIRC one lift from Saas Grund, the lower village, normally used to climb the Weissmeis and the Laginhorn. Several lifts go from Saas Fee itself, one of which is very convenient for the Britannia hut and anther that leads off toward the Mischabel hut. Personally I would NOT climb the Weissmeis from what used to be its normal route from the top of the Weissmeis cablecar as this route is now quite dangerous and a lot longer than it used to be, due to exposed seracs - better to go for the low objective danger route from the Allmegeller hut.

Routes - there are too many to list, but they include mountains like the Stralhorn, the Rimpfischhorn and the Nadelhorn. If you have problems with bad knees after the Barre des Ecrins, you should know that this is an area of big mountains, frequently with big walkins and descents. Although some huts, certainly the Britannia hut, are easily accessed from the cable cars, some are pretty much grunts, even from the Britannia hut the hut is easy to get to (1 hour mostly on the flat), but the mountains themselves are a long way from the hut, giving a short or very short hut approach but some pretty long mountain days.