UKC

heading down to mattertal for the first time - just to do some hikes and explore the area. been thinking about doing the mettelhorn from zermatte. does anyone know if it's possible (and safe) to cross the glacier without crampons?

cheers

there's a minor detail i forgot to mention. my partner and i have never crossed or been on a glacier before. i guess my question then is if the mettelhorn will be possible to do without any previous experience with glaciers?

thanks a lot
/thomas

if you dont get an answer on here e-mail the guides office in zermatt. i think this is the link. http://www.alpincenter-zermatt.ch/welcome.html

i was up in august last year and it was fine without. i took an axe but walking poles would have been fine.

In reply to thomas_albrechtsen:
I suspect it depends on the current conditions. Did it a few years ago in late August with Axe but no crampons, & ended up regretting the lack of crampons as there were areas of hard ice that we had to cut steps in order to get past. Certainly in crampons it would be no problem, and the lesson I learnt was if in doubt take them anyway!

In reply to thomas_albrechtsen: with. so easy to slip. what is the reason not to use them.

In reply to thomas_albrechtsen:

thx for all the answers listed above. we will get some crampons to use for this hike. like rurp said, what's the reason for not using them.

but can it really be considered a hike? i read somewhere that there are some minor crevasses on the path across the glacier. is that true?

In reply to thomas_albrechtsen:

It's just a walk. It's sign posted and way-marked. Even 30 years ago the "glacier" was little more than a big patch of dirty old snow and it will no doubt have receded since then. The snow will be pretty soft unless you leave Zermatt about 2 in the morning.

In reply to thomas_albrechtsen: I did it about 10 years ago in late July, no cravasses that we could see, it didn't take long to walk across, it is not steep and we felt fine without axes or crampons, think we had walking poles. If you are unsure I'd say take crampons rather than axes.

In reply to thomas_albrechtsen:

thanks again everyone for your answers. it has been very helpful indeed. we are heading off to zermatt next week, hoping the weather will allow us to do this walk

In reply to thomas_albrechtsen: You will be much more comfortable with crampons on the top section, the snowfield leading to the summit.

In reply to thomas_albrechtsen: Hi Thomas I did the Mettelhorn on 4th August. The best thing to do is check with the Guardian at the Trift Hotel when you pass it on the way up. We found the snow soft in general and we just used walking poles, we did walk over a couple of very small icy sections. There was a couple of very narrow crevasses that you could just step over just before you reach the final path up to the summit. I found the last part of the path worse than the glacier section!

Enjoy Zermatt.

Regards

Philip