UKC

Hi
I'm thinking of doing a winter ascent of the Riffelhorn in Zermatt, Switzerland. I think the climbing should work out, as most routes are on the south face, but how about getting there? I heard the way of getting there is a bit exposed, which shouldn't be a problem in summer, but might be rather bad in winter...

In reply to asdf123:
It's an easy walk from the Gornergrat railway. There's a well established path along the base of the crag, what that would be like in winter snow I'm not sure. It's basically a bolted sport crag with a trad feel so you need a bit of extra gear. I'm not sure what it would be like in winter conditions but I don't think there are many ice-falls or suchlike. It's a great place in the summer with fantastic views of the surrounding mountains. Hope that's some use.

In reply to caradoc:

Ok thanks, that certainly helps. Its the way along the base of the crag I'm mainly interessted in as some reports I've read claim it is quite exposed. However I have no clue what this really means, as many of these reports were written by non-climbers... So how exposed would you say that path is? I know there's not a huge amount of snow right now.

In reply to asdf123:

I've only been there once and it was in summer. We climbed over the top and then down the west ridge to an in-situ anchor from where we abseiled to the foot of the wall. Then we traversed along the foot of the wall to our route. From what I can remember (this was about 10 years ago) the traverse was pretty exposed. Also if you were to do it this way, there's a chance the anchor would be buried under snow.

I think there might be a better option for the approach, but in any case it could well be the most challenging part of the day. The descent via the normal route is very polished and slippery.

In reply to asdf123:
Hi, here is a link to a film that shows the crag in summer. It starts with a bit of the path along the base. In winter I guess it depends on the state of the snow but it shouldn't be too much of a problem. I noticed some blue markers in the film but they might be removed in the winter.

youtube.com/watch?v=ZSe7Q0KbLow&