UKC

Hi!

I m going to solo ascent Dom maybe early july. I will use Festigrat route to ascent, but i am wondering about the descent. Is a same route down the safest? Any tips for descent or something special what i should know about solo descent Festigrat?

Thanks

In reply to Samppa:
I soloed the Festigrat a few years ago. There was a quite steep and very brittle ice slope that year above the rocky section to gain the upper ridge, on which a Swiss guide and client above me had a terrifying wobble (It seemed so likely that they would come to grief that I moved well out of the fall line!). I would not have liked to climb back down this slope, certainly with only one axe. Instead I befriended the guide and roped up with them for the descent by the crevassed normal route in exchange for mutual increased safety (except that I would have preferred to have been free to run the bit under the dangerous serac.....) and buying them soup back at the hut. So anyway, I would be pretty cautious about descending either route alone.

In reply to Samppa:
Seriously?

IMO you should be safe enough on the ridge itself (even though I once helped pull a Romanian guy from a crevasse close to the foresummit, so even the ridge itself is not entirely crevasse free).

However, the part of the route between the hut and the Festijoch that mostly uses the Festigletscher is definitely not solo territory in all but the driest conditions (when conversely the ridge is going to be more tricky), and neither is the normal descent route down the heavily glaciated North side and through the glacier basin below the Mischabelgrat.

When I last climbed Dom, admittedly as one of the first teams after some summer snow, we had several partial crevasse falls (the ususal drop to about hip level, stopped by a combination of backpack, self arrest, and of course a tight rope).

Not my first choice for a solo route on one of the Wallis 4000ers.

CB

edit: Just saw that you plan to go early July. Probably the worst time of year for having to trust the snow bridges on the descent route! Actually, depending on the year, you might even want to bring skis.

In reply to cb294:

I'd agree with this - I backed off here on solo foray. Maybe OK in a snowy July...but there are lots of crevasses there.

In reply to Samppa:

I soloed up the Festigrat and returned by the voie normale at that time of year a long time ago with no difficulty because my mate was ill but agree with the comment that the danger spot is between the hut and the Festijoch. There are huge numbers of people doing the Dom so there shouldn't be any difficulty in asking for a helping hand at the danger spot. But in that case you would almost certainly find yourself behind others on the Festigrat which I made sure didn't happen because I got away smartly. That meant things were fairly solid on the way out, it was on the way back I got a bit worried.

In reply to Samppa:

Thank you all for your answers. Two other guys who soloed Dom, didnt mention crevasses between the hut and Festijoch beign the problem for soloing. But I will take a another look!

In reply to Samppa:


It was completely dry when I did it but that was August.

In reply to Robert Durran:

Thank you for information.

Travelling glacier with crevasses is always dangerous, and in most of 4000er one must travel along glacier and crevasses, which is always a risk when soloed.

So is Feegletscher someway more dangerous than other glaciers?

In reply to Samppa:

From the hut you climb the morain but are eventually forced onto the glacier by steep rocks on the orographic right side of the glacier (left in the direction of ascent), where it is pretty much impossible to avoid a rather crevassed area. It is not technically difficult at all, and may just about doable solo when you see ice everywhere, but is rather treacherous when snow or nevé covered (which is what you would want further up).

So yes, many other normal routes pass more benign glacier terrain.

The descent from the summit takes a long detour around some huge crevasses and so avoids so worst bit, but in the basin below Festijoch you will not be able to avoid crossing snow bridges later in the day: Even if you are soloing Festigrat, which is probably the fastest route, Dom is one of the bigger summits, with some 1600m elevation gain from the hut, so climbing will take time!

That said, my top tip for Dom is to avoid the first weekend in August, as half of Switzerland will climb the highest mountain fully inside the country on their national holiday!

CB

In reply to cb294:

Thank you for an answer and details! I will ask company at least to glaciers.

In reply to Samppa:
I climbed the Festigrat some years ago in quite snowy conditions. In these conditions descent would have straightforward although we went down the normal route which I don't fancy soloing. I have also heard of icy conditions on the ridge as those described above which would make descent of the Festigrat interesting.

The Glacier between the hut and the Festijoch had some visable crevasses grouped together about half way along its length.

I have thought about a large solo enchainment of the Rotgrat/Taschorn/Dom but the decent of the Dom to the Hut appears to be the biggest problem provided the Traverse is in decent condition. Next time I'm over I was planning to have a little explore above the DomHut to see if there may be another route to the Festijoch although I've never heard of anything.

In reply to Gawyllie:

There is a route that follows the ridge all the way from the hut, avoiding the lower glacier. Its in the definitive guide. Look unpleasant and time-consuming though. Definitely loose.

In reply to MG:

Ah great! Ill investigate further

What definitive guide is that?

In reply to Gawyllie:

I think it was the 1920 SAC guide (honestly!!). Possibly the 1950s one, I have both. There was a diagram of the route going where you'd expect it to go. I think the short descent to the Festijoch (coming from the hut) was slightly tricky. You can see it in this picture

http://www.summitpost.org/festijoch/224832

In reply to MG:

cheers! I'll have a good look next time i'm in the area

In reply to Samppa:

The Festigrat can be icy and dangerous I was taking somebody up there one time many years ago and a UK team were obviously rushing too much to stay in front One slipped and as I had a good spike I threw the ohther my coils which he caught but he was pulled off and they both went all the way to the glacier! My man was traumatised but I made him go on About 10 teams behind returned but it took a long time The summit traverse and descent are very easy which we did